Identifying California’s Humpback Whales
This is the third of three articles on how to identify whales commonly seen off the California coast.
In this article series we’ve featured blue whales and gray whales. This time we’ll spotlight humpbacks (Megaptera novaengliae). All three of these are baleen whales — Mysticeti. Their cousins the toothed whales, which include sperm whales and orcas, are known as Odontoceti.
Humpbacks are among the easiest whales to identify. This can often be done even before the whale surfaces. That’s because the whales’ long pectoral fins usually have white undersides that shimmer as the whales move through shallow depths. You can see these from the deck of a boat. Also, humpbacks love to breach and those characteristic fins are unmistakable even from a distance.
Once a humpback is on the surface clues to its identity include serrated flukes, which can be 18 feet wide and have pointed tips. Look for a dorsal fin and a hump on the whale’s back. If you get close, you’ll notice a humpback’s head is covered with knobs.
Each whale species has a distinctive blow. This mist, composed of condensation and water, is exhaled through modified nostrils called blowholes. While toothed whales have a single blowhole, baleen whales such as humpbacks, grays and blues have two.
Like the other big whales, humpbacks were hunted nearly to extinction until 1966, when the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on commercial whaling. Now they are among the most abundant whales and can be found worldwide. Some estimate there are 30,000 to 40,000 of them.