Icelandic humpback in the Caribbean

A humpback whale tagged with a satellite transmitter in the waters off Hrísey in Northern Iceland on 10 November 2014 is now, 110 days later, in the Caribbean.

The transmitter has provided daily updates on the whale’s movements. Never before has it been possible to track the movements of a humpback whale in the North Atlantic for so long and so accurately, says the Icelandic Marine Research Institute (‘Hafrannsóknarstofnun’).

The previous record for tracking a whale from Iceland was 101 days (27 August-5 December 2004), when a minke whale was intermittently followed on its journey to the west coast of Africa.

By yesterday, the humpback had reached within 200 nautical miles of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the site of well-known humpback breeding grounds known as the Silver Bank. The water temperature at this time of year is around 25°C.

Measurements show that the whale has swum at least 11,500km. The first 4,000km was a aimless swim around the waters off North-East Iceland in November and December. On 10 January, the humpback set off on its trans-Atlantic journey, covering 7,500km on a true south-west path.

The whale is now 6,200km, as the crow flies, from where it was tagged in Iceland. Its average speed on its journey across the ocean was 6.5km/h, which works out as 156km per day. The timing of the animal's journey is somewhat curious, as it was thought that the humpback mating season in that area of the Caribbean ends in mid-March. There are, however, many unknowns in this regard, which particularly successful tagging operations such as this could help to remedy.