Ocean Overachiever

One particular humpback whale was last spotted in 2017 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia. Now, the whale has popped up in the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar, East Africa, a distance of at least 8,077 miles, and astonishing scientists for it.

A typical migration route for humpbacks is around 4,971 miles, making this epic journey close to double that of most whales.

Was it a quest for love? A hunt for food? Scientists aren’t sure, according to a new study, published last week in the journal Royal Society Open Science, which recorded the whale’s journey, the longest migration ever recorded for a single whale.

The study’s authors utilized a platform called Happy Whale, cofounded by Ted Cheeseman, co-author of the study and marine biologist at Southern Cross University in Australia. The platform allows scientists, researchers, whale watchers, and members of the public, to contribute their whale sightings, according to CNN.

The database uses artificial intelligence to match the individual shapes and patterns of humpback whale tails in the photos, thus mapping their movements around the globe, the BBC wrote. “When (whales) dive, they lift their tails, and anyone taking a picture of their tail can record the identity of the animal,” Cheeseman told CNN.

Humpback whales can be found in all oceans around the world and have some of the longest migrations of any mammal. The species annually swim long distances from tropical breeding grounds to feeding grounds in cooler waters.

Even so, Ekaterina Kalashnikova from the Tanzania Cetaceans Program told the BBC that the whale’s journey was “truly impressive and unusual even for this highly migratory species.”

The scientists think that the whale’s unusual migration route might be due to climate change depleting food stocks, or an odyssey to find a mate.

For example, one theory is that climate change is depleting the abundance of the tiny shrimp-like krill that the whales feed on, forcing them to travel further to find food.

Another theory is that whales may be venturing into new breeding grounds as their populations recover through global conservation efforts from commercial whaling that decimated their numbers. According to Cheeseman, the whale had likely been in competition with other males for mates in Colombia, and it’s possible he traveled to find a less aggressive environment.

Meanwhile, this whale migrated between two distinct breeding stocks in different oceans with remarkable precision, researchers said.

“Our dogmatic thinking is that (whales) always go to the place where they came from,” Ari Friedlaender, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, who was not involved in the study, told CNN. “But there has to be some movement where you get some (animal) explorers that decide, for whatever reason, to follow a different path.”