The Guardian
Leyland Cecco

Over the course of nearly three months, navigating ocean swells and currents, vast expanses of flat water and immense pain, Moon the humpback whale completed a journey of 5,000km (3,100 miles) from the waters of British Columbia to Hawaii – all with a broken back.

Her crossing of the Pacific – and the likelihood that she will soon die – is a stark reminder of the growing dangers for whales along Canada’s west coast, as marine traffic clashes with the gentle marine giants.

“Without the use of her tail, she was literally doing the breaststroke to make that migration. It’s absolutely amazing,” said Janie Wray, CEO and lead researcher for BC Whales, a non-profit that studies cetaceans off the province’s west coast. “But also it just breaks your heart.”

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