Family-- Balaenopteridae (Rorquals)

IDENTIFICATION
The Humpback Whale has a black body with an irregular white area on the belly. The undersides of the flippers and flukes are also white. The head in front of the blowhole is covered with wartlike, round protuberances, each containing one hair or hair sac. The Humpback's flippers are exceptionally long, nearly 1/3 the body length, and they are scalloped on the leading edge. The dorsal fin is slightly hooked, and located on the last third of the back. Large barnacles often grow on the chin, the anterior portions of the throat grooves, the flippers and the flukes. The baleen plates are about 75 cm long. A mature male measures about 11.5 metres long, while a mature female is 12 metres. The largest Humpback on record, a whale from Puget Sound, was about 19 metres long and weighed 48 tonnes.

MEALS, MANNERS AND MIGRATION
Humpback Whales are famous for their songs. Only the males sing and usually only when breeding. Considered the longest and most complex in the animal kingdom, Humpback songs can last up to 20 minutes and be heard more than 30 km away. A whale may repeat the same song dozens of times over several hours, and whales in the same geographic area sing in very similar "dialects". Humpback songs vary slightly from region to region and year to year.

In the North Pacific, Humpbacks attain sexual maturity in six to twelve years. Calving and mating occur from October to March in warm waters off Mexico and Hawaii. After a 12-month gestation period, mothers bear calves up to five metres long and weighing about two tonnes.

Northward and southward migrations each take about two months; Humpbacks spend five and a half months on the feeding grounds and a little over a month on the breeding grounds. Northward migration begins in March and April from Hawaii, California and Mexican waters, reaching Vancouver Island in May or June. The Humpbacks continue north, travelling at an average rate of 7.5 km per hour, until they reach the feeding grounds of the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea. They eat mostly euphausiids, but are also known to eat large meals of fish such as herring, anchovies, sardines and cod.

STATUS
Although the population of Humpback Whales in British Columbia appears to be increasing, it is still much lower than it was before whaling. COSEWIC considers this species threatened, because Humpbacks are susceptible to the dangers caused by human activities; they can become entangled in fishing gear, be struck by a ship or suffer from pollutants in the water.

DISTRIBUTION
The Humpback Whale lives in both hemispheres.

It undertakes long seasonal migrations between the winter calving/breeding grounds in the warm equatorial waters of Hawaii and Mexico and the summer feeding areas in the polar seas of Alaska. Most individuals that migrate along the B.C. coast spend winters in Hawaii.