Most Humpback Whales in the North Pacific identified

Jun 25, 2023

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Most Humpback Whales in the North Pacific identified 
Humpback Whale photo-ID data collections across the North Pacific
Our project has taken some interesting twists and turns and just this week achieved a major milestone: we've published a paper in the Nature journal Scientific Reports: A collaborative and near‑comprehensive North Pacific humpback whale photo‑ID dataset in which we identify most of the living humpback whales in the entire North Pacific Ocean.
What's next? This massive foundation of data enables us to deploy social network analysis in the complex and fluid social dynamics of a baleen whale.
 
Breaching humpback whale. This individual is the 2018 calf of Rip Curl https://happywhale.com/individual/14972;enc=368094 

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About This Project

Do humpback whales have lasting social bonds and long term relationships?

Happywhale

Humpback whales were once wrongly considered solitary. However, recent research has shown that they can develop complex and enduring social relationships when hunting schooling prey. These magnificent whales migrate thousands of miles between winter breeding areas and summer feeding areas with fluid social dynamics. Building from a database of thousands of North Pacific humpbacks, our goal is to uncover associations between individuals over seasons and years.