Photo-identification of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in New Zealand waters and their migratory connections to breeding grounds of Oceania

Abstract

Humpback whales pass along the coast of New Zealand as they migrate between summer feeding grounds in Antarctic waters and winter breeding grounds in the tropical waters of the South Pacific. The New Zealand humpback whales are probably part of the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) Antarctic management zone known as Area V, and are likely also a component of what the IWC terms “Breeding Stock E,” whose boundaries extend from eastern Australia to Tonga. Discovery tags (stainless steel tags fired into the backs of whales and coded by the date and location) used between 1950 and 1960 to track the movements of humpback whales established connections to Area V of Antarctica and showed whales migrating past New Zealand were linked to the migratory corridors of Norfolk Island and Eastern Australia and the breeding grounds in Fiji (Chittleborough 1959, Dawbin 1964). ....