You’ve seen the pictures on Twitter:

@HNNow I saw the Taunton River whale on 6/16 in front of the Taunton Yacht Club. pic.twitter.com/Mvt4jDjP1U — Scott Gebelein (@ScottGebelein) June 23, 2014

And you’ve read about the encounters on Facebook.

Now it’s official: the Fall River Herald News has spoken to actual scientists and confirmed that, yes, there is a Beluga whale in the Taunton River. The International Fund for Animal Welfare spotted the whale and confirmed its existence on June 18.

Belugas are rare in this area, preferring instead the colder waters of the Arctic Ocean. The New England Aquarium’s Tony LaCasse made a charming analogy to the Herald News to explain why the young whale may be here:

“When do you backpack across Europe or road trip across country? When you’re young. Sea animals have the same sort of ambitions as humans,’’ LaCasse said.

Maybe we could name our Beluga visitor “Gap Year the whale.’’