Humpback whale makes longest, most unusual migration ever recorded
Scientists say the changing climate may have forced the extreme migration.
FILE: A humpback whale. Picture: Brigitte Werner from Pixabay
John Maytham speaks to Whale Researcher Matthew Germishuizen.
Listen below.
A humpback whale has made one of the longest and most unusual migrations ever recorded.
It was seen in the Pacific Ocean off Colombia in 2017, then popped up several years later near Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, a distance of about 13,000 km.
The male whale was among a group of humpbacks photographed from a research vessel on the Pacific coast of Colombia in 2013.
He was then identified in a similar area in 2017 and off Zanzibar in 2022.
The sightings are separated by a 13,046 km 'great circle distance'. This is the minimum distance for the route the whale might have taken, though it is likely to be much greater.
The data gathered uses artificial intelligence to match the individual shapes and patterns of humpback whale tails, or flukes, thereby mapping their movements.
The research is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
The paper's findings are also based on hundreds of thousands of photos of whales submitted by researchers, whale watchers and the public to the citizen science website happywhale.com.
New technology makes it easier to track whale distances, says Germishuizen.
"... we're understanding more and more that they're really covering huge distances across ocean bases... that's the main take away."
- Matthew Germishuizen, Whale researcher
"... whales moving those distances might not be that extraordinary, it's simply a case that we don't actually know..."
- Matthew Germishuizen, Whale researcher
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