The Whale Highway

It is a quiet afternoon off Sydney Heads but a boatload of paparazzi wait anxiously, cameras poised, for their quarry.

The target of their lenses is not a Hollywood heart-throb, nor a minor royal, but a gentle giant rescued from the brink of extinction.

An estimated 30,000 humpback whales are expected to migrate from Antarctica to Queensland this year.

The boat’s skipper, Simon Millar, steers the Explorer, a 17-metre catamaran, alongside the whale highway that runs along Australia’s east coast.

The annual migration of humpback whales from the chilled waters of the Antarctic to the balmy climate of North Queensland has barely began, but it does not take long for the tranquil waters to be disturbed by an exhalation that sprays water upwards followed by a dorsal fin and tail.

The brief glimpse of the humpback whale, within sight of the cliffs of Vaucluse, is greeted with excited gasps and the click of cameras fitted with long-range lenses.

The young whale, perhaps only 12 months old, surfaces again but appears "boat shy", prompting Mr Millar to steer the catamaran north past Manly until he spots three juvenile humpbacks "jostling with each other" as they head north for winter.

They show off dorsal and pectoral fins and slap the water with their tails, which Mr Millar, the owner of Go Whale Watching, likened to a human fingerprint.

"We also saw them interacting with the boats, but more they were interacting with themselves," he said.

Fellow travellers on the highway include southern right and dwarf minke whales, said Vanessa Pirotta, a researcher from Macquarie University’s Marine Predator Research Group.

"In the past we have also had blue whales off Sydney; this is very rare but we also sometimes see false killer whales and large pods of dolphins - common and bottlenose species," she said.

Ms Pirotta will present her research at the international FameLab competition at the Cheltenham Science Festival in Britain this month.

Whale watching is a two-way street with younger, juvenile whales expressing curiosity about their human observers, who are supposed to give the whales a wide berth.

One whale jumps out of the water in spectacular fashion, propelling its body upwards before coming down with a splash.

"We don’t exactly know why whales do this but when they jump it makes a lot of noise underwater and above," Ms Pirotta said. "It most likely serves as a form of communication."

The trio of cetacean show-offs are enough to satisfy the boatload of whale watchers, although larger numbers are often sighted further south around Merimbula on the return leg of the whale’s migration between late-August and mid-November.

Ms Pirotta said the whales head north for winter primarily to breed in one of the longest migrations in the world.

More than 30,000 humpback whales are expected to make the journey to Queensland to calve and breed before heading back to Antarctica over the next six months.

Their numbers have made a miraculous recovery from near-extinction caused by whaling from ports such as Sydney.

However, Ms Pirotta said whales still faced a range of threats besides hunting.

"Whales may face a number of anthropogenic threats such as ship strike, entanglement with fishing gear, marine pollution, increased ocean noise and climate change," she said.

Credits: Sydney Morning Herald, June 3, 2018

Calving Grounds of Humpbacks in Australia

A study that looked at where humpback whales give birth along the coast of Western Australia has shown that the calving grounds extend more than 1000 kilometres further south than currently recognised.

The research by IMAS PhD student Lyn Irvine, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, included aerial surveys that recorded large numbers of young humpback calves along North West Cape, 1000km from the identified calving range between Broome and Camden Sound.

Ms Irvine said that this is a real paradigm shift in our understanding of humpback whales.

“Until now, our understanding was that humpback whales calved in localised areas of the Kimberley, such as Camden Sound,” Ms Irvine said.

“This research indicates that in fact humpback whales are born along a lengthy area of their migratory corridor extending from Camden Sound in the Kimberley to at least the Ningaloo coast in the Pilbara.”

Ms Irvine said the humpback population that migrates along the WA coast is the world’s largest.

“Up to 30 000 humpbacks are part of the population which migrates along the WA Coast each year as they move from their Antarctic feeding grounds to breeding and calving sites in tropical coastal waters.

“Pregnant females favour shallow, calm and protected waters to give birth, where it’s believed they shelter from predators and harassment by male humpbacks.

“In Western Australia, the principal humpback calving ground is currently recognised as being around Camden Sound and extending south to Broome

“However, our aerial surveys along North West Cape suggest that more than 20 per cent of the estimated 3000 calves born each year along the WA coast did so in this region.

“The light colour, small size and northward movement of the majority of calves recorded off the Cape indicate that they were born near, or south of, the area during the whales’ migration.

“This result is consistent with observations made during the commercial whaling period, where a considerable number of young calves were recorded along the southern end of the Cape.”

Ms Irvine said data about where the whales are born is important because it can help to inform strategies to manage and conserve the species.

“The recognised calving grounds further north were identified in 1997 when the population which uses WA waters was still recovering from commercial whaling.

“Over the last 20 years this population has increased at a rate of more than 10 per cent per annum, and is now estimated to number between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals.

“However, there has been no recent comprehensive survey along the WA coast to identify or describe the calving areas.

“As a result, it is unclear whether the observations off North West Cape means the calving grounds are expanding to their pre-whaling locations, or whether increasing abundance simply means the whales are now easier to observe in areas where they’ve always calved.

“Identifying critical habitat such as calving grounds will become increasingly important in coming years as the humpback whale population continues to grow and potentially overlap with human activities,” Ms Irvine said.

Credits : University of Tasmania 

Humpback Heaven

“Get ready to hold on,” skipper Ayden Curic yelled from the bridge as he gunned the engines and the boat surged into the aquatic maelstrom.

At the point where Western Australia’s second largest river, the Murchison, collides with the crashing breakers of the Indian ocean sits the quiet little town of Kalbarri. It is gateway to the eponymous and spectacular Kalbarri National Park, some 1,830 square kilometres of otherworldly wilderness featuring stunning coastal lookouts, breathtaking river gorges, and, when we visited in late August, more than its fair share of humpback whales.

I’d been watching whales all week from splendidly named and even more splendidly appointed headlands and lookouts south of the town. Spots like Natural Bridge, Island Rock and Red Bluff offered the best land-based whale watching vantage points I’ve ever seen, complete with car-parks, public toilets, boardwalks and custom viewing areas. There were even benches to sit on, and the weather was warm and sunny pretty much all day, every day.

It was a far cry from shore-based whale-watching in Ireland, which while equally as exciting, tends to be more unpredictable and a lot less comfortable. This was almost too easy.

My wife spied the first humpback blow through the windscreen before we’d parked the car on our first visit to Red Bluff. Over the course of the next six days we watched literally dozens of humpbacks from these shore-based vantage points. Sometimes far out, sometimes staggeringly close to the cliffs, and always thrilling. The whales were very active, and we witnessed a wide range of behaviour from spectacular breaching to fin-slapping, lob-tailing, fluking and more.

Watching all of this from shore was incredible. Having good optics helped of course, and the Vaguard Endeavor EDII binoculars I’ve been testing on this trip performed well – coping admirably with the harsh glare of a low Australian sun reflecting off the water. The views were superb, but I missed my spotting scope. With a good scope the spectacle from the cliffs south of Kalbarri would be outstanding!

But no matter how good the display from the cliffs, or how good the optics, there really is no substitute for getting out on the water in amongst the whales. I was itching to get on a boat.

That’s how we found ourselves aboard the 15 metre Reefwalker Charter vessel the “Ilse G” that Friday. It was our last day in Kalbarri before the long drive back to Perth, and with so many whales in the vicinity I was sure we’d be treated to some close encounters.

After we boarded the boat Ayden gave an informative initial briefing covering safety and what to look out for once we got out on the water. Everyone aboard was offered an interpretive A4 sheet with details on the whales, their ecology, and tips on how to spot both humpbacks and the less common southern right whales that pass the Kalbarri coastline between June and mid-November.

Before finding the whales though, we’d have to make our way out of the Murchison river into the open ocean.

The narrow channel that serves as Kalbarri’s harbour entrance is, without doubt, the scariest looking harbour mouth I’ve ever seen. The merging waters create a roiling, unpredictable chop, and huge waves frequently crash over the seaward stone breakwater. It looked a complete nightmare.

Aydan seemed unperturbed though. He’d obviously done this countless times before, and guided the boat through with practised ease. We held on tight, and after a short, bumpy and exciting ride through the white-water we were out in open water searching for cetaceans.

We didn’t have long to wait. A small group of bottlenose dolphins cruising by for a closer look at the boat almost as soon as we got out of the river mouth. After watching them briefly we headed a bit further off shore in search of larger quarry, and within minutes we spotted the tell-tale blow of a humpback.

As Aydan steered a course towards it we saw more of those characteristic short, bushy blows – there were at least three animals ahead of us. We approached slowly, and kept a respectful distance from the whales.

They were moving quite quickly, travelling back and forth across the bay. It looked like the two animals to the rear were chasing the larger whale ahead of them. Ayden surmised that it was likely to be two male humpbacks following a female, and the explanation certainly seemed to fit the scene unfolding before us.

Over the next half-hour or so we watched as the suitors pursued the seemingly disinterested female. At times their antics brought them amazingly close to the boat, affording everyone aboard breathtaking views.

In Australia there are strict regulations on approaching whales from the water and from the air. These were clearly outlined on the information sheets we’d been handed, and I have to say that Aydan adhered to them at all times, but of course when the whales choose to come closer of their own volition that’s a different matter.

It’s always a real treat to see humpbacks in the wild, and doubly so to witness mature humpbacks exhibiting behaviour we never see off the Irish coast. In Ireland the whales come inshore to feed on sprat and herring. Feeding behaviour like lunge-feeding and bubble-netting is explosive and spectacular. Here in Australia whales are migrating to and from their feeding grounds in Antarctica and their equatorial breeding grounds, and they don’t feed while making that journey.

After a while we left the humpbacks to their antics and went exploring up the coast. We didn’t connect with any more whales that trip, but did encounter more dolphins, a white-bellied sea eagle and plenty of seabirds. On the way back Ayden pulled in alongside a famous surfing break offering great views of local surfers catching the Indian Ocean breakers. It wasn’t perhaps what you’d expect on a whale watching cruise, but it was fantastic to see all the same.

The journey back through the harbour mouth gave us another adrenelin rush before we disembarked. While the best whale watching trips I’ve ever done have still been off the coast of West Cork, Kalbarri is certainly amongst them… and is much more predictable. And when it comes to whale watching in Kalbarri, I’d heartily recommend a trip with Aydan and the team at Reefwalker Charters.

Whale watching season in Kalbarri runs from June to mid-November.

Credits : Ireland's Wildlife 

Humpbacks Soar In The Name of Love

Whale watchers witnessed the language of love in action in Augusta at the weekend, in a display capturing a spectacular migration season.

About 20 guests aboard a Whale Watch Western Australia tour boat watched in awe as six humpback whales breached one after the other during a mesmerising minute.

The rare spectacle began when a female humpback breached repeatedly to get the attention of her male counterparts.

This prompted five male humpbacks to soar out of the water at different times and one to perform barrel rolls in an effort to be chosen as a mate.

“It was such an incredible experience,” Whale Watch Western Australia tour guide Gemma Sharp said.

“We call it the language of the whales because we were watching them communicate with each other, which is quite unbelievable to watch it all unfold.”

Ms Sharp, whose family has been hosting whale-watching tours for more than 30 years, said this year’s northern migration was one of the best yet.

“We have noticed a very big consistency in the number of whales this year,” she said.

Western Australia's Humpback migration is well underway with footage of Whales breaching six times within 60 seconds in Flinders Bay, Augusta.

Western Australia's Humpback migration is well underway with footage of Whales breaching six times within 60 seconds in Flinders Bay, Augusta.

“They have started to migrate much earlier and this has been quite a hectic season with a lot of whales moving through the bay.”

Sunday’s spectacle occurred at Flinders Bay, visible from the Augusta coastline.

Ms Sharp said as the whales moved further north to the Kimberley, they would be further away from the shore.

Augusta is the best location to spot these majestic creatures until August and they can be spotted near Fremantle from September.

WA is home to the world’s largest humpback whale population at more than 35,000.

Protection efforts have restored numbers from just 200 in the early 1960s when whaling ravaged the species.

Humpback whales travel 13,000km from Antarctica to the Kimberley and back between May and December.

Credits : The West Australian, June 2018 

Humpback Whales of False Bay

I couldn’t believe my ears as I heard my crew mate Owen whisper to the skipper in his quiet South African accent ‘See there. Humpback whales. Two of them’.  I had always dreamed of seeing a humpback whale. That there might be one whale let alone two made my heart skip a beat as I scanned the horizon and located the mist from their blows in the distance. Was this really happening to me?

The afternoon had already been perfect with the sun shining over False Bay, seals dashing across the ocean and a feeding Southern Right whale. It was going to be the icing on the proverbial cake if we could locate the humpback whales at close range.

In our haste we motored over with all eyes on the horizon; searching, hoping for a glimpse of the whales. Owen and I scampered up the ladder to top deck and saw the tails of two whales rising and dipping into the blue ocean. We had found them and slowly approached them for a closer look.

I gripped the railing of the top deck tightly in my excitement and, face into the wind, kept my eye trained on the area where the whales had last been seen. I turned to Owen and he smiled. He turned to me, placed his hand upon my arm and told me earnestly ‘See here Kat. They are going to breach just now. Watch.’

The two whales did just that. At the precise moment Owen finished his sentence, the two magnificent whales breached in perfect synchronicity high into the air and towards our boat. Their white bellies curved in the sunlight, their backs arched and droplets of water fell down and away from their curves as they moved and twisted through their breach. Their pectoral fins turned whilst they were air-borne and then slowly they hit the water with a loud, deep splash. They sank back into the blue.

I was absolutely speechless at what had just occurred. The scene repeated in slow motion in my mind again and again as a grin spread across my face. Owen and I just couldn’t stop laughing at the perfect timing of that breach. How did he know it would happen?! That I will never understand but then he has spent a lifetime on the ocean and knows her better than I do.

We continued to observe the whales closely as they breached together another two times and breached individually right out of the water. It was spectacular and all I could manage to do was squeal in excitement and smile every time. After the whales had finished we slowly followed them across the bay. They lazily swam onwards. With each blow a rainbow formed in the air and carried itself towards us.

I calmed down just enough to look at their markings; they were covered in scratches, black and white blotches and more. One of the whales had a completely black tail and the other had a tail with a white underside. This white tail whale kept leaning onto its side and exposing its belly to the other whale, a pectoral fin waving in the air.  I wondered if this was a female being courted by a black tail male. The two whales slowed to a halt and slowly turned belly up and pointed their gigantic tails at one another. Our skipper switched the motors off.

There was utter silence on our boat and around us as we drifted alone but for the presence of these two ocean giants. The whales slapped their tails heavily onto the water and performed an amorous tail slapping display at one another for a number of minutes. The noise from each slap was like gunfire. It was incredibly loud, echoing across the bay and magnified the complete silence around us. As their display came to an end the white tail whale righted itself and let out a huge, deep sigh. They paired up again and slowly resumed their journey across the bay side by side.

As we drifted apart from the whales I realised just how elegant and graceful these gentle giants were. The afternoon has passed by in a flash and these whales had absolutely captivated us. It is fair to say I didn’t stop smiling all the way home. In fact I am still smiling now as I recall every precious moment that day.  

Madagascar Humpbacks

How humpback whales use marine habitats off the eastern coast of Africa is only partially understood, and that has become a conservation concern as offshore energy exploration expands in the region. However, a new study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series found that humpback whales that were satellite tagged off the coast of Madagascar during peak breeding season are traveling much further in the southwest Indian Ocean than previously thought. This research can help define potentially sensitive areas that should be protected from the disruption of seismic testing or other industrial development that could be destructive to the humpback population and this globally important marine habitat.

For this field research, twenty-three humpback whales were satellite tagged off Madagascar during the height of breeding season, a scientific first.

The study was led by the New England Aquarium's Dr. Salvatore Cerchio, while working with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, in a broad international collaboration with the University of Paris Sud, the Madagascar-based NGO Cetamada, and NOAA's National Marine Mammal Lab in Seattle. The research team sought to examine movements of humpback whales in the southwestern Indian Ocean where they breed and calf during the southern hemisphere's winter months, after migrating from their sub-Antarctic summer feeding waters.

"It's our hope that this work will help us understand more accurately the breeding and migratory behavior of humpback whales in the southwest Indian Ocean," said Dr. Cerchio who is also affiliated with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "As more development and industry encroaches on their habitat, it will be important for us to know how these potentially sensitive areas should be protected for this vital species."

Among the more significant discoveries was that males and females had different movement patterns. Males were more localized as they seemed to establish preferred areas from which to broadcast their famous songs, while females - quite unexpectedly - showed more long distance travel patterns presumably in search of more mates.

Two areas along Madagascar's 900 mile length were also found to be important and possibly distinct breeding habitats. Whales tagged in northeastern waters spent more time on the central east coast, while whales tagged in the southwest frequented the southern coast of the world's fourth largest island. Several whales from the northeast study group swam westward across the Mozambique Channel to near the African mainland where there is also another significant sub-population of wintering humpbacks. This is a movement corridor that was previously unknown.

An historic humpback first was also documented as a male cruising up the east African coast swam all the way to southern Somalia. En route, he crossed the equator making him the first known humpback to do so in the Indian Ocean. Humpback populations are found around the world in both the southern and northern hemispheres feeding during their respective summers in high latitude, cold waters then migrating to tropical waters for the winter to breed and give birth. Humpbacks have been documented crossing the equator in only two other parts of the world. "This was very exciting" added Cerchio, "because there is a highly endangered population of humpback whales in the northern Indian Ocean that is believed to be completely isolated from the Southern Hemisphere populations. That this male from Madagascar crossed into the northern Indian Ocean was very unexpected."

Another impressive long distance traveler was a mother and calf tagged off of Madagascar that swam all the way to Kenyan waters. The movement of individual whales from Madagascar to East Africa suggests there is more to learn about the mixing of regional humpback populations across the southwest Indian Ocean. This has direct relevance to efforts by the International Whaling Commission to more accurately assess the recovery of humpback whales in the region after their depletion by commercial whaling in the 20th Century.

Dr. Laurene Trudelle of the University of Paris Sud noted, "Breeding areas of humpback whales are typically located in coastal habitats and are generally subject to strong human pressures that affect the quality of these breeding habitats." Recently, the southwest Indian Ocean has experienced expanded industrial development with more oil and gas exploration and production, mineral mining, and coastal development. Major processing of mined materials around the central and southern Madagascar coast is occurring, and seismic surveys are increasing throughout the region, which is commonly known to disturb humpback whales and their singing breeding behavior.

Trudelle added, "Providing knowledge on the movements and the distribution patterns of humpback whales off Madagascar and more broadly in the southwestern Indian Ocean can be used to assist future management decisions." Dr. Trudelle published a companion paper on the influence of environmental parameters on the tagged whales in Royal Society Open Science, as part of her doctoral dissertation at University of Paris Sud using data from the collaborative study.

Tagging of Humpbacks In The South Pacific

Whales from both poles migrate long distances to breed in tropical waters. Smithsonian scientist Hector M. Guzman and Fernando Félix at the Salinas Whale Museum in Ecuador, tagged 47 humpbacks with satellite transmitters to understand how the humpbacks' Southeastern Pacific population moves within breeding areas.

"Our work fills an informational void: we've known these whales move between feeding areas and breeding areas, but we hadn't characterized their movements, and we couldn't exactly pinpoint the range of the breeding area," said Guzman, marine ecologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. "Now we know that individuals move between countries within the breeding season and that their entire breeding area extends approximately 2,600 kilometers of non-straight coastline from Costa Rica to Peru."

For years, scientists have identified individual humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) based on their unique fluke and dorsal fin patterns. In this study funded by STRI, Panama's National Office of Science and Technology, the Candeo Fund at the International Community Foundation and the Whale Museum, 25 whales were satellite tagged in Panama and 22 in Ecuador between 2009 and 2015 according to methods approved by the Smithsonian's Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). On average, tags transmitted for about two weeks, although one tag lasted for 69 days during which a mother whale swam nearly 6,000 kilometers. Information from the 37 tags that transmitted for at least 1 day revealed the movements of 23 mothers accompanied by newborn calves and 14 unsexed animals.

"Thanks to new spatial models that were used to evaluate the movement of the whales, we could differentiate behaviors and gauge the speed of the whales during their reproductive and migratory periods," Félix said.

Part of the Southeast Pacific humpback whale population breeds in Panama's Las Perlas Archipelago and in the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador. The roughly 60,000 square kilometers of home range of the group in Panama was about twice the size of the home range of the group breeding in Ecuador--about 26,000 square kilometers, which means whales are not randomly distributed but show site fidelity. Whales tended to spend time in short-range movement, alternating with long-range, faster, directed movement. Mothers spent more time closer to shore than other tagged, unsexed individuals. Both types of whales swam into deeper waters mainly during migration. Mothers in Panamanian waters spent much more time in long-range movements than did mothers in Ecuadorian waters, perhaps because they were shifting from a nursing phase to a migratory phase.

Guzman and Félix suggest that the overlap between breeding individuals exhibiting short-range movements and non-breeding individuals exhibiting long-range movements at the same sites creates confusion about how many animals are breeding at a given time. This is especially true in Ecuador because individuals breeding in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica pass through on North-South migrations.

Humpback whales were once hunted nearly to extinction. Since the 1966 hunting moratorium, populations rebounded to more than 80,000 humpback whales in the world. But as human populations grow, the number of oil and gas terminals, offshore platforms, new ports and marinas is on the rise and coastal pollution, and traditional activities such as fishing and maritime traffic are intensifying.

"Our breeding range analyses provided the first-ever insight at such a fine scale on the distribution of humpbacks and the coastal space they use for breeding and migration, particularly for mother/calf pairs," Felix said.

"We hope our density-distribution maps are carefully considered by the oil industry and governments planning seismic exploration in coastal areas along the North-South breeding axis of this species from Costa Rica to Peru," said Guzman. "Strong scientific evidence suggests that cetaceans behavior can be affected by this activity several kilometers from the exploration area."

"By satellite tagging these animals we can better predict the impact of human activities on populations that are recovering by about 6 to 10 percent each year," Guzman said. "There are more whales to take care of now, and there's still a striking absence of policy governing the location of human activities, especially with increasing coastal maritime traffic overlapping migratory routes and oil exploration."

In a second study off the coast of Chile, Guzman and Juan Capella from Whalesound followed a group of seven out of 25 whales tagged in the Magellan Strait to see if tagging affected their behavior or health during a period of several years. Tagging did not seem to affect whale behavior or their health or reproduction. Indeed, a female returned to the feeding area twice with new calves three and six years after tagging. Several individuals had small scars or lumps near the tag site, but they completely healed within two years. This study provides evidence to assist IACUC decisions by taking animal welfare into consideration.

"We found the use of satellite-transmitter implants for remote tracking is harmless to the whale's health and breeding success, and doesn't damage the whales' bodies or alter their behavior but provides an enormous amount of data to inform managers," Capella said.

"Using biotelemetry multiplied the information that we have about this group fivefold. We hope this will help decision makers understand the needs of this highly migratory species and leads to excellent, state-of-the-art management strategies for their survival," Guzman said.

Humpbacks of Puerto Vallarta

Humpback Whales are the species most frequently seen during the Puerto Vallarta Whale watching season. These Humpbacks are members of the North Eastern Pacific Population. This population has been estimated to now be over 18,000 whales and their annual growth rate estimated between 6-7%.

The population is still considered vulnerable to extinction and is threatened by entanglement, ship strike, marine environment degradation, sound pollution, pollution and more.

Puerto Vallarta’s Bay of Banderas has seen both growth and depression of the population of Humpback Whales migrating to the bay since this population was first studied. Most recently the number of Whales in the Bay has been growing. From 2005 to 2009 the average number of Humpback whales sighted was 550 per year. Between 2010 and 2014 that number has grown to an average of 680 Humpback Whales sighted in the bay each season!

Puerto Vallarta Humpback Whale Migration:

Humpback Whales are found in all oceans of the world and are a highly migratory species, the longest migration route measuring almost 7000 kilometers! The Humpbacks we see migrate in spring to their summer feeding grounds which are spread between California and British Columbia. In the winter these same Humpbacks return to Puerto Vallarta for mating and calving.

The migration route of this population typically follows coastal features. It can take as few as 40 days for a Humpback to migrate, typically transiting at about 6 to 8 kilometers per hour. In the summer feeding grounds Humpback Whales will focus their days on feeding. They feed mostly on krill and small fish, consuming up to 1400kg in a day!

During the summer the Humpback must eat so much food to create blubber which it will use to migrate and sustain itself during the winter in Puerto Vallarta. The Whales do not feed here in the bay. That is hard on the males, but imagine the demands on a female with a 600kg baby who will grow up to 3cm a day! Don’t forget the mother and baby Humpback will have to migrate north from Puerto Vallarta before Mom can start feeding again.

Humpback Whale Mating and Calving:

The Humpback Whale population in the Bay of Banderas reaches its peak in late December through January. During these weeks we often see the most mating activity. The Humpback Whale engages in what is called a Heat Run. When a female becomes receptive males start to follow her, soon forming a group of aggressive males who physically compete for the preferred position of Escort/pack leader. Once the female has successfully mated she will usually leave the area, migrating north to begin feeding in anticipation of the pregnancy.

Puerto Vallarta sits on the Bay of Banderas. The bay has a unique topographical profile, the shallow protected areas of the bay are used by pregnant females for calving and for nursing. Most births occur in early January, the later weeks of the season are dominated by mother and baby pairs.

Baby Humpback whales typically weigh 500-600kg and are 3-4 meters in length. The baby Humpbacks in Puerto Vallarta are born a very light gray color and quickly darken up from exposure to the sun. The pectorals can be all white but will darken on top over the first year. The baby Humpback will feed exclusively from the mothers milk, growing up to 45kg a day!

Humpback Whale Classification:

The humpback whale is renowned for being one of the most energetic of the large whales with its spectacular breaching, lobtailing and flipper-slapping. Its scientific name Megaptera novaeangliae means ‘big winged New Englander’ because of its long flippers that look like wings when it breaches and because it was first described in New England. The species’ worldwide popularity on whale watch tours has helped to ensure that they are the focus of many conservation efforts. These measures have an umbrella effect and protect not only humpbacks but also many other species found in their protected areas, including species that experience the same risks.

Appearance:

The humpback whale can be distinguished by its large size, knobbly head and 5m long flippers. Individuals found in the Atlantic Ocean have mainly white flippers, but those found in the Pacific Ocean have a darker colouration on the upper surface of their flippers. Humpbacks in the southern hemisphere are generally more lightly coloured on the flanks.

The bumps found on the head are called tubercles, and each one contains a single hair follicle, which may be used in a sensory capacity, much like a cat’s whiskers. The flukes are distinctive compared with any other whale species; the black and white markings and scalloped edges are as unique as a human fingerprint, allowing experts to name thousands of individuals around the world. The wavy edged flukes are raised during dives, enabling researchers to keep track of individual whales from year to year.

Behaviour:

Male humpbacks sing the longest, most complex songs in the animal kingdom. Songs consist of a complex series of whistles, squeals and deep sonorous calls divided into ‘verses’ and sung in a specific order, which may last for as long as half an hour. Males in the same area of the breeding grounds sing the same songs, which change gradually over time. Humpback whales have unusual feeding behaviour – they sometimes herd their prey or create a kind of fishing net by exhaling air in a spiral of bubbles. Fish cluster tightly inside these ‘bubble nets’ allowing the whale to swim through with its mouth open and eat them.

Humpbacks are capable of travelling at 25 km/hr or more, however during migration they move more slowly, resting and socialising along the way. Humpback whales make long journeys. Each population of humpbacks has its own migration route; generally they spend the winter in warm, low latitudes or tropical waters breeding and giving birth, and the spring, summer and autumn feeding in cooler, high latitude polar waters. The humpbacks which feed in Antarctic waters and travel north to breed off Colombia and Panama make the longest confirmed migration of any mammal.

Migration Route Of The Southern Humpback Whale

From thousands of square kilometres to a speck of land, from the tropics to the poles, islands offer tremendous diversity. Before we discovered them, islands stood witness to a nascent planet, growing and moving with it, shaping it as we know it today. They became outposts to endemic and migratory life. Some islands, though apart by thousands of kilometres, are woven together with the migration route of the Southern Humpback whale. A brief glimpse of the whale’s fascinating journey reveals how it passes through some of the most remote and pristine islands in the world – starting from the Tongan archipelago in South Pacific, and gliding on till it reaches the Ross Sea in Antarctica, and then returning along the same route.

Ha’apai Group:

South Pacific, part of the Tongan archipelago. Sparsely populated

JUST AS the sun crosses the equator into the southern hemisphere, by mid-September, the Humpback whale bids adieu to the warm South Pacific. Having spent the summer frolicking and mating, it is time to follow the sun to the Southern Ocean, thus kicking off one of the longest animal migrations in the world. Six thousand kilometres to the south, the long rays of the sun are warming the waters around Antarctica, melting the ice and exposing the krill-abundant waters around the continent. For the whale, which weighs up to 40,000 kg, even the quintessential tropical getaway of coconut fronds, emerald-blue waters and the golden sand cannot convince it to stay.

White Island:

Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Privately owned. Open to tourism

The humpback whale leaves behind the tropics within the first week, covering about 200 km per day on average. Having followed the Tonga trench initially, the whale continues southwest following the Kermadec trench, which rises sharply at the eastern edge of New Zealand. Along this arc (just west of the whale’s migratory route) is White Island, in essence the crater of an active volcano, which has been built by continuous volcanic activity over the past 1,50,000 years. Silhouetted in the distance, as seen from the whale’s perspective, the island and its omnipresent volcanic gas lives up to the full Maori name for the island Te Puia o Whakaari, meaning “The Dramatic Volcano”.

Auckland Islands:

Sub-Antarctic, New Zealand. No permanent human habitation.

Spiralling low pressures from the west to the east have battered these islands in the middle of the Southern Ocean for millennia, shaping them topographically. Impressive 500 m-high cliffs rise to the west and gently make their way down to mean sea level on the east. Roughly three weeks after leaving Tonga, the whale once again passes a gathering of life here — floating kelp forests, sea lions and seals. On the ridges of the islands, the flora changes with height and act as breeding colonies for albatrosses, penguins, petrels, shearwaters, shags, teals and a range of land birds.

Scott Island:

Antarctica. Uninhabited

Just a few hundred metres from the date line, Scott Island stands as a sentry to the Ross Sea. Each winter, this island witnesses Antarctica advance to three times its size, and in summer the island sees the whale arrive, before, eventually, heading further towards the South Pole. In early summer, the ice is still fast around the island and for the arriving whales, these waters are the first pit-stop in four weeks. By this time, the whale has lost up to 3,000 kg of body mass and must make up by feeding abundantly in these waters. Krill, a nail-sized crustacean, but with the total biomass about twice that of humanity, is its prey and the whale feasts on them.

Possession Islands:

Ross Sea, Antarctica. Uninhabited

On the 21st of December, the sun is at the Tropic of Capricorn, and there is 24 hours of sunlight at the South Pole. The western edge of the Ross Sea begins to slowly thaw and become ice-free, attracting orcas, albatrosses and whales. Soon, the Possession Islands become completely ice-free — this small cluster of black rocks stands in stark contrast to the whiteness of Antarctica. And in the water, the humpback whale now feeds on krill, in an ecosystem that is in equally sharp contrast to the humidity of the tropics. By May, it becomes too cold to remain at these latitudes and the whale, once again, follows the sun as it heads north, passing the islands in reverse order this time around.

Credits : Indian Express, May 21, 2018

Humpback Whale Baby Boom

In a rare piece of good news for whales, humpbacks who live and breed in the southern oceans near Antarctica appear to be making a comeback, with females in recent years having a high pregnancy rate and giving birth to more calves.

Humpback whales were nearly hunted out of existence in the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries until treaties were signed to stop killing them and protections were put in place for the world’s coldest, least accessible continent.

The end of hunting has fostered the recovery of the school-bus-sized animals whose life spans are roughly comparable to ours, according to Ari Friedlaender, an associate researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz, who led the new study.

The population was believed to have been reduced to less than 10 percent of it pre-whaling levels.

To determine gender, identity and pregnancy rates, the scientists, led by Logan Pallin, a doctoral student working with Dr. Friedlaender, used darts to take small skin and blubber samples from 239 males and 268 females from 2010 to 2016 around the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

As the researchers took their surveys, the whales were often just as curious about the team as it was about them. They would swim alongside the team’s vessel, some with their babies.

Slightly more than 60 percent of the females had high progesterone levels in their blubber, indicating that they were pregnant, according to the new study, published today in the journal Royal Society Open Science. There were more pregnant whales in recent years than earlier, according to the research. Genetic analysis indicated gender and enabled the scientists to avoid counting the same whale twice.

Although some other whale species also appear to be rebounding in the southern oceans, humpbacks seem to be faring the best, Dr. Friedlaender said. It may have been easier for the humpbacks to recover than the bigger fin and blue whales because the humpbacks mature faster,have a short period between pregnancies, and have centralized breeding grounds. Fin and blue whales mate in the open ocean, making it harder for them to find a match, he said.

A moratorium on commercial whaling took effect in the early 1980s, though some whaling regulations had been imposed as early as the 1940s. Twelve countries signed a treaty in 1959 to protect the Antarctic Peninsula. Humpback whales south of the Equator are no longer considered endangered, though. A few northern populations remain on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s list of endangered animals.

It is likely that a large portion of the animals alive today were born after the age of whale hunting ended, Dr. Friedlaender said.

So far, climate change around the Antarctic Peninsula has been beneficial for humpbacks, he said, providing about 80 more ice-free days per year when these whales that prefer open water can feed on abundant stocks of tiny shrimp like crustaceans called krill.

Whale researchers are concerned that this moment of health and easy access to food will be short-lived. Krill stock around Antarctica is being fished by some countries, and threatened by climate change.

Additionally, reduction in sea ice endangers krill, which feed on the underside of sea ice, said Sean Todd, the chair in marine sciences at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Me., who was not involved in the new research.

Dr. Todd said his repeated trips to Antarctica have proven to him that krill are essential to life in the southern oceans. “You either eat krill, or you eat something that eats krill,” he said. “If krill stocks collapse, then there’ll be profound changes to that region.”

Dr. Todd said the new study confirmed the growing abundance of humpbacks that he had noticed on annual trips to Antarctica. When he first started going in the early 2000s, he would see a few humpbacks every trip in February and March. Now, he sees them as early as December, he said, “to the point that you can lose count of how many are around you.”

Credits : New York Times
               May 1, 2018 

South Asian Humpback Whales

On November 12 last year, when Luban, a female humpback whale, began migrating eastwards in the Indian Ocean leaving her pod far behind in the Gulf of Oman, it took scientists by surprise. She had not been known to do that. By December 31, it was clear that Luban had decided to welcome the new year off the coast of Kochi in Kerala, having travelled over 1500 kilometres across the Arabian Sea.

Proving past genetic studies wrong, Luban achieved a rare feat by making the first recorded trans-oceanic crossing by an Arabian humpback whale.

Though humpback whales, over the world, are known to migrate between polar and tropical regions, the ones found in the Arabian Sea, numbering around 100, don’t stray far, making them the most isolated whale population on earth, according to scientists. According to a 2014 research study, Arabian humpback whales may even have stayed separate from other humpback species for nearly 70,000 years. But Luban’s landmark journey has changed all that.

Luban’s journey across the Arabian Sea was tracked by satellites. (Source: Environment Society of Oman)

“The fact that one female has now moved outside Omani waters during the known breeding season makes this theory concerning connectivity across the region more likely, and a first step towards considering humpbacks in the region as a single population unit,” said Andrew Willson from Five Oceans Environmental Services in a statement.

The name Luban, an Arabic term for frankincense tree, was given to the female whale as she is learnt to have a tree-shaped pattern at the base of her tail fluke. She was the only female to be tagged with a transmitter among 14 whales by the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) under a project through which they aim to learn more about the habitats of the mammals as well as their population estimates.

Luban’s journey across the Arabian Sea was tracked by satellites. Prior to Christmas, she had come close to the Goan coast and then moving swiftly at a speed of 5 kms/hr towards the coast of Kerala. According to local scientists, she is believed to have spent a couple of days near the Kochi coast before moving once again towards Alappuzha and the southern coast. Her last location was pinpointed to be near the coast of Kanyakumari.

“Frankly, we don’t know why she is here. She may be possibly looking for a mate. Some fishermen told us that they saw a whale but of course they couldn’t identify the species. We also don’t know whether she is alone,” said Professor A Biju Kumar, the head of the department of aquatic biology and fisheries at Kerala University.

Kumar and Dr Dipani Sutaria, a marine biologist, are the Indian researchers coordinating with ESO in tracking the movements of the whale. Along with Kumar, Dr Sutaria, was aboard a Coast Guard ship on New Year’s Day off the coast of Kochi trying to locate Luban. But they couldn’t.

“We followed Luban based on her last location. But by the time the signal came to us via the transmitter, a few hours had passed. She had gone by then. We wanted to see what mystery she was up to,” said Dr Sutaria, by phone.

The sighting of a humpback whale, nevertheless, in Indian waters is considered special. Each individual can be identified as they have distinct tail flukes with white markings. According to Kumar, Blue Whales and Bryde’s Whales are more commonly spotted in the Indian waters. Malayali fishermen are known to stand up in their boats and pray when they see a whale, which they refer to as ‘kadal aana’ (sea elephant in local parlance).

With Luban’s journey, scientists are optimistic about finding more about the Arabian humpback species, which are listed as ‘endangered’ on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Massive whaling in the 60s had reduced their numbers to a great extent.

As to what direction Luban might take from Kanyakumari, Dr Sutaria was not sure. “We don’t know where she would go. There are few humpbacks near Sri Lanka. Whether she would go further south in that direction, we can’t be sure.”

“You know, the batteries on the transmitter attached to her dorsal fin work for only 45 days. So they may run out any day. We are hoping to get a couple of days more to know where she is headed,” she added.

Credits : The Indian Express
               January 2018 

Introduction

This Blog is all about Humpback Whales and their Importance to the Marine Ecosystem in Oceans all across this Universe.

In Particular, This Blog will focus on Humpback Whales and their Families in South Africa, Australia, Europe, The Pacific, and Asia.

Humpback Whales are Gentle Whales which have a disposition to help Humans.