Kenting National Park
Whales again migrate off Japanese archipelagos and into the Sea of Japan. Connections between these stocks and whales seen in the Sea of Okhotsk, on Kamchatka coasts and around the Commander Islands have been studied. Historical wintering distributions could have been much wider and more southerly distributed, as whales were seen in areas along the Batanes, Sulu and Celebes Seas including off Palawan, Luzon, Malaysia and Mindanao, with higher densities around today's Cape Eluanbi and Kenting National Park. Unconfirmed sightings have been reported near Borneo in modern times. The first confirmation in modern Taiwan was of a pair off Hualien in 1994, followed by a successful escape from entanglement off Taitung in 1999, and continuous sightings around Orchid Island in 2000. Few/none regularly migrate into Kenting National Park. In addition, despite sightings reported almost annually off Green and Orchid Islands, relatively short stays in these waters indicate recoveries as winter foraging has not occurred. Sightings, including of a cow-calf pair, have occurred along the east coast of Taiwan. Around Hong Kong, two documented sightings were recorded in 2009 and in 2016. One of the first documented sightings within the Yellow Sea was of a group of 3 or 4 individuals, including a cow/calf pair in Changhai County in October, 2015.