Humpback Whale

An encounter with a Humpback Whale is always a top experience for our guests, with these impressively huge animals curiously approaching our ships and often breaching and ‘putting on a show’ for everyone to enjoy. Their scientific name, Megaptera novaeangliae, meaning “big wing of New England,” reflects their notable tail patterns, breaches, haunting songs, and remarkable migrations across oceans worldwide. Let’s learn more about these wonderful creatures.

Each humpback whale tail tells a unique story in the ocean.

Humpback Whale Quick Overview

Questions Guests Ask About Humpback Whales

How Big Is a Humpback Whale?

They are among the largest marine mammals. Adults typically measure 10 to 16 meters (35-50 feet) in length and can grow to about 15 m (∼50 ft). The females are slightly larger than the males. Baby humpback whales are also impressive in size, measuring about 4 to 5 meters (13-16 feet) at birth.

What Does a Humpback Whale Sound Like?

These marine mammals are renowned for their haunting and complex songs. They produce sounds lasting 10 to 20 minutes and often repeat them for hours. Males primarily sing during the breeding season, and their songs can travel great distances underwater, including high-frequency clicks that reach up to 30,000 Hz. All the males in a group will produce the same song, which is different each season. They sing to attract females but also use it among themselves to establish dominance.

How Do They Look Like?

These whales are easy to spot as they have a small dorsal fin, distinct hump, extraordinarily long pectoral fins, and black-and-white patterns on their tails (called ‘flukes’). Also, they have very distinctive markings on their flukes, and when their tails emerge from the water before a dive you can get a good look at each individual pattern. These markings are used by whale researchers to identify each whale.

Where Does the Humpback Whale Live?

The baleen whale is found in all major oceans, but they are most commonly seen migrating to polar regions, such as Antarctica and the Arctic. The cold polar waters provide ideal feeding conditions, as they contain higher levels of dissolved oxygen, support rich marine life, and have fewer predators and minimal human interference. Thus, they are perfect habitats for these creatures. Over the summer months, it’s estimated that around 3,000 humpback whales can be found in the West Antarctic Peninsula area. This makes it a prime sighting location in February and March, and the most common baleen whale species in Antarctic waters.

How Is the Humpback Whale Migration?

Humpbacks are known to have the longest annual migration of any mammal. This ocean giant follows a seasonal migration pattern, travelling between polar feeding grounds and warmer tropical breeding grounds, which can range from the Antarctic Peninsula to across the Equator to Colombia or even as far as Mexico. In the summer, they are found in the polar regions (Arctic summer: June–September; Antarctic summer: December–March), feeding themselves intensively on plankton, krill, and small fish to build up fat reserves. As winter approaches, they migrate to tropical waters, where they mate and give birth, relying on their stored energy until they return to the feeding grounds. Usually, they will travel alone or in small pods consisting of two or three whales.

What Does a Humpback Whale Eat?

The humpback whale’s diet mainly consists of crustaceans (krill) and small fish. With their huge size, they need to consume a large amount of food. And we mean a lot, It is a lot! This ocean giant can eat up to 3,000 pounds (∼1,360 kg) of food each day. As solitary as they might seem, they are actually a social species when it comes to hunting, teaming up with each other to herd and disorientate fish. They strike shoals of fish with their flippers or flukes to disable them and feed. This technique they use is called “bubble netting,” where one or two whales dive below a shoal or swarm of prey and then slowly swim back up in a spiral towards the surface. As they do so, they gradually blow bubbles that rise in a circle, driving the prey into a panic towards the centre of the bubble net. The whales then charge up through the middle with their mouths open, capturing a more concentrated mouthful of food. They are also known to synchronise their lunges at schools of fish or invertebrates by lining up side by side. While one lunge disorients the fish, as they dash out of the way, they often swim directly into the path of another whale.

How Fast Can a Humpback Whale Swim?

This majestic cetacean typically swims 5-15 km/h (3-9 mph). However, they can reach bursts of up to 25 km/h (15 mph) when necessary, such as avoiding predators or during migration.

How long can a humpback whale hold its breath?

These marine mammals are excellent divers, capable of holding their breath for up to 30 minutes. However, they typically surface every 5-10 minutes. This ability allows them to dive to depths of around 200 meters (656 feet) in search of food.

What Is Their Life Expectancy?

They have an average lifespan of 80-90 years. Predation, environmental changes, and human activity influence their longevity.

Want To See a Humpback Whale?

Here’s a helpful tip for our guests: the ideal months to spot these giants are February and March, when whale sightings are at their peak. If you’re interested in a closer encounter, be sure to hop onto our daily Zodiac tours or even better – sign up for Kayaking, where you might encounter these amazing animals at water level (yes, it’s perfectly safe!). They are curious animals that also like to have a little fun. You might see them breaching (leaping out of the water, and sometimes twisting before smashing back down), spyhopping (poking their heads out of the water to have a look at what’s around), diving (cruising along the surface then diving deep, with the giant fluke then lifting above the surface) or lobtailing (slapping their flukes against the water to create noise). These ‘shows’ are the perfect photography opportunity.

Kayaks are one of the best ways to get a close view of this ocean giant.

How Many of These 10 Humpback Whale Facts Did You Already Know?

1. Like human fingerprints, the unique patterns on humpback whale tails serve as identifiers, allowing researchers to distinguish individual whales.
2. During their long migrations for breeding, they completely renounce eating, relying on the energy reserves built up in feeding areas like the Southern Ocean.
3. They are among the most frequent breachers of all baleen whales.
4. Instead of teeth, they have ‘baleen plates’ and will have anywhere between 270 and 400 darkly colored plates on each side of their mouth.
5. A humpback whale skull weighs over 300kg – more than five average men combined!
6. They are an ocean giant but smaller than other species, such as the blue whale.
7. They use a cooperative feeding technique called bubble-net feeding, where they work together to create bubbles that herd prey into a concentrated area, allowing them to engulf the prey with their massive mouths.
8. Female Humpback Whales breed every two to three years and carry their calves for a gestation period of about a year.
9. The head and lower jaw of Humpback Whales are covered with knobs called tubercles, which are hair follicles.
10. Humpback whales migrate up to 16,000 miles (25,000 km) yearly, one of the longest trips of any mammal on Earth!