in February 2009, we posted a message about a humpback whale in Slovenian waters (North Adriatic). As several list members showed great interest in this issue and asked us to send some updates, we decided to send this summary, a sort of an "epilogue" of the story.

A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was present in Slovenian waters (off the town of Piran) between February and April 2009. According to the available literature, this was the first documented record of this species in Slovenia and the Gulf of Trieste, the second in the Adriatic Sea and the 14th in the Mediterranean.

After receiving initial reports about a whale from local fishermen and port police, we located the whale on 16 February 2009 and identified it as a humpback whale. During its stay, we regularly monitored the whale. We observed and recorded its behaviour, movements and dive times. It was estimated to be about 10-12 meters long. Based on this, we assumed that the animal was a young adult or a sub-adult. The animal appeared in good body condition and did not show any obvious signs of illness or difficulties. Underwater footage of the genital area revealed that the animal was a male. No injuries (other than normal scarring) were observed. We photographed the dorsal fin and the tail fluke of the whale for photo-identification.

Although we do not have any definite evidence, certain observations (i.e occasional lateral sub-surface swimming, presence of feeding seagulls) suggest that the whale was feeding. The fact that large schools of gilt sardine (Sardinella aurita) were present in the area (many were seen washed ashore dead, or swimming feebly at the water surface), further supports this hypothesis. We believe this was the most likely reason for the whale to come to the North Adriatic. Interestingly, a short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), a species that has not been recorded here in the last 20 years, was also seen in the area at that time.

In collaboration with colleagues from College of Atlantic, we compared the photos to the North Atlantic Humpback Whale Catalogue (curated at the College of Atlantic), but no matches were found. The whale was given a new HWC# code and included in the NAHWC catalogue.

During the whale's visit, we contacted the Slovenian Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and proposed a code of conduct for observing the whale. We are very pleased that the Ministry responded quickly and issued the official code of conduct, which at least partially reduced disturbance. Furhermore, after collecting a "sufficient" amount of data from our inflatable boat (in the first week), we refrained from further boat observations and continued to monitor the whale from the coast (as the whale constantly remained close to coast, this was fairly easy to do). We decided to do so in order to set an example to the public and because additional potential disturbance was unnecessary. Only a few additional boat-based observations were carried out later on in March, to check on the condition of the whale.

Genov, T., Kotnjek, P. & Lipej, L. 2009. New record of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Adriatic Sea. Annales, Series Historia Naturalis, 19(1), 25-30.

The whale was last seen on 21 April 2009. We received no further reports about the whale from anywhere else in the Mediterranean. If anyone has spotted (or will spot) any humpbacks in the Mediterranean (or in the Strait of Gibraltar, for that matter), we kindly ask you to let us know!