Humpback Whale Photo Identification Database

The collection of humpback whale individuals presented here is the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute's collection of known humpback whale since 1980 through our dedicated surveys and private partner contributions. We are still adding records from our archives and from new surveys.

This collection has been made available for public access in order to share information about humpback whales sighted around Iceland (and anywhere else) and increase our knowledge on these whales.

It is prohibited to download or copy the collection, but you are free to share a link to it at your convenience.

We want to specify that none of the photos presented are free to be used by anyone, in any circumstances without a written agreement of intitute's Whale Research team. Please contact Valerie Chosson.

Our expertise and our research have revealed interesting migration patterns and occurrence of humpback whales, and can only get better with your contribution.

If you have humpback whale photos taken around Iceland, with information such as date and location of the sighting, we would appreciate to receive a copy of them and add them in the National Catalogue (after quality control). Please go to the submission page.

Examples of good photos for identification

Submit photo

We also maintain catalogues of killer whales (orcas), blue whales, fin whales and common minke whales and we welcome submissions of photos of these species taken in Icelandic waters or elsewhere in the North Atlantic.

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