Humpback Whales

Humpback whales are incredibly distinctive with their knobbly faces and huge 17 metre bodies flanked by long, white pectoral fins which are around a third of their body length. The “knobbles” on their faces are known as tubercles and are enlarged hair follicles which can be used as sensory receptors. They get their name from the small “hump” on their back on which their small dorsal fin sits.

Like many other baleen whales, humpbacks gulp feed on their prey which mainly consists of krill and schooling fish. Unlike other whales, however, humpbacks have evolved a unique feeding technique of “bubble netting”. Swimming in circles around their prey, the whales will blow bubbles to create a curtain or net of bubbles that confuse and trap their prey, allowing them to gulp huge quantities of fish at once.

The Humpback whale gets its name from the distinctive hump on its back.

Humpback whales are commonly found feeding off Iceland, southern greenland, Norway, Svalbard and east of Canada and the US.

Humpbacks are arguably one of the most charismatic whale species, known for their energetic displays, breaching out of the water, lobtailing and slapping their pectoral fins on the water.

They can dive for up to 40 minutes at a time and when they dive they raise their tail flukes out of the water. Each whale’s pattern on the underside of their flukes is unique, so can be used by researchers to identify individuals.

Humpbacks used to be seen regularly off our coast historically, but their numbers depleted through years of hunting. Since a ban on commercial whaling was introduced in the 1980s, whale populations have finally started to recover and the last 5 years have started to show increasing sightings of humpback whales around the UK coast.

Although the majority of sightings have so far been in the winter months, there have been records of humpback whales throughout the year in Cornwall.

Humpback whales have a unique pattern on the underside of their tail flukes can be used to identify individuals like a fingerprint. There are two individual whales that have already been confirmed as returning visitors to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly; but there is a strong likelihood that there are more who have visited our coast, but not been identified.