WHAT IS KNOWN OF THE MIGRATIONS OF SOME OF 

 THE WHALEBONE WHALES 



By Remington Kellogg 

 Division of Mammals, United States National Museum 



[With two plates] 



Some of the living cetaceans are great travelers and apparently 

 wander at will over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, while others 

 pursue a fairly definite route at stated intervals. Some may appear 

 off the coasts of two or more continents in the course of their migra- 

 tions, while others follow but one coast on their northward and 

 southward runs. In the South Atlantic, humpbacks, finbacks, and 

 blue whales frequent the icy waters off the Antarctic Continent dur- 

 ing the southern summer and migrate northward along the coasts 

 of South America and Africa in the fall and winter. In the North 

 Atlantic some of the humpbacks and finbacks seem to follow the 

 North American coast for some distance on their northward run past 

 ihe islands off the European coast. There are a few whales which 

 exhibit decided preferences for definite areas, while others apparently 

 travel where they will. The bowhead {Balmna jnysticettos) , which 

 frequents the Arctic seas, and the pigmy whale {Neohalcpna mar- 

 ginata) of New Zealand waters are restricted to limited oceanic 

 areas. The extent of the migrations of some whales is largely a mat- 

 ter of conjecture, but the evidence points to the conclusion that an 

 occasional individual or school travels from the South Pacific to the 

 North Pacific and vice versa. Sei whales have been taken in Japa- 

 nese waters with ectoparasites of South Pacific origin according to 

 Andrews (1916, pp. 322, 331). Information from other sources indi- 

 cates that whales may occasionally pass from one ocean to another 

 south of Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope. It is quite likely that 

 there may be an interchange or intermingling of individuals in the 

 herds that pass the Antarctic summer in the Strait of Bransfield, io\* 

 this latitude is the feeding ground of those that migrate southward 

 along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America. The pre- 

 sumption is that these newcomers will later accompany their respec- 

 tive schools northward to the calving grounds and to the summer 

 home of those particular whales. 



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