Humpback whales are great whales or baleen whales: called baleen whales because they have baleen plates which they use to filter food from water, rather than having teeth to eat with. You can tell a humpback whale by their unique body shape: they have unusually long pectoral fins and knobby heads. Humpback whales are amazingly agile and often breach or spy-hop out of the water throwing two thirds or more of their body in the air and then creating a large cannon ball splash with their backs. Both male and females vocalize and it's the males who create the beautiful long and loud songs for which the species is famous - is it to attract the females? The whales form their sounds by forcing air through their massive nasal cavities and the songs are different for different areas: North Pacific whales songs will be the same but different from North Alantic songs. A super cool whale to see out on a whale watching tour, they are one of our favourites.
These humpback whales were photographed by Archipelago Wildlife Cruises on one of their whale and wildlife watching tours.
Welcome to the Humpback Whale Watching on the West Coast in Ucluelet BC, Canada