Humpback Whale Makes Record-Breaking 8,000-Mile Migration Across Three Oceans

One of the longest and most unusual marine mammal migrations ever recorded is the subject of a fascinating new paper. A male humpback whale, recorded in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Colombia in 2017, has been sighted five years later near the east African island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean – some 8,000 miles away.

This means that the whale has not just crossed into a neighbouring breeding stock, which is not uncommon, but one half-way round the world, which is unprecedented.

Speaking to the BBC, one of the papers authors, Dr Ekaterina Kalashnikova of the Tanzania Cetaceans Program said that the reasons for the extraordinary migration were unknown but that it could be to do with;"..global changes in the climate, extreme environmental events (that are more frequent nowadays), and evolutionary mechanisms of the species".

The environmental events may be climate change related, resulting in depleted food stocks. However, it is also possible that as humpback whale numbers rebound after decades of commercial whaling, migrations of this length are an odyssey to find a mate.

The discovery was made possible by citizen science website Happywhale.com that enables whale watchers and academics alike to upload photographs of a whale’s distinctive fluke. The fluke markings, patterns, pigments and scars all contribute to make every whale’s fluke unique. Modified facial recognition software using artificial intelligence matches up these flukeprint features, making them as distinct and recognizable as a human fingerprint.