Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 23:12 UTC
Climate change's effects on ocean sea ice and prey locations could be altering or influencing whales' movement patterns Image: Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu/picture alliance
Two humpback whales have been sighted in separate breeding grounds off Australia and Brazil, the first time scientists have seen the species travel such vast distances across the Southern Ocean during their lifetimes.
An article published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal is the upshot of using tens of thousands of images of the sea-dwelling mammals' unique tails (or flukes) to identify the creatures and their movement habits.
One whale was spotted in Queensland, off Australia’s eastern coast, in 2007 and then again in 2013. It subsequently appeared near Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2019 — two points separated by roughly 14,200 kilometers.
