| Whale Migration -- How Far Do They Go? This past week, the students at the School for Field Studies on South Caicos Island
went on their mid-term vacation to the Dominican Republic, an island located
approximately 100 miles south of South Caicos Island. The Dominican Republic is
the wintering grounds for humpback whales. These animals travel from the cold
waters of the north Atlantic Ocean (off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts; St. Lawrence
River, Canada; Labrador Sea, Canada) down to the waters off the coast of the
Dominican Republic in the fall. This is the time that they breed and produce
offspring.
Here's what to do: Get a ruler, a pencil, a map of the west Atlantic Ocean and your
parents. Find Cape Cod, the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, and the Labrador
Sea. Using the ruler, draw a line on the map from each of these locations to the
Dominican Republic. Using the scale on the map, figure out how many miles some
of these whales travel to get to the Dominican Republic each fall. Do you think this
is a long way for them to swim? This kind of trip is called a migration, and many
types of animals (including birds, butterflies and fish) make this kind of trip every
year. Why do you think that animals migrate? Why don't they just stay in one place
all year?
If you think you know the answers to some or all of these questions, send them to
our marine@sitesalive.com email address. We'll put the best answers up on the
website in Home Connections.
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