Humpback Whales (part two)

BREACHING

Perhaps the most sought-after behavior of the Humpback whale (and certainly the most common photo on any whale watch company's brochure!) is breaching. In this spectacular display of athletic prowess, the whale will dive beneath the surface for a few seconds or minutes only to surface vertically with great speed. Often the animal will twist while in mid-air and then come crashing down with thunderous splash. Breaching is actually quite common amongst Humpbacks and is observed with surprising regularity on our whale watch trips. Your chances of actually seeing a Humpback whale breach is quite good (50/50) when Humpbacks are plentiful... as they have been in recent years.

However, when it comes to your getting a good picture of this behavior the chances aren't so good. For you see it is very difficult (but not always impossible) to predict when and where a breach is going to occur. Getting a good breach photograph requires skill with a camera, a little knowledge and experience with Humpback Whale behavior, a bit of luck, and a whole lot of patience. Even if you don't get a great photo of a breaching whale, just seeing a 45 foot, 80,000 pound animal leap clear of the water's surface is a special experience. Even from a distance this behavior is spectacular.

Sometimes we even find whales that are many miles away by the splashes these breaches produce (see photo sequence below). Imagine making your way off-shore on a calm, sunny day when you can see clear to the horizon. You may be scanning the distant horizon for the tell-tale "blow" or "spout" produced by the whales when they surface to breath. Suddenly, in the distance, a huge plume of white water rises 100 feet into the air and then settles back at the surface. What could have caused a splash that big? In these waters it almost surly was a breaching Humpback whale. Pictured above is a female Humpback Whale called "Giraffe" breaching on Jeffrey's Ledge.

Of course, all this talk about what the Humpback whales do when they are engaged in one of these surface active behaviors doesn't tell us why they are doing it. Many different theories have been put forth in an attempt to explain these behaviors. Some of the more commonly heard theories are:

Whales breach/flipper-slap/tail-breach/etc to help rid themselves of parasites. This may at times be true. Whales do carry a variety of external (as well as internal) parasites that may cause irritation to their sensitive skin. These parasites include barnacles and small crustaceans called "Cyamids" or "Whale Lice". They congregate on rough or folded regions of the whale's skin and feed directly on the whale's skin tissues. Perhaps the tremendous forces associated with surface activity helps the whales rid themselves of these unwanted pests.
Whales breach/flipper-slap/tail-breach/etc to help move food along in their digestive tract. As previously stated, whales in the Stellwagen Bank/Jeffrey's Ledge region are here for one reason: to feed. Humpbacks consume a ton and a half of fish every day... that's well over a million calories worth! Some people have theorized that increased activity may help move food along through the whales digestive system.
Whales breach/flipper-slap/tail-breach/etc to communicate with one another. This is perhaps the most widely accepted theory of surface activity today. If you are fortunate enough to take a whale watching trip to Stellwagen Bank or Jeffrey's Ledge and witness surface active Humpback Whales yourself, you will no doubt be struck by the tremendous amount of sound created by the pounding of tails, flippers, and even the whole whale! More than once in the time I've spent working with 7 Seas we have actually found whales in the fog by stopping the engines and listening for the sounds produced by active whales. Now consider that sound travels about four and a half times faster through water than it does through air. Water also conducts sound signals "better" than air in the sense that sound signals do not degrade as quickly in a liquid medium (such as seawater) as they do in a gaseous medium (such as air). So it is not unreasonable to think that when a whale is, let's say, flipper-slapping that other whales, possibly tens-of-miles away, could be hearing the sounds produced. In fact, there have been times when we are watching a whale that suddenly becomes active and then we observe splashes in the distance a short time later from other whales that we didn't even know where in the area! It seems as if these whales heard the activity of the whale that we were observing and then answered back in kind. Much of the data collected by naturalists aboard whale watching vessels seems to corroborate this idea. Still, even if it is shown that whales display surface active behaviors to communicate with one another, what are they actually saying? Could it be a sign of aggression or annoyance? Territorial displays between rival males? Displays performed by males to attract the attention of a nearby female? A warning of an approaching ship? Or information about the abundance (or lack there of) of schooling fish to eat?

In conclusion: No one knows why whales exhibit these spectacular behaviors. They probably become active for all these reasons listed above at one time or another. In the case of calves I have no doubt that it is often times just for the fun of it all. Young whales, like the young of all mammals, have an unstoppable sense of play that is very important for exercising growing bones and muscles while also building body awareness and agility. All we as whale watchers can do is hope to be present when these behaviors occur... and hopefully we'll have our cameras ready too!

CLOSE TO BOAT BEHAVIOR

As spectacular as breaching may be, my personal favorite behavior of the Humpback Whales is not quite so demonstrative, but equally as spectacular. This behavior is the aptly named "close-to-boat" behavior so often associated with Humpback and Gray whales (Grays are found only in the Pacific). In this behavior the whales take the time to investigate a boat full of people who have set out to sea to observe the whales. Whales often times turn themselves vertically in the water and poke the tip of their rostrums or "noses" out of the water to get a better look at their surroundings. This behavior is called "spy-hopping".

I often wonder what the whales must be thinking when the are investigating our boat: Do they see the boat as an inanimate object with numerous individual living entities onboard? Or do they see the boat and all the people as one, strange, rather noisy creature? Perhaps they are thinking something else entirely. Regardless of what is going through their minds, close-to-boat behavior offers us a chance to get closer to a wild, endangered whale that we normally could because the whale has chosen to approach the boat at such close range. As spectacular as breaching may be, you never get such an impression of the true size and strength of these creatures as when you are just an arm's-length away!

Who's Who in Humpbacks

At this point you may be wondering how it is we have learned all this stuff about Humpback Whales. The reason is because we have learned to recognize not only what species of whale we are seeing (in this case Humpbacks), but also which individual Humpbacks we are seeing. This allows us to trace generations of whales as females give birth to calves who in turn give birth to calves their own (usually starting around age five or six) and on through each subsequent generation. We can also, therefore, observe the relationships between whales that are know to be closely related (or not), of the same age (or not), and so on.

We are just now, after 30+ years of research, beginning to unravel the mystery of these animal's social structure and hierarchy. Much of what you have read in these pages, and much of what you will hear from the naturalist on-board your whale watch, was learned via research conducted on this population of Humpback Whales on an individual basis. But how do we recognize individual whales on the open sea? Well, for the Humpback Whales anyway, it's fairly easy. All one needs to do is get a good look at the whale's tail!

The ventral side (under-side) of a Humpback Whale's tail ranges in value (not "color") from purely white to solid black with all sorts of intermediates. "Type-one" tails are all white, "type-5" tails are all black, "type-3" tails are about half white/half black, and so on. So the pattern of black-and-white pigmentation on each whale's tail is much like a fingerprint... no two tails are exactly alike. So all researchers need to do is get a good photo of the underside of a whale's tail to be able to recognize that individual Humpback Whale each time it returns to the area. For seasoned researchers and whale watchers, many individuals have become like old friends and we look forward to seeing them upon their return from the Caribbean each spring.