Humpback Humpback
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Humpback Whale Migration Update: April 11, 2001

Today's Report Includes:



Migration Route of Atlantic Humpback Whales
Map courtesy of
MacalesterCollege

Greetings from the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

The humpbacks are coming! The humpbacks are coming! We've gotten word from the Center for Coastal Studies that the first mother-calf pair has been spotted on Stellwagen Bank. "Mural," a mature female was spotted with her first known calf (although she has been seen for some 22 years) during a Sanctuary Survey Cruise on April 4th. This is the earliest recorded sighting of a humpback calf in these waters, but researchers say this could just be due to the fact that there is greater sighting effort this year than in past years.
Mural has an interesting sighting history on Stellwagen Bank. She has been regularly seen for three years or so to be followed by a year or two of no sightings. This regular pattern may include some calves that have not been seen in these waters.

Challenge Question #15:
"What is a possible calving history for Mural that incorporates the known sighting history (Hint: on average humpbacks calve every 2-3 years.)?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)


Lots of Sighting Action
During the April 8th research cruise, scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies saw 5 additional humpbacks on Stellwagen Bank - Capella (a big female), Scratch (another mature female without Stout, her 1999 calf which stayed with her all of last year as a yearling, and three unknowns. The researchers also noted 9 fin whales one of which has strong site fidelity to Stellwagen Bank since 1980 and has been named Braid, 2 minke whales and 50-70 Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Most of the action was on the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank near what is known as the BE buoy.

Unfortunate News
We've also recently heard that three humpback mortalities have been reported in the waters off North Carolina and Virginia. The whales appear to be young, probably juveniles rather than calves, and the causes of these deaths have not all been confirmed. It is not known whether these whales were migrating individuals or whales that were spending the winter off these mid-Atlantic shores (this overwintering by juveniles has been noted over the past few years).


Cruise Report On-Line
For an interesting first-person account of the Stellwagen Bank research cruise on April 4th, check out the Center for Coastal Studies' web page.


Journey North Students Name a Whale!

Journey North Students Named #0018!
Now Called "14."

The 2000-2001 Whale Naming workshop was a great success. There were some great suggestions for names this year. Journey North students (more than one of us) suggested whale #0018 should be called "14" because the scratches on the left fluke look like the number 14. The voting panel thought that was a great name!

Congratulations to Steve McElroy's class in Brecksville, OH, and Rory Telander's class in Little Falls, MN. Fan's calf almost got the name, "X-Wing" as suggested by some students (it finished second), but the naturalists thought the scars looked more like "Ks" and named the whale Kappa. The Stellwagen sanctuary will support the whale-naming workshop again next year so keep those creative juices flowing!


"Sarah the Sailor" Reports from the Silver Bank

Sarah Aili Farquhar

Sarah Aili Farquhar, a student involved with the Sea Education Association SEA Semester program sent us some of the highlights from her visit to the humpback's wintering grounds on Silver Bank near the Dominican Republic. Humpbacks were plentiful on the banks and the 24 students had the opportunity to do research on many topics including recording whale songs for further research. Here is an piece of Sarah's travel log that Sarah sent to share with Journey North.

"As soon as we neared Silver Bank, students and crew began to observe whales surfacing, spouting, and slapping tails at distances as close as a few hundred feet and as far away as near the visible horizon. Once at the bank, whale sightings increased in frequency from once every few hours to a sighting every 20 minutes or less. The most common behaviors of the whales sighted included surfacing, spouting, and flipper-flapping. A few whales were observed fluking up, in a few cases within 100 yards of our ship, the Cramer. Many students also reported (and I personally observed) whales fully or partially breaching. A few times whales came as close as 30 yards from our ship and spouted. Mothers with calves were observed a few times, but most often larger whales swimming alone or in pairs would be spotted by observers. The whales swam close to both the Cramer and to the smaller dive boats based out of the ships anchored across Reef Harbor, and seemed at times to be expressing as much interest in us as we were in them."


Knobby Heads

Courtesy of Thomas L. Conlin.

Take a good look at a humpback whale's head. On the whale's upper and lower jaws and along their lips you will see knobby structures. Old Yankee whalers had a funny name for these. They called them "stove bolts." Get out your whale references and see if you can answer this:

Challenge Question #16:
"What are the knobby structures called 'stove bolts' by Yankee whalers, and what is their purpose?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)


A Knot of a Different Kind: Discussion of Challenge Question #12
Before velcro we all had a hard time untying the knots from our shoelaces. But, wait, sailors have a different way of thinking about knots! Knots have important role in navigating a ship.

Thanks to Hussain and Kevin at Iselin Middle School, we know that a knot measures the distance you travel within a time period. A nautical mile is a unit of distance equal to 6080 ft, which is just over a mile (5280 ft.).


Feeding Grounds: Discussion of Challenge Question #13
"Whales are big animals. About how much food does a humpback whale consume each day at their summer feeding grounds?"

Imagine the hunger you would have after months at the breeding and calving grounds AND migrating back north! Whales are mighty hungry and need to replenish their bodies with lots of chow. Researchers estimate that they will eat about a ton of food each day during their stay at the summer feeding grounds. Good job researching this question, Ruchi and Melissa at Iselin Middle School.


Holy Cow That's a Lot of Milk! Discussion of Challenge Question #14
"If a humpback calf consumes 130 gallons of milk each day for 9 months, what is the total amount of milk that the mother produces for the calf during that time?"
Can I get out my calculator? I'm sure you were thinking the same thing when you were faced with a question about this quantity of milk! Because our months aren't all the same length, there were a few ways to calculate this question. A few of you used 30 days as an average number of days in a month and did the calculations using this number. I bet some of you thought about which months the calves were born and started calculating nine months from that start. Whatever you did, your answers were all around the same. Mother humpbacks produce between 35,100 and 35,700 gallons of milk during the nine months they provide food for their calves.

Thank you to Ms. Hall's grade 5 class at Tom Longboat P.S. Scarborough, Ontario, Kristina, Kelly, Ruchi, John and Melissa at Iselin Middle School in Iselin, New Jersey, and Mrs.Morro's second grade class at Charles A. Selzer School, Dumont, New Jersey.


How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question:

IMPORTANT: Answer only ONE question in each e-mail message.

1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-hwhale@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #15 (or #16).
3. In the body of your message, answer the question above.

The Next Humpback Whale Migration Update will Be Posted on April 25, 2001.

Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form

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