Author: whalehumpback

What do the mighty migrations of humpback whales and the nuts-and-bolts of engineering design have in common? More than you might think.

A team of researchers has drawn inspiration from the long, coordinated journeys of the Humpback Whale to create a new computer algorithm aimed at solving tough engineering problems. The paper, “An efficient bio-inspired algorithm based on humpback whale migration for constrained engineering optimization”, introduces what they call the Whale Migrating Algorithm (WMA).

What the Algorithm Does

• The WMA takes cues from how humpback whales travel in groups, follow leaders, adapt to changing conditions, and move toward better feeding or rest sites.
• In engineering terms: imagine you have many possible design solutions, and you want to find the “best” one (for example: lowest cost, highest strength, or best performance) — but you’re constrained (limited materials, limited space, certain rules).
• The algorithm treats each possible solution like a “member” of a whale pod. They move, follow leaders, explore new regions of the “solution space”, and try to converge (all settle) on high-performance designs.

Why It’s Important

• Engineering design problems are rarely simple: many variables, many constraints, conflicting goals. Traditional methods sometimes get stuck or are inefficient.
• By mimicking natural behaviours — in this case, whale migration and group movement — the researchers hope to improve exploration (finding new good solutions) and exploitation (refining good solutions) in one balanced process.
• This kind of “bio-inspired” computing is part of a growing trend: look at nature’s time-tested strategies and adapt them to human problems.

What They Found

• According to early results, the WMA showed strong performance on benchmark problems and some constrained engineering optimization tests.
• The authors highlight that the algorithm handles “leader-follower” dynamics and migratory behaviours (moving towards better zones) in a way that helps avoid getting stuck in-sub-optimal designs.
• The article’s authors expect this algorithm to be especially useful where the design space is large, complex, and full of constraints.

What It Means for the Real World

• Imagine designing an airplane part, or an automotive bracket, or an energy system — you could use the WMA to search among thousands (or millions) of potential designs to find one that meets all criteria and constraints.
• In industries where optimization leads to cost savings, material reduction, performance improvement, algorithms like WMA could have real financial and environmental impact.
• Also: it’s a reminder that nature is still a rich source of inspiration for human technologies.

In Short

This research shows how the migration behaviour of humpback whales provided a metaphor (and structure) for a new algorithm – the Whale Migrating Algorithm – tailored for solving constrained engineering design problems. It’s a nice meeting of biology, computation, and engineering innovation.

A new study has revealed fascinating insights into how humpback whales in the southeastern Pacific are adapting their epic migrations in response to changes in the ocean.

The Journey and Why It Matters

Humpback whales undertake one of nature’s most spectacular journeys: from warm tropical waters where they breed, to frigid polar regions where they feed. For the southeastern Pacific population (often called Breeding Stock G), these whales leave breeding grounds off Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador and head south toward the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula.
Their success depends heavily on reaching the feeding grounds at just the right time — when sea ice has melted and krill — their tiny prey — are abundant.

What the Study Found

Researchers satellite-tagged 42 whales over multiple years (2009–2016) and tracked their paths, behaviour and the ocean conditions they encountered. Nature+1
Some key findings:

• The whales exhibited behaviour associated with feeding (so-called “area-restricted search” behaviour, meaning they slow, circle or forage) during their migration, not just at the feeding grounds. This was more likely when the whales passed through areas of higher marine productivity (more chlorophyll-a) along the coast. Nature
• The timing of their migration also appears to depend both on current cues (what the whale senses locally in the ocean) and on memory or past experience — such as previous ocean conditions at their Antarctic feeding grounds, especially the timing of sea-ice melt. Whales left later when the sea-ice melt was delayed.
• The research suggests that in a changing climate the matching between whale migration, prey availability and environmental cues may become more difficult to maintain — which could threaten how well these whales feed and reproduce long term.

Why It Matters for Conservation

Understanding how and why whales migrate the way they do is crucial for conservation. If whales rely on specific cues (like sea-ice melt or coastal productivity) that are now shifting due to global warming, the whales may arrive at the wrong time or place, potentially missing their food window. That could impact their health, calf survival rates and ultimately population numbers.

A Look Ahead

• Scientists suggest that protecting key marine zones — especially those along migration routes and near feeding grounds — becomes ever more important as conditions change.
• Monitoring the whales’ migration timing and feeding behaviour offers a way to detect early signals of trouble in the ocean ecosystem.
• Lastly, this research invites us to think about the ocean as a dynamic stage: whales are using both what they sense now and what they’ve learned before to navigate. But as climate change accelerates, past experience may no longer be a reliable guide.

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In short: These giants of the sea are more adaptive than we may have given them credit for — but even their remarkable migration strategy might be pushed to its limits by rapid environmental change.

A new study has revealed how migrating Humpback Whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) use two very different rest stops along Australia’s east coast — and why protecting them matters.

Every year, these whales make a long journey between tropical breeding grounds and rich polar feeding areas. The trip drains energy, especially for mothers with new calves, and so having safe “stopover” spots along the way helps them recover.

Researchers compared two such bays: Hervey Bay and Moreton Bay in Queensland. They found that even though both are used by migrating whales, they serve different functions.

• In Hervey Bay, there was a diverse mix of whale groups — mother-calf pairs, single adults, juveniles, and social groups. The bay showed signs of both resting and social interaction.
• In Moreton Bay, the majority of sightings were mother-calf pairs. The site seems to be used mainly for resting and nursing, rather than large social gatherings. researchportal.murdoch.edu.au+1

Why does this matter? Resting in shallow, protected waters gives calves a safer start — less energy spent on swimming, more time to nurse and develop. But if these stopover sites are disrupted (by boats, noise, shipping traffic) the impact could be serious for mothers and calves.

The authors emphasize that stopover sites are not “one size fits all” — each has its own role. For conservation, this means management plans should be tailored: protect social stopovers for broad whale groups, and prioritize calmer zones for vulnerable mothers and calves. PLOS+1

In short: migrating whales need both “playgrounds” and “nurseries” along their route — Hervey Bay appears more like the former, Moreton Bay the latter. Recognizing and protecting both is key to helping these magnificent animals thrive.

Marine scientists have uncovered yet another way human activity interferes with the lives of migrating humpback whales. In a recent study by Dr Riona McNamara and Dr Rebecca A. Dunlop, published in 2025, the researchers found that whales — while migrating — alter their social calls when exposed to the booming sounds of offshore oil-and-gas exploration.

The study focused on whales equipped with acoustic tags. Some groups (12 in total) were deliberately exposed to seismic “air-gun” blasts – massive underwater sound pulses used in commercial surveys. Others (21 groups) were used as controls. The result: whales exposed to the air-gun noise generally increased both how often they called and how loudly they called, compared to their behaviour before exposure and to unexposed whales.

This behaviour likely reflects what scientists call the “Lombard effect” – when an animal (or person) speaks louder in a noisy environment so its message still gets through. But that’s not the full story. Some whale groups did not raise their calls, and some even reduced them. Even more puzzling: the increase wasn’t neatly tied to how loud the noise was or how close the whales were to the source. In other words, being closer or hearing more noise didn’t always mean a stronger reaction.

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Why This Matters

Humpback whales rely heavily on sound. These giant mammals use calls for social interaction, mother-calf communication, group coordination, and navigating on their long migrations. When humans invade their acoustic world with powerful pulses of sound, the whales may have to compensate, change behaviour, or flee. This research shows one of those disruptions in action.

Importantly, even when whales increase calling rate or volume, that is not necessarily a sign that “everything is okay”. In fact, it may be a sign of stress, energy expenditure, or communication interference. The whales might be working harder just to maintain “normal” social contact. Over time, that extra work could reduce feeding efficiency, slow down migration, interfere with mating or calf rearing — in short: it could affect survival and reproduction.

Because the whales’ responses were inconsistent, the study points to complexity: group composition (mother + calf, or mother + calf + escort), behavioural context (migrating vs feeding vs breeding), and perhaps other unknown factors all play a role in determining how a whale reacts to human-generated noise.

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The Human Footprint Beneath the Waves

The study is part of a larger story of how humans shape the ocean’s soundscape – not just through shipping, sonar, and exploration, but via everyday noise that travels underwater. Seismic air-guns, for example, generate percussive pulses that can travel many kilometres and overlap with the frequency bands whales use for communication. Discovery of Sound in the Sea -+1

As one marine-mammal review puts it: even relatively low-level seismic noise can interfere with whale calls and responses. Convention on Biological Diversity+1

When whales cannot hear or be heard, when they have to shout louder or call more often, when they alter group behaviour or avoid areas altogether – the consequences may ripple through their life-history. For a migrating humpback, the stakes include reaching feeding grounds in good condition, keeping the calf safe and in contact, and proceeding to the next stage of the life-cycle.

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What Can Be Done? A Few Practical Steps

How can we reduce these impacts and give humpback whales and other marine mammals a quieter, safer acoustic environment? Here are several practical ideas, widely discussed among scientists and conservationists:

1. Timing and routing of seismic surveys
   Avoid conducting loud surveys during peak migration, breeding or calving seasons for whales. Spatially route survey vessels away from known whale corridors and staging areas.
2. Use quieter technologies and ramp-up procedures
   Developing and adopting less noisy exploration technologies helps. Gradually ramping up sound output (“soft start”) gives whales time to react or move away.
3. Establish ‘quiet zones’ or buffer zones
   Marine protected areas, acoustic quiet zones, or minimum-distance buffers around sensitive habitats (e.g., calf-rearing zones) can reduce exposure of whales to high-level noise.
4. Monitoring and adaptive management
   Use acoustic monitoring (hydrophones) to track whale presence and noise levels in real-time, and adjust operations if whales are detected close by.
5. Regulation, planning and cross-industry collaboration
   Governments, industry and conservation groups can work together to set limits on underwater noise, enforce mitigation measures, and share best practices globally.

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A Final Word

The recent study by McNamara & Dunlop adds a clear and troubling piece of the puzzle: migrating humpback whales are responding to human-generated noise, one way or another. Whether by turning up the volume or possibly falling silent, these changes are a red flag. We cannot assume that because whales still call, everything is fine. Communication is being disrupted. Behaviour is being forced. The long-term implications remain to be fully understood.

But we do know this much: the ocean is getting noisier. The whales cannot turn off the sounds. We can — or at least we can change how we operate. By rethinking seismic exploration, shifting schedules, developing quieter technologies, setting up acoustic safe zones — we can give humpback whales and their calves a fighting chance to carry on as nature intended.