Humpbacks are baleen whales, which are large whales with two blowholes and a set of horny fringed plates located on their jaws that are used instead of teeth. This horny material, called baleen, strains food, such as small crustaceans, from the water. They are closely related to the Blue Whale, the largest animal in the world.

The name “humpback” was given to them due to their “humping” motion as they travel through the waters.

They are a species of rorqual whale, specifically a baleen whale that is especially large and streamlined. They have black coloring on their dorsal (back) side, long pectoral fins, knobby head, longitudinal grooves on the throat, and a long black and white tail fin.

Adults usually have a length of from 12 to 16 meters (40 to 50 feet) and can weigh up to 36,000 kilograms (80,000 pounds). They are quite active in the water, often seen performing acrobatic-like motions like slapping the water around them and throwing their bodies out of the waters.

Males have a complex repertoire of sounds that are repeated every ten to twenty minutes for sometimes hours at a time. The exact purpose(s) of the sounds is not known for sure by scientists.

Humpback Whales are found throughout the oceans of the world. When migrating, they often travel up to about 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles) in any given year. During the summer months they eat within the polar waters of the world. The winter months are dedicated to breeding and birthing, while living off fat reserves built up earlier. They mostly eat krill (small crustaceans) and small fish.

Their young (called calves) are born about 4.0 to 4.5 meters ( 13 to 15 feet) long and weight about 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds). Young are dependent on the mother for about six months and continue to stay with their mother for a total of about two years. Adulthood comes at about age of five years.

Their numbers are still down from the years when they were hunted by the whaling industry. It is estimated that 30,000 to 60,000 Humpbacks live around the world today, which is still about one-third the numbers that existed before they were aggressively hunted by mankind.

Females breed every two to three years, with a pregnancy of about 11 months. Most Humpbacks live to be about 40 to 50 years old.

Humpack Whales are considered vulnerable or endangered around the world. Their biggest concern is from humankind, mostly from collisions with watercraft, entanglement from fishing nets and other equipment, human-made noises (which can hurt their hearing, and sometimes cause death), poisons, and other human interferences.

Lucky for them, humans have come to admire the large animals and whale-watching has become a popular past-time in many part of the world, such as off of the West coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, off of the west coast of France, and around England, Australia, Newfoundland, and New Zealand.

A white albino Humpback Whale has become famous around Australia during the 1990s and 2000s. Called Migaloo (“white fellow”) the whale moves up and down the eastern coast of Australia.

Humphrey the Humpback Whale has been seen often off the coast of California. It has been rescued several times and guided back to open waters with the help of a “sound net” (boatloads of people making noises to force him back to the ocean).

Humpback Whales have been the topic of literature and movies for years, including a secondary whale in the book "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville, in the Disney movie "Finding Nemo", and, of course, as the animal that saves 23rd century humankind in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

In the movie, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew go back in time to twentieth-century San Francisco and bring back two Humpback Whales (George and Gracie) so their whale-song can communicate with an alien race bent on destroying the Earth.

Additional information about Humpback Whales is found at:

American Cetacean Society: http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/humpback.htm.
PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/humpback/.
KidsPlanet: http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/humpback_whale.html.

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