Dear colleagues,

I would like to report an unusual sighting of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the waters of Lampedusa Island, south of Sicily.

This area is known to host visiting fin whales every late winter - early spring, who surface feed on the very abundant euphausiid, Nyctiphanes couchii, as reported by Canese and colleagues a few years ago.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=446563

Yesterday, while looking for fin whales, we saw a young humpback whale, approx. 8-9-meters long, 20 km south east of the Island. The whale appeared to be swimming in a relaxed way and we recorded several episodes of surface feeding. We followed the whales for an hour and a half, while slowly moving towards the west. After talking with the personnel of the local Marine Protected Area Isole Pelagie and the fishermen, no other records of such species have been reported around the island.

Humpback whales have been reported 10 times since 2009 in the Mediterranean Sea, including this sighting, 2 strandings and 8 sightings at sea (Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, pers. comm.).

The animal has been photo-identified and we would be happy to compare id pictures with those from the other sightings in the Mediterranean Sea (or even beyond if appropriate).

This project - funded by the Italian Ministry of the Environment - is a collaboration between the International Whaling Commission and the Tethys Research Institute, with the support of the Società Cooperativa Sesto Continente, working for the MPA Isole Pelagie.

With my best regards from a very windy Lampedusa,

Simone Panigada



___________________________
Tethys Research Institute
Viale G.B. Gadio 2, 20121 Milano, Italy
tel. +39 0272001947 / 0272013943
fax +39 0286995011
tethys@tethys.org
< http://www.tethys.org/>