A male humpback whale swam a staggering 13,046 kilometers (8,106 miles) from South America to Africa in one go. Such incredible feats of migration have given scientists the best clues about migrating humpback whales and their flexibility in adapting to different circumstances.
This is an amazing journey, and the study published in Royal Society Open Science is the first to track an adult male humpback whale from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans. The Happy Whale platform, co-founded by marine biologist Ted Cheeseman, tracked the whale’s journey, which started when it was first seen off the coast of Colombia in 2013. After being seen again in the same region, it showed up unexpectedly off the coast of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean near Africa in 2022.
While most humpback whales migrate 8,000 kilometers, or 4,971 miles, this male whale‘s journey covered almost double that distance. This has brought questions about why the whale strayed from his normal migration path. Cheeseman, a co-author of the study, said there could be a number of reasons for the whale changing his route, including maybe the whale needed to find another mate in Colombia or experienced food shortages. “These animals are distinct individuals, and they will surprise you,” said Cheeseman. “These oceans are very connected spaces and whales cross boundaries.”
This makes the migration even more remarkable, since it crossed two distinct breeding populations, one in the Pacific and the other in the Indian Ocean. Humpback whales generally go back to the same breeding grounds every year, so this long distance traveled isparticularly noteworthy. Movement between breeding grounds also raises questions regarding how the whale will be integrated with the Indian Ocean population, which has been historically impacted by whaling in the 20th century.
At the moment, Happy Whale monitors around 109,000 whales, and its location for this record-breaking whale remains a mystery. Still, researchers remain very interested in tracking the possible increase of connectivity between the humpback populations through this journey. The more odd migrations recorded might eventually help these unusual whales bridge gaps between the populations, hence shared behaviours and a more connected world community.
As a professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Ari Friedlaender commented, “There has to be some movement where you get some (animal) explorers that decide, for whatever reason, to follow a different path.”
This unprecedented discovery reminds us of the large, interconnected world of marine life where surprises and wonders still keep emerging from the bottom of our oceans.
