{"id":341,"date":"2025-08-01T09:25:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/wildscience\/?p=341"},"modified":"2025-08-01T09:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T16:25:25","slug":"whales-are-swimming-farther-than-we-ever-realized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/wildscience\/2025\/08\/01\/whales-are-swimming-farther-than-we-ever-realized\/","title":{"rendered":"Whales Are Swimming Farther Than We Ever Realized"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For decades, scientists have tracked migrating whales using satellite tags and flat maps. But it turns out these massive ocean travelers have been underestimated. A new study published in Ecology<\/em> shows that whales may swim up to 20% farther than previously calculated, simply because traditional models failed to consider Earth’s curvature and the animals’ vertical diving behavior.<\/p>\n

Not Just a Straight Line Across a Flat Map<\/h2>\n

“We’ve been looking at only part of the picture,” said Dr. Olaf Meynecke of Griffith University, a co-author of the international study. Traditional tracking methods record whales’ positions as latitude and longitude points on a 2D map. But whales move in three dimensions, plunging hundreds of meters below the ocean surface and navigating along Earth’s curved surface.<\/p>\n

The researchers used data from the Whales & Climate Program\u2019s longest continuous humpback whale track, following a female whale and her calf from Ecuador to Antarctic waters. On a flat map, the journey covered about 6,658 kilometers. But when researchers factored in average dive depths and the Earth’s ellipsoidal shape, the total distance swam jumped to 7,713 kilometers\u2014an increase of 1,055 kilometers, or roughly 16%.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters: Energy, Ecology, and Climate Change<\/h2>\n

This is more than a cartographic curiosity. As Dr. Meynecke explained, “If animals are expending more energy than previously estimated, we may be underestimating the ecological costs of migration and the impacts of environmental change.”<\/p>\n

The findings could recalibrate how scientists estimate energy budgets, assess risks from climate change, and design conservation strategies. For whales migrating between South American breeding grounds and Antarctic feeding areas, this could mean swimming up to 14,000 kilometers per season\u2014about seven times what the average human travels in a year.<\/p>\n

Key Findings<\/h3>\n