Whales — Humpback

Humpbacks

Humpback Whales are baleen whales who belong to the rorqual species. They are easy to recognize by their long pectoral fins and distinctive body shape. They are one of the more common whale species and a popular whale to watch by boat as they are known for their breaching and tail display. Fully grown males are 43-46 feet long with females being slightly larger at 49-52 feet with the average weight of a Humpback at 25-30 metric tons.

Humpbacks are found world wide but are known to migrate up to 16,000 miles each year traveling from polar waters in the summer and fall where they feed to tropical waters in the winter and spring for mating and birthing. The whales that I encounter migrate between the Salish Sea and Eastern Alaska to Hawaii and the Baja Coast and Cabo San Lucas.

Humpback whales are known for their complex mating songs that are sung by the males. Though females are capable of vocalization only males can vocalize for a prolong period to sing. These songs may be as long as 10-20 minutes and some males may repeat the song on repeat for a full day. The same song is sung by each male but the songs evolve over the years never repeating.

How To ID

When not showing of their fluke Humpback whales can be harder to identify between Minke whales and Gray whales. When only able to see their dorsal look for a stubby/bumpy dorsal on Humpbacks, Minke have smooth dorsal and Gray whale have no dorsal. Humpback whales can be easily identified when they are showing off and displaying their flukes (tails) or their long front pectoral fins.




 

Humpback Identification

Individual Humpback whales can be identified by the undersides of their tail known as their fluke. The fluke of a Humpback is as unique as a fingerprint, coming in either black, white, or a patterned mixture of the two. This colorization pattern is the primary way Humpbacks are identified. Beyond this pattern shaping of the trailing edge and center notch are used to further validate identity. The trailing edge of the fluke is the end of the whale and often has unique ridging, gouges, or distinct tip shape. The center notch of the fluke on Humpbacks will either be in a U or a V shape. In some cases though identification may require stacking multiple distinct features until a level of certainty is achieved.

Humpbacks are an extremely well tracked and documented species and as such each regional tracking area has its own naming convention and identification process. Typically though Humpback’s are seperated by the percentage of black and white on their flukes. The Humpbacks I will encounter most frequently in the Salish Sea are broken into three different groups for identification BCX, BCY, and BCZ. These groups are based on their fluke pattern of the whale and if it is predominantly Black, White, or Mixed.

  • BCX - Mostly black with less than 20% white

  • BCY - Mixed with 20-80% white

  • BCZ - Mostly white with less than 20% black


https://www.bcwhales.org/bc-humpback-catalogue


https://www.oceanicsociety.org/resources/whale-fluke-identification-guide/

 Personal Humpback Encounters - 20