Scientists have been astonished by a humpback whale that has undertaken a record-breaking journey spanning three oceans to mate.
The research team found that the whale had traveled 13,000km/8,077 miles or nearly a third of the way around the world. This mind-blowing distance is the longest recorded migration by the species.
The whale was first spotted in the Pacific Ocean near Colombia in 2013 and then, in 2022, in the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar. On route, the male whale was spotted off the west coast of Africa in 2017.
In their paper, the researchers said:
“This represents the longest recorded great-circle distance between sightings on two breeding grounds of a photo-identified adult male humpback whale, which is the first record of a humpback whale alternating breeding grounds between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.”
