A humpback whale first identified by its tail fluke markings in 1972 was photographed again last year in both Hawai'i and Alaska waters, according to federal whale researchers.

The whale, known as NMMLID 229, has the longest identification record — almost 35 years — of any humpback whale, said NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

The humpback, believed to be a male, was photographed in February 2006 near Maui by researchers from The Dolphin Institute, and again in December by a team of researchers working under a scientific research permit issued to whale researcher Jan Straley in Southeast Alaska's Seymour Canal. NMMLID 229 has been photographed more than 34 times over the years in Alaska and Hawai'i by researchers from The Dolphin Institute, the University of Hawai'i, the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation, the Center for Whale Studies and other organizations.

"That whale has been seen throughout Hawai'i," said biologist Sally Mizroch, who developed and manages NOAA's whale-matching database in Seattle.

She said the humpback has been a favorite of hers throughout the years because of the frequent sightings, which have become a common bond between many whale scientists.

Normally it takes at least a year for photos to be analyzed for possible matches, but Mizroch said she just happened to be digitizing old photographs from pioneering whale researcher Charles Jurasz when she came across an image of NMMLID 229 that Jurasz had made in 1972 in Lynn Canal, southeast Alaska. Curious about the whale's whereabouts, Mizroch contacted researchers to see if they had recently spotted the humpback. She heard back about the 2006 Maui and Alaska sightings.

Because 2007 data have yet to be analyzed, it's not known if NMMLID 229 turned up in Hawai'i again this year, but most humpbacks return to the same mating and calving grounds each winter, Mizroch said.

Aside from a few photos taken by retired Alaska Fisheries Research Center researcher Dale Rice in Mexico in 1966, the Jurasz photos are the earliest humpback photos in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center collection. At least nine other whales photographed by Jurasz and his family in the 1970s were seen in Glacier Bay as recently as last summer, according to Glacier Bay biologist Chris Gabriele.

At the time NMMLID 229 was first photographed, scientists were just starting to use pictures to identify individual whales from the unique patterns and markings on the undersides of their tails. Before photo identification, whale studies relied on data collected from animals harvested by the whaling industry.

Today, tail photos are a simple and nonlethal tool for conducting a variety of studies. For example, Mizroch said, research that examined mortality among whale calves used tail flukes to identify mother-calf pairs as they left Hawai'i to migrate to their summer feeding grounds. Researchers then attempted to find the mothers in Alaska to see if their calves were still with them.

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center humpback whale database has more than 30,000 photographs taken from throughout the North Pacific by researchers working in Alaska, Hawai'i, the West Coast, Japan and Mexico. Mizroch said she would like anyone with early whale photos and information on when and where they were taken to share them with her to see if they can be matched against database photos.

Jurasz, meanwhile, now lives in the Yukon, studying Fannin sheep, grizzly bears and wood-boring insects.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.