With a research method called “photo-identification” it is possible to identify individual whales, which is especially efficient with humpback whales. They often show the underside of their fluke when going down for a dive and the fact that there are no two humpback whales that have the same pattern on their flukes can be used to identify them individually.

Since 2001 the museum staff has been going out on Skjálfandi Bay almost every day and over the years a huge database has been built up. By now our photo-id catalogue of humpback whales contains 135 individuals. Some of them have already been photographed in other parts of Iceland, but we just got exciting news from the College of the Atlantic in Maine (USA) that one of “our” humpbacks from Skjálfandi Bay has also been sighted in the Cape Verde Islands off North-West Africa.

The whale, which is known as MN104 in our catalogue, has been photographed on the whale-watching tours here off Húsavík on the 19th and 25th of June 2008 and it was discovered that the same whale has also been identified by Simon Berrow from the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group on a research trip to the Cape Verde Islands on 3rd of March 2006.

This is great news as it is the first humpback whale from Skjálfandi Bay that has been matched to a breeding ground close to the equator and it is just another example of how useful photo-identification can be.

We would like to encourage everybody, who has gone whale-watching in Reykjavík, Húsavík, Dalvík, Hauganes, Drangsnes, the Westman Islands or any other parts of the country to send us pictures of the whales or dolphins that were seen on that trip. The easiest way is just to send them via e-mail to info@whalemuseum.is, we appreciate any contribution to our research program.