Five Animals That Migrate in Water

Animals migrate for reasons including temperature changes in their natural habitats, a return to known breeding grounds and the search for food, according to the National Park Service. The migration of animals can take place over large areas, when animals cross great distances to find breeding and feeding grounds. Some animals migrate over small distances around mountains and valleys, when winter temperatures become too cold in higher mountain ranges.

  1. Migration

    • An number of types of animals migrate throughout the year; these include cold-blooded animals, to avoid cold winter temperatures or to find abundant food sources and warm breeding grounds for reproduction. Migrational patterns can be seasonal, linked to changing seasons and lack of food, or can take place randomly, such as removal migration that takes place when a population becomes too large or the available food becomes scarce.

    Salmonoid

    • Two types of fish that have similar migratory habits are the Atlantic and Pacific Salmon and another salmonoid species, the trout. The migration of the salmon and the trout is a reproductive cycle that requires the fish to move between warm freshwater breeding and feeding grounds and saltwater oceans, where the fish live the majority of their lives. After one or two years of adult life in the oceans, salmon and trout return to freshwater breeding grounds to lay their eggs before dying, Cornell University reports.

    Whales

    • The mammal known as the whale migrates through water to find feeding and breeding grounds. Whales look for cooler waters in the extreme north in order to feed on abundant food sources, such as krill and zooplankton. In order to give birth in favorable waters, humpback whales migrate from colder northern waters to southern, subtropical waters off Hawaii to produce their young. Some species of shark also move to subtropical waters, commonly off southern California, to reproduce. The great white shark is warm-blooded and is therefore able to follow the migration patterns of its prey, such as the sea lion and seal, regardless of water temperature, according to Cornell University.

    Turtles

    • The sea turtle is another reproductive migratory animal that migrates through ocean waters to find food before returning to its birthplace to lay eggs in the sand of a beach. The sea turtle leaves its eggs on beaches before returning to the ocean. The young sea turtles move quickly from the beach into the waters close to the beach to feed and grow before venturing farther into the ocean when they reach adulthood.