Whales set record ocean crossings

New York: Scientists have identified two humpback whales that separately made record-breaking journeys between Australia and Brazil, travelling about 14,500km in opposite directions.

Researchers matched the whales through distinctive tail markings captured at breeding sites in eastern Australia and Brazil. One whale travelled more than 15,000km, surpassing previous migration records for humpbacks.

“It’s a very rare event, but it is a really wonderful demonstration of just how wide-ranging these animals are,” Phillip Clapham, former head of a NOAA whale research programme, said.

The findings, published on Tuesday in Royal Society Open Science, were based on analysis of more than 19,000 whale images collected over four decades by researchers and citizen scientists. Scientists said the journeys challenge assumptions about how isolated humpback populations are and could help researchers track migration changes linked to warming oceans and shifting food sources.

-AP