NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



Splash & Sing 



By Daun Daemon 



Of all the whales, hump- 

 backs seem the most expressive 

 to us humans because they do 

 two things we also enjoy: splash 

 in the water and sing songs. 



While other whales simply 

 breach, humpbacks jump with 

 joy. They hurl themselves 

 vertically out of the water, 

 flippers extended, and then 

 crash back to the surface in a 

 magnificent fountain of sea 

 spray. Though scientists have 

 observed this behavior mostly in 

 the whales' breeding grounds, 

 they still aren't sure why the 

 large mammals do it. Lone 

 humpbacks have been seen 

 breaching, perhaps as an 

 expression of just feeling good. 



The thunderous breaches 

 are impressive, but the 

 humpback's singing is eerily 

 beautiful. The only whale that 

 sings, a humpback emits 

 complete sequences of repeated 

 sounds in songs six to 30 

 minutes long, with no pauses 

 between songs. Even more 

 remarkable than the complexity 

 and endurance of their vocaliza- 

 tions is the humpbacks' ability to 

 change their songs. After eight 

 or so silent months apart, the 

 whales reconvene in their 

 Caribbean breeding grounds and 

 all sing the same altered version 

 of the previous year's song. 



Scientists also don't know 

 why humpbacks sing or how — 

 they have larynxes but no vocal 

 cords. Because they sing mostly 

 in their mating grounds, their 

 chirps, cries, yups and other 

 sounds may advertise for mates 

 or warn potential rivals. □ 



are late November through December 

 as the whales swim south to their 

 Caribbean wintering grounds. 



Humpbacks give birth and mate 

 in the warm waters of the Caribbean 

 during the winter months and then 

 migrate to their northern feeding 

 grounds. After three to four months of 

 frenzied feeding, they swim back to 

 the temperate zone where the cycle 

 begins again. Eleven to 12 months 

 after mating, the females give birth to 

 a single calf. 



The newborn calves accompany 

 their mothers on the spring migration 

 north, living on their mother's milk. At 

 about a year old, the 

 young humpbacks 

 are weaned. There- 

 after, they follow 

 the cycle of migra- 

 tions on their own. 



Their northern 

 destinations are the 

 waters from Cape 

 Cod up to the Gulf 

 of Maine. Accord- 

 ing to Wood, the 

 best whale watching 

 on the East Coast 

 can be found during 

 the summer months 

 in the Gulf of 

 Maine. 



While there, the 

 great animals gorge 

 on a bounty of food fish including 

 capelin, anchovies, sardines, silver- 

 sides, menhaden and smelt. While the 

 water is warm — in the 60s and 70s — 

 the food is plentiful. Once the water 

 begins to cool, the fish strike out for 

 warmer waters and the whales follow. 



"To feed, a humpback swims 

 beneath its intended prey, most often a 

 moving school of small fish. The whale 

 then releases air from its blowhole 

 while swimming in a rising spiral," says 

 Wood. "The air forms a current of 

 bubbles that confuses and concentrates 

 the fish. The whale swims up through 



Humpback Bio 



Length: up to 50 feet 

 Weight: 30 to 40 tons 

 Color: mostly black with 

 white throat and chest 

 Longevity: can live 90 or 

 more years 



Distinguishing feature: large 

 white flipper about a third 

 the body's length 

 Number of humps: none. The 

 name probably comes from 

 the bulge that shows above 

 the water when the animals 

 curve their backs to dive. 



the center of this bubble net and engulfs 

 thousands of fish in one mouthful." 



Most of the feeding occurs in the 

 northern waters, but the whales will eat 

 along their migration route. Depending 

 on where the schools of fish are moving 

 in the Gulf Stream, the humpbacks 

 travel anywhere from a few miles to 

 200 miles offshore. 



Though sightings of whales from 

 Tar Heel beaches are rare and precious 

 these days, they once were a frequent 

 occurrence. In fact, the animals were 

 common enough that a shore-based 

 whaling industry thrived in the 17th 

 and 18th centuries. 



In Whaling on 

 the North Carolina 

 Coast, Marcus B. 

 Simpson Jr. and 

 Sallie W. Simpson 

 explain that "North 

 Carolina's local 

 whaling industry 

 centered around 

 Cape Lookout, 

 where, in their 

 spring migration, 

 northbound right 

 whales passed close 

 by the islands of 

 Bogue and 

 Shackleford Banks." 



However, by 

 the late 1800s, 

 overhunting had 

 depleted the populations. According to 

 the Simpsons, the last whale taken 

 along our coast was a right whale killed 

 at Cape Lookout on March 16, 1916. 



The days of peering across the blue 

 Atlantic waters and spotting humpback 

 or northern right whales frolicking 

 close to the shore passed long ago. But 

 Wood is optimistic about the future: "If 

 we continue to protect our great whales 

 and the ocean they live in, they could 

 come back to the North Carolina coast 

 in numbers to rival precolonial times, 

 when you could stand on Shackleford 

 Banks and watch the whales go by." □ 



COASTWATCH 27 



