Twenty-two years and 15,000km later: fluke discovery sets new record for humpback whale journey
Whale first photographed off the coast of Brazil in 2003 spotted off north-east Australia in September 2025
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A humpback whale has made a 15,000km journey from Brazil to Australia, marking what researchers believe is the longest distance ever documented between sightings of an individual humpback.
The whale was first photographed in 2003 at the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil’s main humpback whale nursery, off the coast of the north-eastern state of Bahia. In September 2025, it was spotted again in Hervey Bay off the Queensland coast, representing a travel distance of about 15,100km.