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. 2024 Mar 15;14(3):e11152.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.11152. eCollection 2024 Mar.

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

Valerie Chosson  1 , Virginie Wyss  2 , Beatrice Jann  3 , Frederick W Wenzel  4   5 , Guðjón Már Sigurðsson  1 , Malene Simon  6 , Rikke Guldborg Hansen  7 , Lindsey S Jones  4
Affiliations

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

Valerie Chosson et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: breeding grounds; feeding grounds; migration; photo‐id; whaling – aboriginal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Locations where NA04936 was observed (Table 1). In March 1999 off the Cape Verde Islands and 22 years later, in July 2021 off Nunarsuit, Arsuk (West Greenland). The pink shade represents the breeding destination of humpback whale feeding in the Western feeding area (composed of the Gulf of Maine, Atlantic Canada, and West Greenland feeding grounds). The orange shaded areas represent the breeding destinations of humpback whale feeding at the Eastern feeding grounds. The yellow shaded region represents the breeding grounds in the West Indies. The top left corner shows a photograph of NA04936 taken on the 4th of July 2021 (©Glacialis expedition), and the bottom right corner, a photograph of NA04936 taken on the 24th of March 1999 of the Cape Verde Islands (©Beatrice Jann).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Location of the 28 sightings of humpback whale during the Glacialis expedition off the West Greenland coast. Dates indicate the day or the period of the sightings and n, the number of humpback whales observed and photographed. The red flag marks the NA04936 sighting location on 4th of July 2021 (Table 2).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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