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Humpback whale ISMN1586 from Cape Verde to Iceland in June 2021
08. July 2021
The humpback whale ISMN1586 in Faxaflói bay.
In June the 19th 2021, a whale (ISMN1586) was seen and photographed in Faxaflói, by Special tour whale watching company. Thanks to our international collaborators, we learned that this whale has been previously seen and photographed in Cape Verde Island only 3 months earlier in approx. 5400 km distance.
This observation would not have been possible without our dedicated Capo Verde colleague from BIOS.cv and Frederick Wenzel who curates the Cape Verde Island´s Humpback Whale catalog and help protect the endangered population of the Capo Verde breeding ground.
On the 6th of January 2021, the first observed whale arriving in Cape Samana (Dominican Republic) was matched with one of the whales indentified in the ISMN Catalog by Valerie Chosson and Identified as ISMN0122.
International collaborations, especially for long migrating animals such as Humpback whale are very crucial. In the North Atlantic, Humpback whale spend the summer in northern part of the ocean, from Iceland up to Norway, the humpback whale´s feeding ground. In winter, they go south to their breeding ground on the equatorial areas of the ocean, from Caribbean waters to Cape Verde.
The images show the whale ISMN1586 photographed in Faxaflói and in Cape Verde, 3 months apart.
The ISMN Catalog (IS Megaptera Novaeangliae Catalog) hosted at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute , includes a collection of over 1500 unique humpback whale individuals from the 1980s to date, collected during MFRI surveys and by various partners/contributors in Icelandic waters.
Other similar collections have been gathered from across the North Atlantic, and compiled into the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog (NAHWC). It provides an invaluable insight into the North Atlantic humpback whale population and migrations. The NAHWC have now identified more than 10.000 individuals since the early 1980´s
MFRI extends special thanks to all our contributors who kindly send/upload their photos and share with us their sightings information. You can do so at this vebpage: Humpback Whale Photo Identification.
