Humpback whale
(Norsk: Knølhval)
Megaptera novaeangliae
Population (global) : 140,000
Conservation Status : Least Concern
Humpbacks migrate from breeding grounds in Cape Verde or the Caribbean to feeding grounds in northern Norway and the Barents Sea. The first animals arrive in northern Norway at the end of May and leave latest in February after feeding on herring.
Group formation: Solitary – gregarious (mother-calf pair/male escort, larger feeding groups)
Size: males 11-18.6 meters, females 12-16 meters, calf 4-4.6 meters
Weight: 25-40 tons, calf 0.6-1 ton
Spout: 4-5 meters, up to 10 meters; low, round and bushy, balloon-shaped
Age: 50-95 years
Sexual maturity: 4-11 years
Physical maturity: ca 20 years
Gestation: 11-11.5 months, with 2-3 years in between
Weaning: 10-12 months
Diet: Krill, small schooling fish such as Atlantic herring, Atlantic salmon, capelin, and American sand lance, as well as Atlantic mackerel, pollock, and haddock in the North Atlantic.
Distribution: Worldwide (except very high arctic) with 4 populations, in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Oceans. Occurring primarily in coastal waters, though feeding and migrating whales do pass deep waters; highly migratory – summer: feeding in mid-/ high latitudes, winter: mating and calving in (sub)tropical waters.
Population size: global ca. 140.000, heavily exploited (95% in some populations), some populations slowly increasing
Conservation Status: Status: Least Concern (2018), Pop. trend: increasing
Identification: Body black above with white, black or mottled below; frequently raising white and black fluke (serrated along trailing edge, with variable pattern on underside) during dive; extremely long white flippers (1/3rd of body length), tubercles on head and lower jaw
Entanglement in fishing gear, overfishing, vessel collisions, man-made noise impacts (seismic surveys, military sonar), whaling (Greenland, Japan, Caribbean island Bequia in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines), plastic pollution.
In the recording below you hear a singing male Humpback whale. During breeding season males perform such song to attract females. Their songs are very complex and often change over time!
