Ocean Animal Migrations
Know that many ocean animals undertake remarkable migrations — humpback whales travel thousands of miles between feeding and breeding grounds, sea turtles return to the same beach where they hatched to lay eggs — and understand these journeys are linked to seasonal food supplies and reproduction
What a learner can do afterwards
- Describe at least one example of marine animal migration in detail
- Explain that migrations are driven by seasonal food availability and breeding needs
- Estimate the scale of these journeys (thousands of miles)
The lesson
You already know that animals migrate, moving to a new place when the seasons change. Ocean animals do this too, and some of their trips are among the longest journeys any animal on Earth makes.
Every year, humpback whales swim from icy Antarctic waters, where they eat huge amounts of tiny shrimp called krill, to warm tropical waters near the equator. In the tropics, mother whales give birth to their calves. One way, that trip covers about 5,000 miles.
Sea turtles migrate for a similar reason. A female sea turtle swims back to the very beach where she hatched years earlier, sometimes crossing a whole ocean, so she can lay her own eggs in that same sand.
Ask why an ocean animal is migrating, and the answer is almost always food or babies. Animals travel to places with more food to eat, or to safer waters and beaches to have their young.
Ocean animals like humpback whales and sea turtles migrate thousands of miles between feeding grounds with plenty of food and the places where they breed or nest.
Watch it
Where it sits
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.