Humpback whales are my favourite whale species of all time.. they are the most acrobatic animal in the ocean and loves hurling their massive bodies out of the water in different styles and postures called breaching and fall back into the sea with much grace.. They have massive tail fin, called a fluke, which helps them propel the body through the water and breaching. This behaviour is believed to be involved with courtship, removing pests or parasites from the body or they simply do it for fun!
Enjoy this video and feel the excitement of whale watching!!
Humpback whales are great singers of the deep.. they are well known for their magical songs, which travel for great distances through the world's oceans. These sequences of moans, howls, cries, and other noises are quite complex and often continue for hours. Scientists are studying these sounds to interpret their meaning. It is most likely that humpbacks sing to communicate with others and to attract potential mates.
These whales are found near coastlines, feeding on planktons, tiny krills(shrimp-like crustaceans) , small schooling fish such as herring and mackerel. A humpback consumes between 2,000 and 9,000 pounds of fish and krill a day. Humpbacks sometimes engage in social hunting in which several whales encircle a school (group) of fish and blow bubbles that form a "net" around the fish, then move in with their mouths open to devour their prey.
Humpbacks migrate annually from the tropics to polar regions. They swim enormous distances during migration, sometimes as much as 4,000 miles each way! Mothers and their young swim close together, often touching one another with their flippers with what appear to be gestures of affection. Females nurse their calves for almost a year, though it takes far longer than that for a humpback whale to reach full adulthood. Calves do not stop growing until they are ten years old.
The humpback whale is capable of living up to 95 years
Humpbacks are distinguished by the markings on the underside of their tails (also known as flukes). The patterns can range from all black to all white, with most having a mix.
Fluke pigmentation may be influenced by inheritance from the parents. Superimposed on the basic pattern are scars from injuries acquired during fights with other individuals, attacks by killer whales or sharks, or attachment of parasites such as barnacles.
Evolution ....
Scientists believe the ancestors of whales were land animals that crawled into the sea to escape predators or seek food.
The mammals gradually lost their limbs and became fully adapted to living in the ocean.
According to new evidence, published in the journal Nature, one of the secrets to adapting to a marine environment was a scaled-down inner ear.
This semi-circular canal system gives land mammals, including humans, a sense of balance.
We only become aware of its role when something goes awry - such as feeling drunk, sea sick or riding a rollercoaster.
These are smaller, size-for-size, than land-dwellers. Our inner ears, for example, are bigger than those of the blue whale.
A whale can make acrobatic leaps and turns without experiencing vertigo.
This is thought to be because its smaller inner ear is less sensitive.
Fossils show that the inner ear of early whales evolved rapidly after they entered the sea. The adaptation enabled early whales to swim without becoming dizzy.
Threats to the Humpback whales and Interventions…
1. Humpback whales were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil and meat by industrial-sized whaling ships well through the middle of the 20th century.
But the species has been bouncing back since an international ban on their commercial whaling in 1966.
2. The US government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered species list in response to data showing the population of the massive marine mammal has been steadily growing in recent decades. It is the first review for humpbacks since 1999.
3. The global humpback population is estimated to be about 60,000, according to the Swiss-based Conservation of Nature union.
As the Humpback whales sing their way back into the deep, we head back to the boat and have some sweet dreams of our gentle giants of the deep...
Love The Ocean. Protect The Ocean.
Which marine animal will we meet in our next diving trip? Join me next time to find out!
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For more informations, visit :
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/humpback-whale.html
http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/ocean-giants/humpback-whale.aspxhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1974869.stm
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