Photo: Olga Titova
IUCN has worked with Google Earth to produce a Voyager story to illustrate the world of Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) in the context of humpback whale migration. IUCN uses this opportunity to acknowledge the contributors to this chronicle and provide links to additional resources on humpback whales.
IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (MMPA Task Force)
The goal of the MMPA Task Force is to facilitate mechanisms to encourage collaboration, sharing information and experience, accessing and disseminating knowledge and tools for establishing, monitoring, and managing MMPAs and promoting effective spatial solutions and best practices for marine mammal conservation within MMPAs. From 2016-2021, the Task Force is conducting a series of regional workshops to identify Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs). The first workshop was held in the Mediterranean in 2016, followed by the Pacific Islands and the North East Indian Ocean & South East Asian Seas. Upcoming workshops include the Southern Ocean, Western Indian Ocean & Arabian Seas, Australia-New Zealand waters & South East Indian Ocean and the South East Tropical & Temperate Pacific Ocean.
NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (HIHWNMS)
NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary was created by Congress in 1992 to protect humpback whales and their habitat in Hawaii. The sanctuary, which lies within the shallow (less than 600 feet), warm waters surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands, constitutes one of the world's most important humpback whale habitats. More than 12,000 humpback whales utilize the waters around the Hawaiian Islands as their principle breeding and calving ground. While the population of humpback whales that breed, give birth, and nurse their young in Hawaii’s waters have recovered in numbers such that they have been removed from the Endangered Species List, they are still subject to threats. One major threat – entanglement –is a global problem that each year results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of marine mammals worldwide.
Threats
One major threat – entanglement – is a global problem that each year results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of marine mammals worldwide. Two populations of humpback whale are still listed as endangered in IUCN Red List: Arabian Sea and Oceania sub-populations
Whale Entanglement Response Network
Coordinated by the HIHWNMS, the Whale Entanglement Response Network is a multi-agency, community-based effort to free large whales from life-threatening entanglements around the main Hawaiian Islands. Rescue activities depicted were conducted pursuant to and under the oversight of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (Permit No. 18786), issued under the authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.
NOAA’s Acoustic Research
Whales are acoustic animals that rely on sound for communication and sensing their environment. By using bottom-moored acoustic recorders and acoustic tags attached directly on whales via suction cups, NOAA scientists are studying the behaviour, occurrence and habitat use of humpback whales, as well as their exposure to noise. Long-term recordings of whale song chorusing levels off Maui have helped document recent changes in whale presence in Sanctuary waters, while tagged whales are providing new insights into how whales use Sanctuary waters.
Finding out about North Pacific humpback whale populations
Since 2004, there have been international research collaborations to better understand humpback whale migration. Many of the images in this story were contributed by a group of international experts from Japan, Russia and the Philippines, that recently completed a study on North Pacific humpback whales, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science in January 2018. The study aimed to understand where these humpback whales breed and feed. Scientists compared catalogues of whales identified in feeding grounds in Far East Russia with catalogues in Japan, Mexico, Hawaii and the Philippines, to see if they could match and trace whales between the different habitats. It is becoming clear that Russian waters are important feeding habitats for Asian, Hawaiian, and some Mexican whales.
Scientists also found that a large proportion of whales that are regularly spotted in Russian waters have not been seen in any of the studied breeding grounds in Hawaii, Japan, Mexico or the Philippines, meaning that there may be other unknown humpback breeding areas in the Pacific, that are yet to be documented, and protected. A conclusion of the research was that" various feeding regions for humpbacks should be considered as different units for management, monitoring, and conservation purposes based on ecosystem management principles. Healthy ecosystems need not only deliver sufficient prey, but also be safe from known threats to feeding humpbacks such as entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes.
Okinawa Churashima Foundation Research Centre (OCFRC)
Based in Okinawa, Japan, the Okinawa Churashima Foundation Research Center (OCFRC) undertakes scientific research on the surrounding tropical marine life, with the aim to help sustain the natural marine environment. Research activities focus on marine mammals, as well as reef-building corals, sea turtles, sharks and rays, crustaceans and fish. The OCFRC conducts surveys to identify individual whales, study their migration habits and reproductive ecology, in order to better understand the population status of humpback whales that migrate to the waters around Okinawa.
Russian humpback whale research
The long-term Russian humpback whale research has been conducted by a number of scientists and research projects working in collaboration to try to understand the population structure and migration of humpback whales feeding in Russian Pacific waters. One of the main research projects has been the Russian Cetacean Habitat Project, which grew out of the Far East Russia Orca Project. The main sponsors for Russian humpback whale research include Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Pew Marine Fellowship, Russian Fund of Fundamental Research, and Russian Geographical Society. Work is carried out in collaboration with the Far East Russia Orca Project, Commander Islands State Biosphere Reserve and Kamchatka Branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography RAS. South Pacific / Antarctic migration
There is still much to learn about the endangered Oceania humpback whale population. Follow the many thousand kilometre long journey of humpback whales tagged on their way to Antarctic feeding grounds, in this animation by story contributor Associate Professor Rochelle Constantine, from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and project coordinator for the Southern Ocean Research Partnership. Oceans Unmanned
The mission of Oceans Unmanned is to protect our oceans and coastal marine environment by facilitating the use of unmanned technologies and promoting their safe and environmentally conscious operation through education and outreach.
Photos and footage
IUCN issues grateful thanks to John Hyde of Wild Things Photography and Florian Ledoux for the use of their fabulous photography and footage.
