Humpback whale catalog

The Center for Coastal Studies has studied individual humpback whales since the 1970s. Our Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog is a synthesis of this work and a vital part of our on-going research.  The catalog contains detailed information on individuals, including age, sex, relatedness, reproduction, behavior, distribution and human impacts. These data serve as a powerful tool for increasing scientific knowledge and facilitating the management of this species.  Our research on this population has even led to tools that can be used to better understand humpback whales in less well-studied parts of the world.  Examples include the first pregnancy test for humpback whales and a technique for estimating humpback whale age.  Read our scientific publications for other examples of how these data have been used.

Our Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog is based primarily on our own directed research cruises that span the feeding range of this population, from the waters off Nantucket to Nova Scotia.  However, it also benefits from information shared by collaborating NGOs and whale watching companies that collect data on local segments of this population (learn more here).

On a larger scale, we collaborate with other North Atlantic researchers and the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalog (NAHWC), which facilitates photo-identification studies of humpback whales across all of the feeding and breeding grounds in the North Atlantic.

Finally, the Gulf of Maine Humpback Whale Catalog has been greatly enhanced by the work of our long-term molecular geneticists (and adjunct scientists), Drs. Per Palsbøll and Martine Bérubé at the University of Groningen.