Scientists have discovered that a male humpback whale traveled over 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers) across three oceans. The journey is the longest known trip for a humpback whale. It’s likely that the whale made the trip in search of a mate.
Humpback whales are known for covering long distances. They swim from warmer waters where they mate and have babies to colder areas where they feed. This can mean journeys of over 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers). But normally, these trips are made traveling north and south. And once whales become adults, they rarely change their habits.
But one whale made a very different kind of trip. In July 2013, a male humpback whale was spotted in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Colombia. In 2017, the whale was again seen near Colombia. But in 2022, scientists spotted the same whale on the other side of the world, near Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean.

(Source: Screenshot, HappyWhale.com.)
By measuring the shortest distance between the starting point and final point, scientists calculate that the whale traveled at least 8,106 miles (13,050 kilometers). In fact, it’s likely that the whale traveled farther.
The scientists made the discovery using information from a website called HappyWhale.com. HappyWhale collects photos of whale tails, which are called “flukes”. Every whale’s fluke has its own special pattern of marks that can be used to identify it, similar to the way fingerprints can be used to identify humans.
HappyWhale has a database of over 900,000 pictures of flukes from around the world. Scientists use the website to learn more about the movement and behavior of whales.

(Source: Ekaterina Kalashnikova [CC BY-SA 4.0], via HappyWhale.com.)
Matching flukes is hard for humans and takes a lot of time. So the website uses artificial intelligence (AI) to match photos of flukes. Humans check the matches to make sure the AI is correct.
Ted Cheeseman, the scientist who created HappyWhale, says when they first noticed that the humpback had traveled so far, their first thought was, “This is a mistake.”
But there was no mistake. It was the longest known journey for a humpback whale, and crossed at least three oceans. In a report, the researchers studied why the whale might have made such a long trip.
Both in 2013 and 2022, when the whale was spotted, it was part of a group of males competing for a female. The researchers say it’s possible that the whale had to travel in order to have a better chance of finding a female mate.

(Source: Paul Balfe [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.)
Another possible reason is that the whale was searching for a better source of food. As the world’s climate is changing, feeding patterns in the ocean could also be changing. This could affect how whales travel.
The scientists also say the numbers of humpback whales could be increasing. While this would be good news, the greater numbers could make it harder for whales to find mates and enough food.
The researchers say the study shows how important it is to protect the oceans. As Mr. Cheeseman points out, “There is no humpback whale in the world that lives only within one nation’s waters.”