Humpback Whale

Names & Nicknames: Humpback whales, Hump whales, Hunchback whales.

Size: Like, whaley big! These ocean giants are usually around 15 metres and weigh 40000kgs, roughly as much as 40 Fiat 500s. The females can tend to be slightly larger, once measuring over 27 metres long and weighing around 90000kg, roughly 90 Fiat 500s! It truly puts into perspective how large their blue cousins are, however, as they tend to be twice as long and weigh four times as much as humpbacks.

Smell: Surely there's nothing more beautiful than a majestic whale blowing water through their blowhole and causing a stunning rainbow as you rock up and down in your small dingy? Match that with the smell, and you've got a real pair. A humpback's breath is a concentrated mix of fish and rotting krill – it's a powerful blend that matches such an awesome sight.

Communication: Humpback whales are the pop stars of the sea. They're incredibly vocal; they grunt, groan, shriek, roar, and perhaps most famously, siiiiing. Male humpbacks are the only ones that can belt out incredibly long and complex songs with similar structures to human music. These elegant compositions are used for communication, sizing up rival males, and finding love.

Favourite hangout: For natural divers who can plummet around 200 metres below the surface, these giants actually much prefer it in the shallows. Any guesses why? Yep, food. And when to stay away from predators when they're giving birth. When they are hungry and single, they like the cold but food-rich waters around the poles, and when it’s baby-making (and protecting) time, they prefer the warm tropical waters. Who wouldn't?

Favourite snack: Humpbacks embody the little and often mantra. They eat creatures that are very, very little but A LOT of them at once. Their favourite food is a tiny crustacean called Krill. Ranging in size from 6cm to less than a centimetre, humpbacks need to eat at least 1 tonne of Krill alongside other small fish a day to fuel their adventures.

Toilet humour: With such a big animal comes a lot of... waste. When a humpback dives down, it sometimes leaves behind a foul-smelling cloud of whale poop. Although you wouldn't want to swim through it, whale poop is extremely nutrient rich. Tiny organisms in the ocean called phytoplankton feed on this poop and, in turn, produce about 50% of the world's oxygen!

Love language: Male humpbacks are true masters of the serenade, producing complex and hauntingly beautiful underwater songs during the mating season. These love ballads are unique to males – perfect for courting and wooing a potential lover!

If you see them: If you're on a boat, please keep your distance! A lot of people might want to get as close as possible. A Humpback whale is a pretty amazing sight, after all, but the noise of boat engines and being ‘chased’ can be extremely stressful – it may even lead to a fatal collision, both for the whale and the boat.

Red flags: Despite being mostly solitary, humpbacks can be very chatty, communicating from a young age with grunts, grains, barks, and eerie songs. However, the ocean is noisier than ever before, with larger ships, offshore drilling, and coastal developments providing a constant clattering of sound to a once peaceful ecosystem. This noise can be incredibly damaging to a species such as the humpback, which is so reliant on sound for hunting, navigation, communication, and finding a mate. And when noise travels five times faster in water than in air, it can be pretty hard to avoid! See for yourself, as this superstar humpback tries to record their latest anthem.

Epic journeys: Humpbacks need A LOT of food, and the best place to get this is the cold but snack-rich waters of the poles. However, these chilly conditions aren’t exactly the most romantic, and they are certainly no place to raise a calf! Because of this, humpbacks make the long and arduous journey (up to 8,000km for some populations) to the warmer tropical regions to breed.

Growth: Humpback calves are already born as long as a small car, but it will still take a decade to reach their full size!

Eating habits: Humpbacks, unlike their toothy cousins, are baleen whales, meaning they own what is basically an enormous sieve made of keratin (the same material as our fingernails). They use this to filter out seawater and leave themselves a mouth full of tasty krill and other unfortunate small ocean creatures that get sucked into their 3-metre mouths.

Facts: Despite being much smaller than other whales, such as the gigantic blue whale, humpbacks have the largest pectoral (front) fins of any whale, with each growing up to 5 metres in length and weighing 500 kilograms a piece. In fact, part of their Latin name ‘Megaptera’ literally means ‘big-winged’!

Who are they in the friendship group: The hopeless romantic and creative, happy to ride the waves and sing songs all day.

How threatened are they: Despite being decimated by commercial whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries, where numbers dropped to as low as 10,000, Humpback populations have bounced back and are classed as least concern.