First documented movement of a humpback whale between the Cape Verde Islands and West Greenland

Details

• Journal Title:
  Ecology and Evolution
• Personal Author:
  Chosson, Valerie ; Wyss, Virginie ; Jann, Beatrice ; Wenzel, Frederick W. ; Sigurðsson, Guðjón Már ; Simon, Malene ; Hansen, Rikke Guldborg ; Jones, Lindsey S.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  The endangered population of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) breeding and calving off the Cape Verde Islands (CVI) are known to migrate to feeding areas located along the eastern margin of the North Atlantic Ocean (Iceland, and Norway). Here, we report for the first time a confirmed migration of an individual humpback whale from CVI breeding ground to a western North Atlantic feeding ground of West Greenland. This individual humpback, which was photographed and identified off the coast of West Greenland in 2021, was previously documented in CVI 22 years before (1999). An annual subsistence hunt for humpbacks occurs in West Greenland and the resighting at this location with a humpback whale from CVI has strong implications for the conservation efforts of the small CVI population.
• Source:
  Ecology and Evolution, 14(3)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.11152
• ISSN:
  2045-7758 ; 2045-7758
• Format:
  pdf
• Publisher:
  Wiley
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9a71063e0d3a2a015a4aeed3ad6ef6608bb2c387dbbae07420e3a5637005ca8301734b3c9921cb639c25110832e4de3d24d549b709be49aa7bf638480ed37731
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/68087/noaa_68087_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 903.88 KB ]