HUMPBACK WHALES, HANGING IN THERE

Humpback whales are flamboyant stars in the cetacean universe. Their spectacular leaps and twirls, the explosions of water when they slap the water with their fin or tail, and their long, complex songs draw admiring attention from scientists and tourists alike. Although they can weigh forty tons, humpbacks can jump high out of the water, called breaching. They also slap their fins and tail flukes on the surface of the water, making a big splash and lots of noise.		Although they don't have vocal cords, humpback males produce beautiful, haunting sounds in precise sequences that can last half an hour. The songs are so loud they can be heard for miles and miles. Researchers think they are intended to impress other males, so that the singer can get closer to the females. Humpbacks are protected now from hunters but they used to be killed for meat and oil. Once there were more than 150,000 humpbacks worldwide. The whaling industry slaughtered them by the thousands until the 1960's. Today there are only about 25,000 left.
Swimming as fast as nine miles an hour, humpback whales migrate every year from polar feeding grounds (northern Alaska or southern Antarctica, for example) to breed and give birth in the tropics (Hawaii, Mexico, Australia, and South Africa, for example). Humpbacks eat by straining water through special comb-like structures called baleen plates, on the roof of their mouth.  There are about 700 baleen plates in a humpback's mouth. Diving for as long as 15-20 minutes, the whale scoops up a huge mouthful of water that swells its throat, then uses its tongue to push the water out through the baleen that catches the krill and fish. Then, gulp.
	You can tell a humpback whale by its outsized pectoral (front) fins and flukes (tail). The fins are one-third the length of the humpback's body, longer than any other whale's, and gleaming white.  The flukes are "painted" with splashy patterns that are unique to each whale. Researchers have put together catalogs of photos showing the fluke patterns of many humpback whales. When new photos are brought in, they can be checked against the catalog and, if a match is found, one more bit of information about when and where the whales go can be added.
For a creature that is so big, so easy to see and so well studied, it is amazing how much there is still to learn.