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Hervey Bay
is one of Australia's best natural holiday destinations, with a reputation as a safe and relaxing aquatic playground.
In recent years, the region has become famous for sightings of the majestic humpback whales on their return to the Antarctic. From August to October, the whales frolic in the warm sheltered waters of the bay, putting on a spectacular display for their admirers.
Celebrating the return of the humpback whales each year, Hervey Bay stages a Whale Festival for two weeks in August. An aquatic carnival, including an illuminated procession of floats, is the highlight of this fun-filled fortnight.
perhaps the best known of the baleen , occurring in all oceans. Humpback whales migrate to the pack ice in summer and to shallow, tropical breeding areas in winter. The northern and southern hemisphere forms are distinctly different.
Humpback mother and calf |
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Humpback whales have a dorsal fin about two-thirds of the way from the front of the body and a characteristic high humping or arching of the back when diving. They have long, thin pectoral fins and a massive tail, the underside of which is mottled white and black and can vary distinctly in shading pattern.
| Tail slapping Considered as aggressive behaviour, possibly marking it's position to other whales as the splash can be heard for some distance. Because of the tremendous power in their tails, it's best advised to give these mammals plenty room. |
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Because humpback whales usually throw their tails above water just before a deep dive, researchers have used the distinctive tail coloration and the shape of the trailing edge of the tail to identify several thousand individuals.
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| Breaching.. A majestic way to make it's presence known. With a couple of gyrations of it's powerful tail the whale can sometimes propel itself with enough force to clear the water surface completely. | It then drops back down to the surface of the water with a tremendous splash which is also thought to be it's way of communicating with other whales, indicating its position. n |
Humpbacks feed on invertebrates and fish. During a feeding lunge through clouds or schools of prey, the whale's throat expands tremendously. This expansion is aided by throat pleats, or folds, which open up, accordionlike, to as far back as the navel. The whale closes its mouth around tons of water and prey and then pushes the water out through about 300 baleen plates that hang from the upper jaw and act as a sieve.
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BREACHING Usually when Breaching the whale launches head-first out of the water. Breaches range from a full leap that clears the water to more leisurely surges in which two-thirds to half of the body emerges before falling back into the water with a splash |
They may feed in social groups of up to 22 whales, all lunging at the same time. Individuals or small groups may sometimes corral prey with their tails and long flippers or by blowing bubbles around schools of prey to form bubble walls.
Humpbacks are highly acrobatic. They often slap their flippers and tails on the water's surface and breach, or leap out of the water. An adult humpback may leap completely clear of the water, then fall back in a cascade of foam. Such aerial activity occurs at all times of year but is especially prevalent in the winter mating and calving grounds. Males, females, and even young calves may engage in such displays.
During the winter breeding season, male humpback whales compete for mates in any of several different ways. Young, sexually mature males keep their distance from one another and sing long, complicated songs in apparent vocal competition for access to females in estrus. A male will sometimes escort a female and her calf, if she has one, for a period of hours or days, avoiding or battling any other males that attempt to swim close to the female.
Boisterous, surface-active groups of males may battle each other, bloodying their heads as they ram and rake one another, in apparent competition for one or more females in the group. Mating results in a single young born 11 to 12 months later. The calf is nursed for less than one year.
Humpback whales were hunted most intensively in the early 1900s, when the worldwide population was reduced to less than 10 percent of its original size Whaling. Some populations appear to have increased since protection of humpback whales began in 1944. The humpback whale is classified as an endangered species.
Scientific classification: The humpback whale belongs to the family Balaenopteridae of the suborder Mysticeti, order Cetacea. It is classified as Megaptera novaeangliae.
Contributed By: Bernd G. Wursigf "Humpback Whale," MicrosoftEncarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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