Whales of the Silver Bank - The Humpback Whale

Cetaceans are divided into two suborders: the Mysticeti, the baleen whales; and the Odontoceti, the toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises. Our focus is on the Mysticeti, the baleen whales; particularly Megaptera novaeangliae, the humpback whale and its host during the breeding and calving season, the "Sanctuary for the Marine Mammals of the Dominican Republic".

The North Atlantic humpback whale spends spring, summer and autumn in the high latitude feeding areas of the Gulf of Maine, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland/Labrador, Greenland and Iceland. As winter approaches they migrate southward to the mating and calving grounds of the Antilles.

The behavior patterns of the humpback whale in the northern latitudes typically defines a gentle giant, fattened from foraging and opportunistically gathering enough prey to sustain its winter migration period without lack of sustenance. During their winter gathering in the Antilles the females typically remain gentle and flirtatious, but the males become vocal, extremely surface active, aggressive, brutal and competitively enlivened.

The entire mating and calving season boils down to male humpbacks securing their position next to a female and protecting that position from any challenging whale or whales in the area. If a challenger moves into the area, the escort will display surface postures to warn off all competitors. If this is unsuccessful, a rowdy group or competitive group will form where they will utilize their pectoral fins and swat at each approaching whale, ram into each other or breach on top of each other all to get positioned next to the female. This can become staggering when you witness six or more challengers after a female being protected by one valiant escort.

Behaviors of humpback whales are known to be acrobatic and playful, as well as violently aggressive, bloody and relentless. It's not unusual to witness spinning head breaches, chin breaches, tail breaches, fin slapping, lob tailing, spy hopping and sleeping postures year round. During the mating and calving season these activities are prominently displayed daily as a form of solicitation, warning and playful activity, unlike their typical over gorged northern latitude behavior. Combine this surface activity with singing, submarine breaches and rowdy groups witnessed only during this time frame and you have an ocean exploding with vibrancy in one of this hemispheres last frontiers.

 

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