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Hunting of humpbacked whales has been prohibited in the northern Atlantic Ocean since 1956, the Southern Hemisphere since 1963 and in the northern Pacific Ocean since 1966. |
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The four-chambered heart of the average humpback whale weighs about 195 kg (about 430 lbs)- about as much as three average adult human beings. |
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Humpbacks are easily distinguished from other large whales primarily by their very long pectoral fins which are about one-third of their body length - averaging around 4.5 metres (16 feet). |
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An average-sized humpback whale will eat 2000-2500 kg (4,200-5,500 lbs) each day during the feeding season in cold waters (about 120 days). They eat twice a day. |
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Humpback whales are seasonal feeders and carnivores that filter feed tiny crustaceans (krill - mainly, copepods), plankton and small fish (including herring, mackerel, capelin, and sandeel) from the water. |
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The Humpback is a migratory species, spending its summers in cooler, high-latitude waters, but mating and calving in tropical and sub-tropical waters. An exception to this rule is a population in the Arabian Sea, which remains in these tropical waters year-round. |
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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are found in all the major oceans, in a wide band running from the Antarctic ice edge to 65° N latitude, though they are not found in the eastern Mediterranean,the Baltic Sea, or the Arctic Ocean. |
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The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a baleen whale. |
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There are at least 70,000 humpback whales worldwide, with 10,000-25,000 in the North Pacific, about 12,000 in the North Atlantic, and over 50,000 in the Southern Hemisphere. |
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The humpback is a migratory species, spending its summers in cooler, high-latitude waters, but mating and calving in tropical and sub-tropical waters. |
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Humpback whale annual migrations of up to 25,000 kilometres (16,000 statute miles) are typical, making it one of the farthest-travelling of any mammalian species. |
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In 2007, a study identified seven individual whales, wintering off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, as those which had made a trip from the Antarctic of around 8,300 km. |
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