Distribution 



Stranded Specimens 



In the western North Atlantic, humpback whales are 

 widely distributed from north of Iceland, Disko Bay and west 

 of Greenland, south to Venezuela and around the tropical 

 islandsof the West Indies. They have been reported from the 

 central and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Summer ranges extend at 

 least from New England north to the pack ice, and feeding 

 concentrations may be found in any portion of this region. 

 During winter, humpback whales migrate southward to the 

 shallow borderlands of Bermuda, to the Bahamas, and to the 

 West Indies to calve and mate. 



The most distinctive features of stranded humpback 

 whales are 1) the ventral grooves, 14-22 in number, very wide 

 and extending to the navel; 2) the tuberosities of the snout 

 and lower jaw, often the sites of numerous barnacle colonies; 

 3) the long flippers (to nearly a third of the total body length); 

 and 4) the distinctive rounded projection near the tip of the 

 lower jaw. 



If these characteristics are not sufficiently clear, the 

 species may be identifiable by the characteristics of the 

 baleen plates (Table 2). 



Figure 37. —Often, particularly on their tropical breeding grounds, humpback whales lie on their sides at the surface, the long white pectoral fUpper in the 

 air. Note the pronounced scalloping on the leading edge. {PhotoinearWe$tIndiei by C. McCann[top]andH. E. Winn [bottom].) 



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