Humpbacks whales can be individually identified by the pattern on the underside of their tail (fluke). Identifying individuals aids scientists in tracking their movements, migration patterns, social groups, age, offspring and much more! There is a website developed by Ted Cheeseman where anyone out whale watching can submit photos of the whales they see. The whale will be identified, information passed onto researchers, and the submitting photographer will get updated on “their” whale. This is one of the fluke pictures I submitted for identification., taken on the epic voyage on Jayleen’s Alaska. This whale has been identified as Eocene, a male who happens to be one of the few who has been seen in both Mexico AND Hawaii for breeding. Most of the Alaska whales go to Hawaii to breed while our California whales go to Mexico
Eocene, the Humpback Whale Another exciting thing about this sighting is that I had developed a project for my students based on the HappyWhale.com platform. Students were put into groups, and each group was given several fluke photos of one whale. They then had to match “their” whale with a small catalog of known whales which I created and gave them. Once they figured out their whale’s name or ID, they looked up their whale on HappyWhale.com. They could then track their whale and had questions to answer both about their whale and humpbacks in general. If any teachers out there would like details, please contact me–I’d love to share!
