Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) attend both Mexico and Hawaii breeding grounds in the same winter: mixing in the northeast Pacific

James D. Darling; Katherina Audley; Ted Cheeseman; Beth Goodwin; Edward G. Lyman; R. Jorge Urban

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2021.0547

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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) attend both Mexico and Hawaii breeding grounds in the same winter: mixing in the northeast Pacific

James D. Darling, Katherina Audley, Ted Cheeseman, Beth Goodwin, Edward G. Lyman and R. Jorge Urban

Biology letters, Vol.18(2), pp.20210547-20210547

02/2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0547

PMID: 35168377

Appears in Recent Faculty of Science and Engineering Publications

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Abstract

Biology

Ecology

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

Evolutionary Biology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics

Science & Technology

breeding grounds

humpback whales

Mexico

Hawaii

population definition, mixing

behaviour

Humpback whales that assemble on winter breeding grounds in Mexico and Hawaii have been presumed to be, at least, seasonally isolated. Recently, these assemblies were declared Distinct Population Segments under the US Endangered Species Act. We report two humpback whales attending both breeding grounds in the same season-one moving from Hawaii to Mexico and the other from Mexico to Hawaii. The first was photo-identified in Maui, Hawaii on 23 February 2006 and again, after 53 days and 4545 km, on 17 April 2006 in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, Mexico. The second was photo-identified off Guerrero, Mexico on 16 February 2018 and again, 49 days and 5944 km later, on 6 April 2018 off Maui. The 2006 whale was identified in summer off Kodiak Island, Alaska; the 2018 whale off British Columbia. These Mexico-Hawaii identifications provide definitive evidence that whales in these two winter assemblies may mix during one winter season. This, combined with other lines of evidence on Mexico-Hawaii mixing, including interchange of individuals year to year, long-term similarity of everchanging songs, one earlier same-season travel record, and detection of humpback whales mid-ocean between these locations in winter, suggests reassessment of the 'distinctiveness' of these populations may be warranted.

Details

Title: Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) attend both Mexico and Hawaii breeding grounds in the same winter: mixing in the northeast Pacific
Creators: James D. Darling - Whale Trust, Makawao, HI 96768, USA.
Katherina Audley - Whales of Guerrero, Barra de Potosi, Guerrero 40830, Mexico.
Ted Cheeseman - Southern Cross University
Beth Goodwin - Eye of the Whale Marine Mammal Research, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA.
Edward G. Lyman - Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Kihei, HI 96753, USA.
R. Jorge Urban - Univ Autonoma Baja California Sur, Dept Ciencias Marinas & Costeras, La Paz 23080, Bcs, Mexico
Publication Details: Biology letters, Vol.18(2), pp.20210547-20210547
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
Number of pages: 8
Grant note: National Marine Sanctuary Foundation WW-205C17 / National Geographic Society Whale Trust Whale Tales Award Oceanic Society
Identifiers: 991013067591102368
Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) attend both Mexico and Hawaii breeding grounds in the same winter: mixing in the northeast Pacific

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