Susan Carr, Maegan Carsey, and Benjy Davis

The humpback whale’s Latin name is Megaptera novaengliae, which means "big-winged New Englander" (Gohier, 1991). This is a suitable name because the humpback whales have the longest pectoral fins of all the cetaceans. Their pectoral fins are one-third the length of their entire body. Their common name, humpback whale, comes from the shape of their bent tail stalk when they are diving. They also have a well-defined fatty dorsal fin two thirds of the way down their back that adds to the humpback appearance (Gohier, 1991).

The humpback whales average 45 feet in length and 25 tons with the females being slightly larger than the males (Gohier, 1991). They are generally black on the dorsal surface of their body with white bellies. Their jaws are lined with knobs, each with a single sensory hair (Gohier, 1991). They have up to 30 throat grooves which enable them to increase the amount of water and food they take in by expanding their throats.

Humpbacks use several techniques for feeding. The first one is lunge feeding. This is done by simply lunging through a patch of plankton or school of fish with the mouth wide open. Another method of feeding is called bubble netting. To use this technique, the whale will float beneath a school of fish letting air out of its blowhole. The noisy columns of bubbles disorient and restrict the fish and make them easy prey (Gohier, 1991). Humpbacks also will herd food in groups by circling the school while they feed. Humpbacks can eat more than a ton of food a day.

A humpback’s spout is usually pear-shaped. Scientists think that humpbacks exchange 80-90% of the air in their lungs while humans only exchange 15-20% (Gohier, 1991).

Humpback whales spend their summers in cold, high latitude waters to feed and their winters in warm tropical waters to breed. Since the seasons are reversed in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, the Northern and Southern populations rarely meet (Gohier, 1991). When migrating humpback populations follow the same path every year. They are thought to use the Earth’s magnetic field to help them navigate along this path (Gohier, 1991). A calf can learn this path between their feeding ground and breeding grounds simply by swimming along side its mother. The calf usually will stay with its mother for about eleven months.

During the mating season, male humpbacks compete to impress the female, who will choose her mate. Males battle by ramming each other and hitting each other with their tails. They use the sharp barnacles on their fins and throats to cut opposing males. Sometimes they will even inflate their throats to look bigger and intimidate other males (Gohier, 1991).

The exact source of the sounds of the humpback whale is unknown. Since they do not have vocal chords, sound needs to be produced in a different way. A laryngeal sac that is an extension of the ventral side of the laryngeal cavity is believed to serve as a mechanism for pressure regulation during diving, and it may play a role in sound production, as well (Clark 1991). Humpback whales do have a constriction between the back of the larynx and trachea that may serve as the origin of their low frequency moans (Clark 1991). The theory for sound production that is best supported by the research to date is that sound is produced by air moving back and forth through body passages. Humpbacks do not expel air bubbles during sound production, so it is believed that the air is circulated through their complex respiratory system (Earle, 1979).

Early researchers believed that both male and female humpback whales sang. It was very hard to get close enough to the whales to determine sex. It wasn’t until Flip Nicklin, an expert free diver, began photographing the whales underwater that the real answer was known. Flip’s pictures used the positioning of the genital slits to identify the whales, which all turned out to be males (Darling, 1984). Continual research concluded that only male humpbacks sing.

There also seems to be a distinct body positioning of the whale for sound production. The humpback lies motionless with its head down and tail up at about a forty-five degree angle positioned right below the surface (Darling, 1984). The whale will stay in this position while singing until he heads for the surface to breathe.

Payne (1970) defined a "song" as a "complex repeated pattern of sounds" that occurs in complete sequences. Songs of the humpback whale can last anywhere from six to thirty-five minutes and are repeated without any obvious break between the sequences. All individuals in a population sing similar songs. However, whales in each broad area of ocean change their songs together over time (Ellis 1980).

Songs are composed of a series of discrete units. Units are the shortest sounds in the song which seem continuous to the human ear. Small repeated groups of units are called phrases and are usually uniform in duration. Many phrases consist of two subphrases. All phrases of one kind make up a theme, and themes may contain any number of phrases, so their length is extremely variable. Songs repeated in an unbroken sequence are called a song session (Payne, 1983).

All songs of humpback whales consist of three main sections: (1) trains of rapidly repeated pulses that often alternate with sustained tones, (2) many short, high frequency units, and (3) lower, more sustained notes that are repetitious in rhythm and frequency (Payne and McVay, 1971). Low frequency sounds they produce are low grunts at 120-250 Hz, and chirps, whistles, and squeals at 500-1650 Hz. Sounds at modulating frequencies are wavers, oos, ees, whos, wos, and foos. Others are yups, mups, and ups that change frequency more abruptly (Winn, 1985). High frequency sounds are moans, groans, and snores at less than 4000 Hz, and clicks and cries that range from 2000-7000 Hz (Evans, 1987).

Humpbacks may make different frequency sounds to send different messages to different individuals. They may emit low frequency sounds as a threat to other males and high frequency sounds to lure females (Winn,1985). The sounds made by humpbacks (and other whales) serve as an important function for identifying such things as the location of the whale, its sex, status, emotional or activity state, and individual identity (Evans, 1987).

The humpback whale’s song changes from year to year. A theory was made by Katy Payne that perhaps the whales forgot the song during the non-breeding months and made a new song with the fragments they remembered (Payne, 1979). A season-long study concluded that whales do not forget the previous year’s song. When first arriving to the breeding grounds the whales are singing the previous year’s song (Payne, 1979). All changes to the song take place during the singing/breeding season (Winn, 1985). Changes are progressive and are added over about two months (Evans, 1987). Changes may involve only a slight variation in two or three of the sounds or may be made by reworking past themes (Brower, 1991). Often new phrases are sung faster than old ones (Payne, 1979). Amazingly, even with the song continually changing, each singer in a population is singing the same song at any one time (Payne, 1979). The reason why the whales seem like they are singing different songs is because they are not singing in unison.

The song continues to evolve over the years. After five to ten years, the song of the humpback whale population has become radically altered. Every theme changes in pitch and rhythm and the number and duration of notes is completely different (Payne, 1991).

The song seems to be remembered "by rhyme." Phrases with similar sounding endings are often found near each other and are therefore thought not to be so hard to remember (Payne, 1991).

Why the song changes is still unknown. Lois and Howard Winn suggest two reasons: perhaps a new song is more stimulating to a female or perhaps a dominant male decides how the song changes for the year (1985).

There have been four theories formed on why humpbacks sing: territory, communication during migration, attracting females, and to warn competing males. Territory could be marked by the way that each population has its own song. If a male from another population were to wander into another population’s territory, the lone male would know because the song would be different just as the population would know there was an intruder by the different song. Although the whales do not sing year round, they do make noises during the non-breeding season and during their migration back to the breeding grounds, they do start singing. Since the males sing until joined by another whale, Peter Tyack suggests that the male humpbacks sing to attract females and that perhaps the females choose their mate by selecting the male with the most complex song (Darling, 1984). Also, the humpback whale’s song can be a secondary sexual characteristic much like the horns on mountain sheep (Darling, 1984). Since the whales must maintain their streamline shape for the underwater environment they can not have extremities such as horns. Perhaps the song can be seen as a sign of growth; other males can hear it over great distances and perhaps the changes in the song that occur during the breeding season reflect the dominant positions in the population.

We are slowly learning about the song of the humpback but there is still much research to be done. Evidence of exactly why they sing would be very helpful and would likely answer many other questions, as well.

Brower, K. (1991). Realms of the Sea. The National Geographic Society, Washington D.C. 278pp.

Clark, C. (1991). Talking Heads. Natural History, 3:42-45.

Darling, J. (1984). Source of the Humpback’s Song. Oceans, 17: 3-10.

Earle, S. (1979). Humpbacks: The Gentle Whales. National Geographic: 2-17.

Ellis, R. (1980). The Book of Whales. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York, New York. 202pp.

Evans, P. (1987). The Natural History of Whales and Dolphins. Facts on File, Inc. New York, New York. 335pp.

Gohier, Francois.(1991). Humpback Whales. Blake Publishing, Obispo, California. 40pp.

Payne, K. (1991). A Change of Tune. Natural History,3: 45-46.

Payne, R. (1970). Songs of the Humpback Whale.Del Mar, CA:CRM Books; New York: Capitol Records, SWR-11.

Payne, R. (1979). Humpbacks: Their Mysterious Songs. National Geographic:18-25.

Payne, R. (1983). Communication and Behavior of Whales. Westview Press, Inc. Boulder, Colorado. 643pp.

Payne, R. and McVay, S. (1971). Songs of Humpback Whales. Science 173:585-597.

Winn, L. and Winn, H. (1985). Wings in the Sea. University Press of New England. London.

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