Humpback whales have one of the longest migrations of any mammal in the world, traveling up to 5,000 miles between the tropical breeding grounds of Central America and the Caribbean to the feeding grounds of Antarctica. While the ability to track these ocean giants has improved, very little is known about the behavior and population structure of humpbacks in Antarctica. In addition, climate change is having an impact on marine environments around the Western Antarctic Peninsula, affecting the distribution and amount of krill (whales’ primary food source), which could alter foraging strategies and migratory patterns.

This is something that Susana Caballero-Gaitan and fellow researchers from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia want to understand before it is too late. A specialist in molecular techniques, Susana has focused her scientific career on developing our understanding of population structures and the evolutionary process across marine mammals. Recently she joined the Humpback Whale Sentinel Program, a collective of global scientists monitoring the migration of southern hemisphere humpback whales. Underpinning all of Susana's research is the ability to use the findings to improve management and conservation efforts around the world.

Scientists collect eDNA (environmental DNA) through a “remote biopsy” rifle that shoots a harmless, shallow dart into the skin of humpback whales that takes a small skin sample before falling off and being recovered. Mapping this data with sightings across the tropic and polar grounds helps to build our understanding of the behavior of these animals. Initial findings have highlighted the genetic diversity found across the humpback whales around the Western Antarctic Peninsula, and over the coming years the team aims to continue this research to identify patterns linked to climate change, oceanographic conditions, and whale migration.

As a member of our scientific partnership and collaboration program, in January 2022 Professor Susan Caballero-Gaitan joined MS Fram on a voyage to Antarctica to support her study of the “migratory patterns of humpback whales in the Colombian Pacific and the Antarctic Peninsula.”

With the help of our guests and the Expedition Team on board, Susan was able to capture a wide variety of data, including non-lethal skin biopsy samples, environmental DNA (eDNA), recordings of whale songs, and identification photos from around the peninsula.

This hands-on experience for our guests helped to drive the success of this collaboration, and in January 2023 Susana joined MS Fridtjof Nansen to collect further data.