Urge of Love!

Little did it know that it had made a record! In fact it shall never know! After all it’s just a whale, a female humpback in search of a mate!

The whale swam 9800 kilometres from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean to cuddle to a would-be. This odyssey of love is the longest ever in terms of geographical coverage, ever made by a humpback whale in recorded history! In fact it is the longest documented movement by a mammal--longer than the previously recorded seasonal migration by this species. (Let’s forget mammals also include human beings.)

On August 7, 1999 the female humpback was photographed off Brazil’s southeastern coast where it was found flirting with other whales in a breeding ground. Fulfilling one in eighty thousand of a chance (approx. there are 80,000 humpback whales in the planet), this camera-savvy was again photographed at a breeding ground off the eastern coast of Madagascar, two years later! (Distinctive shape of its tail and a pattern of spots on the tail helped scientists to verify the identity of this whale.) On the audometre this distance would read 6125 miles/9800 kilometres!

I don’t know if it is by sheer human prejudice or scientific reasoning, but until now, it has been widely held that only male humpbacks would travel this kind of blue enormity for a mate! It took a young-turk like you to break the notion; kudos Seema!( I can't help it, but give her a name!).

Seema has gone overboard by challenging another notion as well. The scientists, till now believed that these marathon swimmers travelled between north and south only, for their feeding and breeding . But Seema has been caught in the lens which blinked twice; at west and east. An east-west pattern of feeding and breeding among humpbacks would emerge, provided there are more discoveries in the same vein.

If this be the case and scientists are able to figure out any change in the genetic profile of these whales, it can go a long way in conserving them.
These humpbacks were on the verge of extinction, but concerted efforts in conservation are bearing fruits. There are more of junior Seemas in the pipeline!

Until I write this piece, it is unsure whether Seema has found her match. Still,let’s wish her a happy married life!