Posted on February, 14 2025

Protecting the vast ocean highways travelled by whales is a critical challenge. As these magnificent creatures undertake their fascinating, often epic, journeys, - innovative work is underway to understand their movements and ensure their survival.

From marathon treks by gray whales across thousands of kilometres to shorter seasonal excursions by minkes, migration routes – connecting vital feeding and breeding grounds – are crucial lifelines for whale species. 

But the story of these awe-inspiring journeys is similar to so much else happening to the natural world right now.

Human activities are causing a range of harmful impacts, with fishing gear entanglement, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss and climate change all turning migration routes into hazardous and sometimes fatal obstacle courses.
 
Protecting these ‘blue corridors’ must therefore become a priority for everyone who cares about whales.
 
That’s why WWF is working alongside our partners to raise awareness about their importance, including our groundbreaking joint report on whale migrations and the threats they face, and to support solutions such as reducing fishing bycatch, redirecting ship traffic and creating marine protected areas – all backed by scientific research using cutting-edge technology to track whale migrations and reveal the many things, like food sources and climate change, that shape the paths they take.

Unlocking the mystery

From the Bering Straits to the waters off the Antarctic Peninsula, the world's oceans support a diversity of whale populations and migration routes.

Whales travel these superhighways along the coast and across open oceans, moving in and out of international and national waters, some covering thousands of kilometres each year. 

It's widely accepted that migrating whales follow cues that may be biological, cultural (learnt behaviour from other whales) or linked to conditions at specific times or places.

Where people see vast, formless seascapes, whales chart a world alive with invisible cues: a whisper of colder water rising from the deep, a hidden ridge beneath the waves, the chemical trace of plankton blooming in the distance, or even the Earth's magnetic and gravitational fields.

In the past, scientists studied whales as they appeared in different parts of the ocean, but their journey in between remained a mystery.


The Limpet satellite tag stays on this minke whale for up to two months and broadcasts its location a number of times each day

Today, satellite technology is helping them to understand more and more about the fascinating journeys whales take.

Tags, which are equipped with transmitters that last several months, send a signal every time a tagged animal surfaces, enabling scientists to chart whale movements in granular detail. 

Satellite data is now helping scientists to understand how changing ocean conditions affect migration patterns for many whale species.

For example, 20 years of data from humpbacks tagged in Brazil reveal a gradual southward shift in feeding grounds, coinciding with ice retreat and krill movement. 

And it's not just their movements that are affected.

Less food in their traditional feeding grounds may mean mothers lack the energy to sustain pregnancies.

Southern right whales typically calve every three years, but recent data shows this has shifted to every four to five years.

As with so many other species, adapting to change can be challenging for whales. Some rely on areas that are stable over decades or even centuries.

But as ecosystems become more variable, their strategies may need to adapt faster than their cultural or biological cues allow.

For example, whales might return to areas where food was once reliable, only to find it gone – a phenomenon called an ‘ecological trap’.


Dr Ari Friedlaender of the University of Santa Cruz attached the first video camera to an Arctic minke whale in 2018

As whale behaviours and migrations scramble to respond to increasing environmental instability, entire ecosystems feel the ripple effects. 

"If migration patterns change significantly over the long-term, it will have cascading impacts on marine ecosystems,” says Dr Alex Zerbini, senior research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies of the University of Washington in the US.

For example, whale feeding habits – a humpback can eat more than a ton of krill a day – can shape entire ecosystems, while the way they move carbon and other nutrients around the oceans also has big impacts on the health of the marine environment. 

Data brings hope

Protecting whales throughout their long migrations is hugely challenging.

Their travels take them  through up to 12 different territorial waters, each with its own laws, and they spend significant time in international waters too.

However, the increasing amount of data available about migration routes offers new ways forward − enabling the creation of maps that can help plan marine protected areas or manage ship traffic to avoid harming whales.

In the US, for example, the Whale Safe tool is now being used to predict where whales are in the San Francisco Bay and Santa Barbara Channel by combining tracking data with hydrophones.

Ship speeds and lanes are adjusted to reduce the risk of fatal collisions – a huge threat around busy ports.

Initiatives like this bring genuine hope for a future where whales can once again journey in safety, and keep positively contributing to the health of the world’s oceans.