Humpback Whales

Hello Friends,

I recently visited the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) in Perth where I watched a video about Humpback Whales. The imagery touched my heart and I was inspired to write a blog about the majestic whales.

Many years ago, I visited the Albany Whaling Station which is located on the south coast of Western Australia. The last day of whaling at Albany took place in 1978, and ended 178 years of commercial hunting.

Each year, humpback whales naturally migrate down the coast of Western Australia and it was at AQWA that I learnt that the mother whales and their calves were often targeted in whale hunts due to their slow rate of swimming together. It was a sad revelation, but there were many other positive, heartfelt moments that I experienced and would like to share with you.

In 1978, the King of Tonga (a small island nation in the South Pacific), issued a royal decree to ban whale hunting. The grandson of a whale hunter appeared in the AQWA video. He said the whales were the guardians of his people. The whale population had dwindled due to the killing of mothers and calves in the tropical waters. Now the grandson teaches people about the whales, while still respecting his traditional culture.

Whales are also sacred animals to the Maori people of New Zealand. I once met an Australian Aboriginal woman in my local town who told me that her people can hear the arrival, the song of the whales when they swim into the waters of the Great Australian Bight, which is located thousands of kilometers away.

There’s something ancient and mysterious about the connection between whales and people. I don’t understand it, but I felt it for a brief time at AQWA.

Migration

According to the AQWA video, around the world, there are 15 migration paths for the Humpback Whales. Simply put, the whales migrate to feed and also to breed. They feed in the two cold, sub-polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica. The feed of fish is converted to blubber and might have to last the whales six months before they eat again.

While the whales breed in the warm or temperate oceans of the world, for example, Hawaii and the South Pacific islands. At present, some of the shipping lanes also cross the migration paths, which pose a danger of collision with the whales.

Aqua Acrobatics

Humpbacks are acrobatic whales. Breaching is when a whale breaks the surface of the water, leaps up and falls back down. It could be a display with the crash of fins and back slaps into the ocean. Tails hitting the water, and throwing up sea spray. Trumpeting calls. Booms and thrashing. Or the blasting sound of whales blowing air after a dive.

Here’s a video of a friendly juvenile Humpback whale breaching.

Bubble Net Fishing

Bubble net fishing is a technique used by the whales to hunt krill, herring, sardines or anchovy in a team. Co-operation is needed. The whales dive down deep and get beneath the school of fish that they want to drive up to the surface of the ocean and eat. One of the whales circles up and around the fish and expertly releases a spiraling column of air bubbles which acts as a net. It’s hard for the small fish to escape. They are trapped and forced to swim upwards. 

Then another whale releases a loud sound which frightens the small fish and creates panic. The whales break the surface in a circle. They open their mouths to catch the fish using the baleen of their mouth, and swallow. Humpback whales don’t have teeth so the baleen acts like bristles and catches/filters food from the sea water.

The next video was made by BBC Earth and has some spectacular imagery of the whales breaching in a circle, and opening their mouths to feed.

Whale Song

The most frequent and loudest singers recorded so far are the male humpback whales. The females commonly live in deep water with their calves. There is a possibility that the mothers sing a different and very low octave song, more research is needed.

The humpback whale sings with its nose pointing down to the bottom of the ocean. The whales put bits of sound together into a song. It’s not a random noise. The same song can be sung for a whole season.

Hearing the whale song was haunting. They made ancient sounds. Some of the whales sounded like a violin, sometimes a scratchy one. It was the music of the ocean. Powerful and mysterious chants from the depths of old briny.

Mother and Calf

The mother whale breeds and births her calf in the warm sub-tropical waters about every two to three years. In the AQWA video, I saw some beautiful images of the mother and calf swimming closely together, rolling around in the water, keeping physical contact with each other, with their fins, or skin to skin, like whales embracing.

The young whale learns how to live as a whale by copying the actions and sounds of its mother. She feeds the calf on fat rich milk for it to grow quickly. Then they must face the danger of predators as they migrate to the cooler waters for fish hunting lessons and to eat.

The deep blue indigo color of the ocean lent a mystical effect to the mother whale interacting with her young one. Life is sacred.

The next video shows a special opportunity when a woman and champion swimmer, Tanya Streeter, was able to swim with a mother and her calf.

Thanks for reading my whale blog.

Enjoy your weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn