• reservations
• schedules
• pricing
• contact us
• directions

HUMPBACK WHALES (part one)

(Megaptera novaeanglia or "big-winged New Englander")

 

     Humpback Whales are amongst the most commonly sighted whale species on our trips, with a nearly 100% sightings record of this species for the past three years.   Humpback Whales travel either alone, in pairs, and very occasionally in small groups of three to seven animals. Larger aggregations are seen when food is particularly abundant but are rare.

 

     Humpbacks start arriving to our area in the late Winter and very early Spring (throughout March) with males and juveniles arriving first, and female whales with new calves arriving last (usually by mid-May).

     When the Humpback whales arrive they are hungry and ready to begin feeding for up to eighteen hours-a-day, all summer long. Each whale can consume nearly three thousand pounds of fish per day!

 

    They will consume this massive amount of food each day because  because they need to build-up a thick layer of fat ("blubber") that helps keep them warm and serves as an energy reserve for the whales long migration.  Each winter nearly the entire population of Humpbacks we see off the New England coast migrate fifteen-hundred miles to the warm, much less productive waters of the Caribbean to mate and give birth to their calves. It is in these warm, relatively desolate waters of the Caribbean that the Humpbacks sing the majority of their elaborate songs for which this species is so famous.

     For the entire time that the whales are singing and mating in the Caribbean (November-March) they hardly eat at all!  Some Humpback whales will lose up to 25% of their total body weight (or about 20,000lbs of blubber). So it's not surprising that they are so intent upon feeding after returning north to New England.

HUMPBACK WHALE BEHAVIORS:

Feeding Behavior

Feeding behavior is commonly seen on our trips. Humpback whale feeding behavior consists (usually) of the whales blowing huge clouds or rings of bubbles around schools of fish.  The bubbles then rise around the fish which are confused and trapped inside the column of rising bubbles. This makes it easier for the whales to catch such fish species as Sand Lance, Mackerel, or Herring, which are faster swimmers than the Humpbacks are.  By employing this system of bubbles the humpbacks can concentrate and consume these fast-moving fish in mass quantities.

     This "bubble feeding" behavior is unique to the Humpback whales and has been observed in many Humpback whale populations all around the world.

     Interestingly, different populations of Humpbacks exhibit slight variations on this bubble-cloud-method of feeding. In the North Pacific, for example, Humpback whales almost always work in groups to net fish in a hollow ring (or cylinder if viewed beneath the surface) of bubbles. While "bubble rings" are also employed in the North Atlantic, they are much less common than "bubble clouds" (one solid mass of bubbles). Are these feeding behaviors the result of the whales targeting different prey? Is feeding strategy learned when Humpback whales are calves and watch older whales feeding? If so, could this account for regional variations in feeding strategy?

     Consider this: In the past 15 or so years a new feeding strategy has emerged in "our" population Humpback Whales. A method of feeding called "kick-feeding" or "flick-feeding" began with just a few individuals then spread through the population. In the early 1990's, a few individual Humpback whales started pounding the surface of the water with their tails before diving beneath the surface and blowing a bubble cloud. Why they started this behavior no one knows. Perhaps pounding the tail at the surface stuns fish making them easier to catch. Perhaps it simply marks the spot where the whales intend to feed.  What we do know is that kick-feeding is now observed in many, if not most, of the Humpbacks in the southern Gulf of Maine.

     While feeding remains the main activity of the whales in the southern Gulf of Maine, many other behaviors are often observed from the Humpback Whales; including some of the surface active behaviors that have made this species so popular amongst whale watchers. The surface active behaviors we frequently see from the Humpback Whales include:

Flipper Slapping (aka "Flippering" or "Pec-slapping")

    This is when Humpback Whales (or occasionally other whale species) lay on their sides or backs at the surface and raise one or both of their pectoral fins in the air. Humpbacks have unusually long side flippers (~15 feet long) which led to their being given the scientific name "Megaptera novaeangliae" or "Big-winged New Englander". Humpbacks often repeatedly strike the water's surface with their flippers which produced a loud slapping sound that can be heard a great distance both above and below the water.

Tail Breaching

This behavior involves the whale twisting and throwing the entire posterior end of its body out of the water. A slight variation on tail breaching is "tail-lobbing". This is when the whale lays on its back and repeated thrashes the tail and pounds at the surface