"A whale unleashes his cry, and it travels hundreds or even thousands of miles. Every whale in the ocean will at one time or another run into that song." Chris Crutcher

Whale Species & Geography

Since the oceans are vast and deep, whales can move freely to sustain themselves while seldom being seen with some species travelling from pole to pole and back. These giants have explored the oceans to depths humans can not reach and have seen and experienced things humans will likely never see or experience. Whales are ambassadors of the oceans and humans need to understand we are guests in their waters and need to approach with permission instead of invading their territory. Whales are a valuable resource that can teach us many things about the geography of the ocean. While I do not specifically reference all whale species and their geographical habitats, research revealed the following information about whales.

Marine mammals live from the ocean poles to tropic oceans, from coastal waters to oceanic waters, and can dive into the ocean depths 2500 meters to forage such as Cuvier's beaked whales making sea floors at great depths the least-known areas of the planet (Nosengo, 2009).

Because humpback whales, sperm whales and killer whales can withstand a wide range of conditions and can relocate extensively, they may have widespread effects on ocean ecosystems (Moss, 2017). Killer whales and sperm whales are the most multicultural whales with ranges spanning the globe (Peterson & Carothers, 2013).

Blue whales avoid barren central gyres of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans and instead prefer areas rich in phytoplankton densities. There are four pygmy blue whale species that forage around the Indian Ocean and Southern Australia to New Zealand (Moss, 2017).

Most large whales can migrate distances equal to one-fifth the size of the Indian Ocean (Moss, 2017). Bowhead, grey, beluga, narwhals forage in the Arctic while minke whales and killer whales migrate north during winter to reproduce (Moss, 2017).

Bowhead whales live in the “Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas, Hudson Bay and Foxe Basin, Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, the Sea of Okhotsk, and from eastern Greenland and Spitsbergen to eastern Siberia” spending winter near the southern limit of pack ice moving north as ice breaks up and regresses in spring (Nooa, n.d.).

More information in relation to whale species and geography can be found in Module 21: Whale Related Links and also at the following links:

• Marine Animal Response Society (MARS)

• Ocean Institute (“Whales of the World”, n.d.)

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Fisheries & Oceans Canada, 2018)

• Smithsonian (What is the largest whale? A cetacea size comparison chart, 2018).

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