Tongass National Forest

Tongass Home » Districts & Offices » Petersburg Ranger District » Tongass Journals

Humpback Whales

A spout of water, a distinctive hump, then a glistening tail fluke break the stillness of the water.  A humpback whale surfaces and dives.  

Humpback whales are the most common of the eight endangered whales that occur in Southeast Alaska.  Humpbacks usually feed in Southeast waters from May through December, although they have been seen every month of the year.  During the rest of the year humpback whales from Alaska migrate to Hawaii to breed and give birth. 

The humpback is a baleen whale.  Instead of teeth, baleen whales have feathery horn-like plates that hang from the roofs of their mouths like combs.  To feed, a humpback will swim into an area with large numbers of prey, usually krill, plankton, or herring, with its mouth wide open.  Tons of water fill the whale's mouth with the food.   The whale then closes its mouth and raises its tongue, forcing the water out through baleen plates.  The food is trapped inside for the whale to swallow.

One interesting humpback whale feeding behavior is "bubble feeding."  Several whales circle a school of fish or krill from below and emit a curtain of bubbles as they slowly rise to the surface.  Once the fish or plankton are confined within this bubble net, the whales charge through it with their mouths open and engulf the prey.  Humpbacks depend on the abundant food sources available in SE Alaska for their survival because they do not feed during the winter.  Much like bears, humpback whales feed all summer and store energy as fat for the winter.  They live off this stored energy during their long migration to and stay in Hawaii.

Despite what its name implies, the humpback whale has no true hump.  But it does hump its neck and back when it dives.  Humpbacks are natural acrobats and enjoy splashing and playing in the sea.  When leaping completely out of the water, or breaching, the humpback crashes down with a great splash.  This may be the humpback's way of loosening the whale lice that are attached to its body.  Humpbacks often carry as much as a thousand pounds of lice.  

The humpback whale is famous for its singing, producing about one thousand different sounds.  Each year they start with the same six-verse song as the previous year.  The song will change over the months, so that each year the song is different.  Each whale in a group sings the same song.  Scientists are not sure what the songs mean.

The National Marine Fisheries Service provides regulations for safe and considerate viewing.

For more information about whales, view the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Notebook Series on Beluga Whales, Gray Whales, Humpback Whales, Blue Whales, and Bowhead Whales.