A Whale's Record Migration Across the Pacific Proves Revelatory to Scientists

A gray whale's record-breaking journey from Russia to Mexico and back has provided significant insights into their yet unknown navigation capabilities.

The whale named Varvara swam from her feeding grounds off Russian waters near Sakhalin Island to mating grounds around Mexico in about six months, the fastest and longest migration for a mammal. Researchers studying endangered Western North Pacific Gray Whales like Varvara were surprised as she did not use any navigational aids that the population uses during migrations.

"The observed migration routes provide evidence of navigational skills across open water that break the near-shore north-south migratory paradigm of Eastern Gray Whales," researchers wrote in the journal Biology Letters.

Researchers found that the 9-year old whale did not follow the shore-line like most other whales. When she reached North American coastline, the whale joined eastern gray whales and swam to meeting grounds near Mexico.

Aside from the 13,987 record miles of migration, Varvara's journey is also making researchers doubt if she indeed is a western gray whale.

"Her 22 511 km round-trip is the longest documented mammal migration and strongly suggests that some presumed WGWs are actually EGWs foraging in areas historically attributed to WGWs," researchers wrote.

The research portrays the possibility that western gray whales may have vanished. "Despite evidence of genetic differentiation, these tagging data indicate that the population identity of whales off Sakhalin Island needs further evaluation," researchers concluded.