According to one information from The Canadian Press, a humpback whale would have crossed the North Pacific from the Canadian coast to Hawaii, regarding 4800 km further, despite a serious spinal injury. Moon was spotted in October off the coast of British Columbia by the BC Whales Society with her tail twisted into an S, likely due to a collision with a large ship.
She was once more photographed by American researchers from the Pacific Whale Foundation near the island of Maui on December 1. Unable to use its tail as a means of propulsion, Moon would therefore have made the trip to the Hawaiian archipelago using only its pectoral fins in a few weeks.
However, this feat should not hide the tragic fate of the brave whale. Ms. Wray, founder of BC Whales, told the Canadian Press Agency that Moon was unlikely to survive the migration for long and that the whale was “in a lot of pain”. Known by its cetacean-watching society since 2020, long before its injury, the whale appeared in recent photographs in very poor condition.
“She was most likely born in Hawaii and her mother would have migrated with her to the BC feeding ground when she was a calf and that tradition and knowledge was just passed down,” Wray said, for who the whale undertook this dangerous and very painful crossing for reasons of “tradition and culture”. “It must have taken all his strength,” she added.
The researcher hopes that Moon’s abnegation will alert to the dangers of collisions with ships, including boaters, for cetaceans.
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