Whale song clue to humpback route off Ireland and Scotland

Scientists have identified a potential migratory corridor for humpback whales off western Ireland and Scotland after hearing them singing along the route.

Male humpbacks produce complex and structured songs, usually heard in the animals' tropical breeding grounds.

A research project called Compass, which involves experts based in Northern Ireland and Scotland, detected singing in North Atlantic waters.

More work is to be done to find out if humpbacks regularly use the route.

The whale song was detected on underwater microphones deployed by scientists in seas off Ireland and Scotland.

The possible migratory corridor passes through the Irish and Malin seas and along the west coast of the Outer Hebrides.

Scientists said it could be part of a migratory route thousands of miles long which North Atlantic humpback whales that breed off west Africa and the Caribbean Sea travel each year to reach food-rich colder waters.

Northern Ireland's Agri-food and Biosciences Institute and Queen's University Belfast worked with Oban-based Scottish Association of Marine Sciences (Sams) and Scottish government designate Marine Scotland on the research.

Dr Denise Risch, a marine mammal expert at Sams, said exciting findings had been made so far.

She added: "Following the end of the Compass project in December the teams across these regions will continue to collaborate with humpback whale researchers across the North Atlantic to use passive acoustics to further investigate humpback whale migration patterns in the wider North Atlantic, as well as looking at how noise may affect singing humpback whales in the coastal Northern Irish waters."

Queen's University Belfast PhD student Cathy Gibson is to carry out further studies of the Irish-Scottish corridor.

Humpbacks are found in all oceans and feed on krill and small fish.