Humpback whales swim up to 3,700 miles to breed

Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Crowdsourced photos show some humpback whales travel 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) to breed. Scientists had assumed the whales chose Mexico or Hawaii as a breeding site, but the photos revealed some individual whales travel to both places in a single season.

The peer reviewed journal Biology Letters published the findings Wednesday.

James Darling at Whale Trust Maui in Hawaii said a photo database of more than 26,000 individual humpback whales revealed whales spotted in both Hawaii and Mexico during a single breeding season.

The photos showed one whale had traveled about 2,824 miles in 53 days from near Maui to the Revillagigedo archipelago in Mexico.

"Our first reaction was, 'You've got to be kidding me!'" Darling told newscientist.com.

But he said distances that seem very long to humans may not be as significant for the whales.

"They might just be traveling the ocean like it's their own back yard," he said. "This really changes the way we think about whales."

Humpback whales are found in all major oceans. They do not mate for life.

The photo database shows distinctive markings on the whales that can identify individual whales.