Humpback whale breaks record for longest ever cross-ocean migration

A humpback whale has completed an astonishing long-distance journey, traversing one-third of the Earth's circumference, setting a new record for the longest known breeding migration distance for the species. This adult male humpback whale was initially spotted by whale watchers in July 2013 near its breeding grounds off the coast of Colombia in South America, and was observed again near the same location in August 2017.

However, in 2022, the whale was sighted near Zanzibar, Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa, shocking marine experts. The straight-line distance is approximately 13,000 kilometers, but the actual oceanic route is even longer. Humpback whales are known to be migratory animals, traveling up to 8,000 kilometers annually towards the poles to feed during the summer and then returning to their breeding grounds in the winter.

Typically, humpback whales follow the same routes each year and return to known habitats, making such long-distance east-west migrations extremely rare. Previously, the longest recorded longitudinal migration was by a female humpback whale that was found in feeding grounds near the Antarctic Peninsula and subsequently appeared in Byron Bay, New South Wales in 2022.

The journey of this latest humpback whale is detailed in a paper published today in the journal of the Royal Society. It is currently unclear what prompted the whale to embark on such an epic exploration of new habitats, but researchers speculate that it may be a response to environmental changes, shifts in food sources, or a male testing new mating strategies.

“This extreme distance movement demonstrates behavioral plasticity, which may play an important role in adaptation strategies in the face of global environmental changes, or it may be an evolutionary response to various pressures,” the authors wrote. This discovery provides new perspectives on our understanding of the migration patterns and adaptability of marine life.