A newly published study in Royal Society Open Science (DOI: 10.1098/rsos.260251) has documented another extraordinary long-distance humpback whale movement and a new record helping to reshape scientific understanding of how humpback whale populations migrate and connect across entire ocean basins.
The research, led by Cristina Castro Ayala alongside 10 collaborators, highlights the growing importance of long-term photo-identification, citizen science, and international scientific collaboration through Happywhale.
Using 19,283 curated whale fluke images collected between 1984 and 2025, researchers identified the first recorded two-way exchange of humpback whales between eastern Australia and Brazil with breeding grounds separated by minimum great-circle distances of 14,200 km and 15,100 km.
The findings add further evidence that humpback whales are capable of far more extensive inter-ocean movements than previously understood.
Figure 1. Photo-identification records revealed the first known two-way exchange of humpback whales between eastern Australia and Brazil, with movements spanning more than 14,000 km between breeding grounds.
Why This Matters for the Western Indian Ocean
This new discovery strongly resonates with earlier work connected to BCSS, which documented the record-breaking movement of a humpback whale between Colombia and Zanzibar.
That movement represented the first known exchange between breeding grounds in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the southwest Indian Ocean, spanning 13,046 km and 120° of longitude.
Read more here: Humpback Whale’s Remarkable Journey
What makes these matches even more remarkable is the contrast in available datasets. While regions such as Australia, Colombia, Ecuador, and parts of the North Atlantic now contribute tens of thousands of whale fluke images and decades of monitoring data, East Africa remains one of the least documented humpback whale regions globally.
Historically, the Western Indian Ocean has had sparse long-term whale monitoring, relatively small photo-ID catalogues, and limited scientific infrastructure dedicated to cetacean research.
And yet, despite these limitations, East African waters are increasingly revealing themselves as potentially important corridors of connectivity within the wider Southern Hemisphere humpback whale population structure.
How Happywhale is Transforming Cetacean Science
Platforms like Happywhale are fundamentally changing how scientists study whale migration.
By combining citizen science, photography, machine learning, and global collaboration, researchers can now identify and track individual whales across oceans in ways that were unimaginable only a decade ago.
Every uploaded fluke image contributes to a larger global dataset — helping scientists better understand migration pathways, population connectivity, breeding ground fidelity, and ocean-scale whale movements.
BCSS is proud to continue contributing East African whale data to this growing global effort through ongoing collaboration with Happywhale and regional marine research partners.
Whale Season in Mozambique is Approaching
As the 2026 whale season rapidly approaches in the Bazaruto Archipelago, BCSS is preparing for another active field season focused on whale photo-identification, behavioural observations, long-term migration monitoring, and citizen science participation.
Between July and September, humpback whales migrate through the waters surrounding the Bazaruto Archipelago, creating rare opportunities for researchers, students, photographers, interns, and citizen scientists to contribute directly to ongoing marine science initiatives.
Who knows where the next whale match might lead?
Researchers, collaborators, interns, and citizen scientists interested in participating in whale monitoring and photo-ID work in Mozambique are encouraged to contact BCSS directly: info@bcssmz.org
More information:
For questions about this article, please contact:
Ekaterina Kalashnikova, Bazaruto Archipelago – Ocean Observatory Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies ekaterina.kalashnikova@bcssmz.org
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