wunder beta🐢 Ocean Animal Migrations
Follow whales, turtles, and salmon on some of the longest journeys any animal makes across the open sea.
What you’ll learn
- Journeys Across the SeaDefine migration and explain why ocean animals make long journeys, using the humpback whale as an example.Migration is a regular, repeated journey. Ocean animals migrate to find rich feeding grounds and to reach warm, calm waters safe for breeding. Humpback whales split their year between cold polar feeding seas and warm tropical breeding waters.
- Turtles and Fish on the MoveDescribe how sea turtles, salmon, and tuna migrate and how ocean animals navigate.Sea turtles cross oceans to nest on their birth beach, likely sensing the Earth's magnetic field. Salmon fight upstream to the river where they hatched, and bluefin tuna cross whole oceans chasing food. Ocean animals navigate using magnetism, currents, the Sun, and smells.
Questions this course answers
What is migration?
Migration is a regular, repeated journey animals make, usually to find food or to breed, and then return.
Why do humpback whales swim from cold polar seas to warm tropical waters?
Humpbacks feed in cold polar seas, then travel to warm, calm tropical waters to breed and raise their calves safely.
What is remarkable about where a female sea turtle lays her eggs?
A female sea turtle often crosses thousands of kilometres to nest on the same beach where she herself hatched.
How do many ocean animals find their way across the open sea?
Many ocean animals sense the Earth's magnetic field as a built-in compass, and also use currents, the Sun, and smells.
What makes the salmon's migration so difficult?
Salmon return from the ocean by swimming up their home river against the current, even leaping up waterfalls to reach their breeding grounds.
Why do bluefin tuna travel across whole oceans?
Bluefin tuna are fast swimmers that cross entire oceans chasing schools of smaller fish to eat.
Grounded in trusted sources
- NOAA Fisheries
- National Geographic Kids
- Smithsonian Ocean
- Britannica Kids
Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.
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