Annual migrations of cetaceans: distances, routes, speeds

The journeys of giants

The grey whale holds the record for the longest documented annual migration in a mammal: 20,000 km there and back. Humpback whales, which perform the most precise migrations on the planet, cover 8,000 km in a near-straight line. This comparator presents the documented distances, mean speeds and seasonal windows for 14 migratory species.

Migrating between breeding and feeding grounds

The great migrations of cetaceans link their feeding grounds (cold waters rich in prey) and their breeding grounds (warm waters suited to newborns). The grey whale holds the distance record among mammals: ~22,000 km there and back between the Bering Sea and Baja California.

The humpback whale follows several main axes: Antarctica towards Australia, Brazil, Hawaii or Madagascar. Tracking with Argos tags (then Iridium), pioneered by Bruce Mate (Oregon State University), has revealed trajectories of striking precision, Horton et al. 2017 measured departures of less than 1° over migrations of several thousand kilometres. The mechanisms of orientation remain debated: magnetoreception, celestial navigation, bathymetric memory.

Also worth exploring

Migrations depend on ocean conditions: see ocean currents, thermal preferences, climate change and sighting hotspots.