Most humpback whales make mammoth journeys every year between their feeding and breeding sites.
Humpbacks are capable of travelling at 5 mph but, during such a long journey, they average only 1 mph, resting and socialising along the way. Not all members of a particular population will travel together however. For example, the humpbacks that pass the eastern shores of Australia, on their way to summer feeding grounds in Antarctica each year, stop off in the warm waters of Hervey Bay. The first to arrive there are groups of older juveniles, followed by mature males and then by mothers and calves. Having migrated up the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, some humpbacks spend their summer feeding between the Gulf of Maine and Iceland, where they might mix with other populations.