Humpback Whale

Scientific Name: Megaptera novaeangliae (Long-winged New Englander)

Size:  40-50 feet
Weight:  35-45 tons
Speed:  16 mph max
Status:  Endangered

The Humpback whale is frequently seen off the New England coast during the summer.  They gather near offshore ledges and banks where small fish are plentiful.  Humpbacks are baleen whales, meaning they have no teeth.  Instead, they have hundreds of hard, flexible plates of baleen inside their mouth.  Each plate has a hair-like fringe on the inner edge.  The baleen acts like a strainer to help the whale collect its food.  The whale finds a school of small fish, like sand eels or herring, or cloud of krill, opens it mouth and engulfs the school or cloud.  Then it pushes all the water out of its mouth and past the baleen plates.  As this happens, all the small fish or krill get trapped on the inner hairy edge.  The whale then scoops off the food with its tongue and swallows it whole.  We are sometimes lucky enough to witness Humpbacks feeding in the areas where we watch them. 

Humpback whales have a distinctive pigmentation pattern on the underside of their tail or fluke.  This black and white pattern can be seen when the whale lifts its fluke out of the water when it dives. It is different for each humpback, allowing researchers to identify individuals without the use of synthetic markers. The pattern also helps researchers to estimate population, life expectancy and migration patterns. Notice the very different fluke patterns below: 

Humpback whales have the longest pectoral fins of any whale in relationship to their body length.  The flippers are up to a third of the total length of the whale, or about 15 feet long.  The flippers are also primarily white throughout the North Atlantic population.  

Every year, most Humpback whales migrate between their feeding and breeding/calving grounds (some juveniles may remain on the feeding grounds year-round). The breeding season is from January to March, and occurs on Silver and Navidad Banks, north of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. After mating and calving, the whales swim north and feed in one of five different areas - the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland. A Humpback will only feed in one of these areas, and that area is the one its mother brought it to during its first year.

Humpbacks are famous for their songs that they sing.  These songs are structurally similar to the songs of birds.  In the winter, when the whales are on their breeding grounds (Silver Bank, Puerto Rico for the North Atlantic population), the male humpbacks will hold their breath and sing for up to an hour.  All the males of the same population sing the same song, and that song changes a little each year, as if they are changing a verse. Most commonly, it is believed that these songs are used to attract a female, though other theories exist.  One such theory is that the songs are used to establish a territory.  Rarely will a male humpback approach another male who is singing.

Photos & text: Dianna Schulte, Senior Naturalist
Newburyport Whale Watch