HUMPBACK WHALE ISMN0122 from Iceland to Dominican Republic (January 2020)

Fig. MFRI

International collaborations, especially for long migrating animals such as Humpback whale are very crucial. In the North Atlantic, Humpback whale spend the summer in northern part of the ocean, from Iceland up to Norway, the humpback whale´s feeding ground. In winter, they go south to their breeding ground on the equatorial part of the ocean, from Caribbean waters to Cape Verde. 

On the 6th of January, the first observed whale arriving in Cape Samana (Dominican Republic) this season, was photographed by a local fisherman (Leonardo Hernandez Balbuena) and shared on a dedicated Facebook group by Eva Reznickova and immediately matched with one of the whale identified in the ISMN Catalog by Valerie Chosson and Identified as ISMN0122. 
This whale has been last seen in Icelandic waters by Charlie Lavin (MRFI student) in 2016. 

The ISMN Catalog (IS Megaptera Novaeangliae Catalog) curated by Valerie Chosson and Gísli Arnór Víkingsson, gathers over 1000 unique humpback whale individuals from the 1980s to date, collected during MFRI surveys and by various partners/contributors in Icelandic waters. 
MFRI extends special thanks to all our contributors who kindly send/upload their photos and share with us their sightings information. 
take me to the Whale Photo Identification webpage.