Allied Whale

Related Areas of Study

• Marine Science
• Field Ecology & Natural History

Learning to identify whales, you’ll also learn a lot about yourself. The weather can alternate between breezy and freezing, you must eliminate all distractions, and depending on your personality, it’s either lonely or perfect.

Then, movement on the horizon, and we learn that a single whale’s journey could be longer than we thought possible.

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First match from the Azores to Newfoundland!

The Azores and Newfoundland are not connected by any of the known migration routes for humpback whales, and workers in these areas would not have expected a humpback to travel from one to the other… but one did.

The whale, na04773 in the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog  (www.coa.edu/allied-whale/research/)  was first seen off the Azores by Nova Atlantis (www.nova-atlantis.org/). It was then seen in Newfoundland waters by Sea of Whales Adventures (www.seaofwhales.com). The distance between these locations is a comparable to that from New York to Houston, or London to Istanbul, about 2,500 km (1,500 miles). 

While the Azores are along the mid-Atlantic Ridge, and very much in the middle of the ocean, all previous resightings have been to habitats in the eastern North Atlantic. Similarly, humpback whales from Newfoundland have only previously been seen in habitats much farther to the west.  

Exciting news!

Thanks a lot Zoltan Korai for the great illustration.

First match of a humpback whale from the Azores to Newfoundland, Canada. Illustration: Zoltan Korai

 

 Long time no see!

On a nice tropical day in late February, Maurina De Wulf went on a whale watching trip from the town of Samana in the Dominican Republic. As a whale enthusiast, Maurina collected fluke photographs of the whales she saw that day and submitted them to the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog. One of those whales was just identified as na3044. 

The last time that whale was seen, Jimmy Carter was president, Mount St. Helens had just erupted, and Abba was jockeying with David Bowie at the top of the music charts. 35 years elapsed in between without the whale being sighted. It would be fascinating to know where it has been.

This resighting not only covers many years, but also many miles. The 1980 sighting was made in Bonavista Bay, off the east coast of Newfoundland, about 2,000 miles from the Dominican Republic. That photo was taken by Jon Lien, a pioneer of non-lethal whale study and a great friend and mentor to many of us at the NAHWC. He passed away some years ago, and it is wonderful to see his labor still bearing fruit.