{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"Research Square"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,14]],"date-time":"2025-05-14T06:47:38Z","timestamp":1747205258802,"version":"3.40.5"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"group-title":"In Review","reference-count":0,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]],"date-time":"2024-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1719792000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,20]]},"abstract":"<title>Abstract<\/title>\n        <p>How animals navigate during long-distance migration remains a mystery. Many theories have been proposed<sup>1<\/sup> (Keeton, 1979), with the Earth\u2019s magnetic field emerging as a clear potential source of orientational information for navigational decision-making across diverse taxa<sup>2<\/sup> (Putman, 2022). Yet, the mechanics involved in magnetic navigation remain unknown<sup>3<\/sup> (Schneider et al., 2023). Globally distributed records available from historic whaling<sup>4-5<\/sup> (AOWLD, 2023; Yablokov et al., 1998) in combination with modern satellite-tracking datasets<sup>6<\/sup> (Horton et al., 2022) for baleen whales create a unique opportunity to illuminate the mechanics of cetacean navigation. Here, we show that baleen whale migratory destinations over the last &gt;200 years are systematically distributed in horizontal plane magnetic coordinates. Specifically, blue (<italic>Balaenoptera musculus<\/italic>), bowhead (<italic>Balaena mysticetus<\/italic>), fin (<italic>Balaenoptera physalus<\/italic>), gray (<italic>Eschrichtius robustus<\/italic>), humpback (<italic>Megaptera novaeangliae<\/italic>), and right (<italic>Eubalaena spp.<\/italic>) whales non-randomly inhabit areas where magnetic declination (MD) closely approximates integer and half-integer multiples of the Earth\u2019s 23.44\u00b0 axial tilt. Our findings, which are highly reproducible through both space and time, demonstrate that baleen whale navigation between seasonal habitats occurs via the integration of magnetic and astronomic orientation cues<sup>3<\/sup>. By referencing MD values to the rise and set azimuths of the Sun, baleen whale movements define mechanistic horizontal plane heliomagnetic coordinate trajectories across all ocean basins.<\/p>","DOI":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-4613940\/v1","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]],"date-time":"2024-07-01T14:28:50Z","timestamp":1719844130000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Baleen whale navigation in astronomically referenced magnetic coordinates"],"prefix":"10.21203","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0558-2970","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Travis","family":"Horton","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Canterbury"}]},{"given":"Nan Daeschler","family":"Hauser","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cook Islands Whale Research"}]},{"given":"Alexandre","family":"Zerbini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"U.S. National Marine Mammal Laboratory"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7069-7913","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Palacios","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University"}]},{"given":"Audun","family":"Rikardsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Arctic University of Troms\u00f8 - UiT"}]},{"given":"Christian","family":"Lydersen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Norwegian Polar Insttute"}]},{"given":"Kit","family":"Kovacs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Norwegian Polar Institute"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2683-309X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M\u00f3nica","family":"Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidade dos A\u00e7ores"}]},{"given":"Rui","family":"Prieto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of the Azores"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3260-539X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rochelle","family":"Constantine","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Auckland"}]},{"given":"Leena","family":"Riekkola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Te Kura M\u0101tauranga Koiora | School of Biological Sciences, Te Whare Takiura M\u0101tai P\u016btaiao Moana | Institute of Marine Science, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8117-3370","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Claire","family":"Garrigue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UMR ENTROPIE I- RD"}]},{"given":"Sol\u00e8ne","family":"Derville","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UMR ENTROPIE (IRD, IFREMER, CNRS, Universit\u00e9 de Nouvelle-Cal\u00e9donie, Universit\u00e9 de La R\u00e9union)"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4846-7622","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mads Peter","family":"Heide-J\u00f8rgensen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Greenland Institute of Natural Resources"}]},{"given":"Michael C.","family":"Double","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Antarctic Division"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4609-7317","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Virginia","family":"Andrews-Goff","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Antarctic Division"}]},{"given":"Nick","family":"Gales","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Antarctic Division"}]},{"given":"Yulia","family":"Ivashchenko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Seastar Scientific"}]},{"given":"Phillip","family":"Clapham","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Seastar Scientific"}]},{"given":"Bruce","family":"Mate","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University, Hatfield Marine Science Center"}]}],"member":"297","container-title":[],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-4613940\/v1","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-4613940\/v1.html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,16]],"date-time":"2024-09-16T10:56:14Z","timestamp":1726484174000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.researchsquare.com\/article\/rs-4613940\/v1"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.21203\/rs.3.rs-4613940\/v1","relation":{},"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]]},"subtype":"preprint"}}