Talk:Humpback whale/Archive 1

older entries
Below is a copy of the comments on FAC. Whilst "official" comments remain unmolested at fac, I'm feeling at liberty to refactor this copy to make it easier to see what needs to be done and to add my own comments. (Sorry for using a talk page as something akin to a personal scratchpad!)


 * Supporters: David Gerard, Gtrmp (Sean Curtin), Meelar


 * Qualified support: Exploding Boy wants
 * External links - This is a reasonable request and should be possible - DONE
 * Querying capitalization - I think it is ok to let this one slide. - PASSED OVER.


 * Objectors: Matt dillhole
 * Whale song - DONE.
 * Full view image - Perhaps the most crucial missing element. DONE.
 * Facts - behaviour - Valid - Need to write the separate article - too many other species have similar behaviour to put it here. - DONE what needs to be done here. Other article TO BE DONE.
 * Facts - feeding - We already talk about feeding - probably more can be said without getting too tedious - DONE
 * Facts - size of body parts - Yeah maybe, an image would perhaps be better though. - DONE
 * Talk about the major studies of these whales - who are the key players etc. This might be a little dull but I think necessary to round out the article. - DONE.

The Humpback whale gets its name from the motion it makes when it arches its back
 * sj
 * Evolution - Good point - Humpbacks are in their own family - was it always thus? DONE.
 * Image descriptions - Good point - DONE.
 * Social groups - Good point - DONE.
 * Intermixing with other species - Need to research what is known - DONE
 * Intermixing with humans - Mention curiousity about boats - protective behaviour of mother - DONE
 * Historical perspective - Suggestion is that we are too top-heavy with the whaling and in particular emphasising the numerical aspect rather than human side. DONE (to the extent that I am able)
 * Who studies these whales - tie with Matt's last above. - DONE


 * mav
 * Whole animal image - DONE.
 * Feeding - They feed on their young
 * Parenting - DONE.
 * Mating - DONE.
 * Evolution - DONE.
 * Ecological niche - I don't know the answer to this - TO BE DONE?

Pcb21| Pete 13:10, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * The article was later featured. Pcb21| Pete 14:14, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Would someone tell me why "Humpback Whale" is capitalized throughout this article? (I attempted to fix this overcapitalization, but someone else reversed the changes.) PittBill 15:49, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Oh, never mind. I found the relevant article on capitalizing species names. PittBill 16:00, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Map
I think a lot of what I've put at Talk:Blue Whale also applies here too (e.g. Humpback Whale is a major rarity in the North Sea, maybe one every few years, and does it ever enter the Baltic Sea?) - anyone care to comment? - MPF 00:36, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC) As far as I remember whales (I think only small ones) enter the baltic sea by accident and don't find the exit again, and die because of the lower salt conditions in the baltic sea.
 * As you were saying, if a whale (of any kind) is found in the Baltic sea it has most likely wandered off there in error and will have a difficult time getting out again. The English wikipedia has an erroneous map. See this article in any other language for reference, i.e. Swedish, German, Norwegian... --212.209.190.192 11:23, 27 Novemb[[Media:er 2006 (UTC)

--58.173.17.88 (talk) 05:41, 20 February 2008 (UTC) Small Text ]]ṆŰ

the whale song can be heard right around the world - from one whale. other whales can hear whales that are on the opposite side of the globe Insert non-formatted text here В --58.173.17.88 (talk) 05:41, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Image queue
This image was removed from the article, presumably because there are too many images for low resolution screens? Keeping here in a queue. Pcb21| Pete 07:08, 20 May 2005 (UTC) have sex with a lady bith fucker.

Megaptera band
There also is a band named Megaptera, but Megaptera redirects here. Somebody should do something about that. --82.79.53.16 14:52, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Intelligence
The text as it stands currently reads, "Their analysis of the whale song led to worldwide media interest in the species, and left an impression in the public mind that whales were a highly intelligent species. This impression is probably incorrect (see cetacean intelligence), but is probably a contributing factor to the anti-whaling stance of many countries."

However, the article on cetacean intelligence includes no such information. It seems to mostly be about dolphins rather than whales, does not seem to give much particular impression about dolphins not being highly intelligent, and has no information about the whale song. Should the "probably incorrect" commentary be removed, or is there some other source it could point to? Revkat 09:07, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Image switch
I switched the images because I could barely see a whale in the original image at the top. Although the original shows the power of a whale, a more accurate picture would be that of a whale while being able to discern its details. Silverleaftree 06:15, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Why "Humpback"?
Is called humpback whale because of the motion itmakes when it arches its backBold text Can someone add an explanation for why it is called "humpback"? Presumably this refers to its anatomy, though this is just a guess. A-giau 10:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

The Humpback whales arch their backs into the "hump" shape shown in the article when diving deep from the surface, giving them the name "Humpback", most other whales tend to simply sink down under the water.
 * If you have a citation for this, please update the page. I know this is true having seen them, but I don't have a formal citation. 24.72.32.150 (talk) 23:45, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Whaling
The moratorium went into effect in 1986 - not 1966. see http://www.iwcoffice.org/index.htm Please correct this typo.

Hi just wondering why there aren't any references to Japan in the issue of Whaling? Japan has been calling for the 20-year ban on commercial whaling to be scrapped. There is a real danger that in the near future they will be successful in their campaign, see the following News papers report for recent revelations on Japan's "Aid" to Pro-whaling countries.

Bumps and Barnacles?
Was wondering what the encrustations that you often see on the nose and head of humpbacks are? Are they barnacles or parasites of some kind? Or bone structures? --Corinthian 21:41, 14 December 2006 (UTC)> Good question. They are most commonly BEEJ and pals. By the way, which head????? BEEJ likes head.

Citation Needed for Research Anecdote
At the end of the Research section is the following:

"One researcher was once approached while observing the whales underwater from far off, the whale came over, and gently nudged the researcher with one of it fins and pushed him towards its eye to get a better look at the human."

This paragraph consists of a single run-on sentence. It is vague, anecdotal, and it seems made up. If this anecdote is true, it needs to be cited and rewritten using specific details and proper sentence structure; otherwise it should be removed.

146.145.138.79 22:18, 21 February 2007 (UTC) rcl

Helpful links
this may be good... cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 07:11, 1 April 2007 (UTC) For those interested in whale watching, here's guide for Hawaii

Protozoan ciliates
I removed the following from the section, "Threats other than hunting" because the paragraph describes something that is, if I'm reading it correctly, not a threat. Can someone provide more context or explanation for the significance of this fact?

The protozoan ciliate Haematophagus megapterae, attaches to the baleen plates of the Humpback as it does to the Fin Whale and Blue Whale, yet is apparently not pathogenic, and merely feeds off the whales' red blood cells.

Kla'quot 05:15, 17 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Hmmm..yeah. Have to look into it, sorta fits under some sort of ecology bit, but where? cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 05:19, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Marine mammal mortality programs
Sorry, I've just shortened the "Threats due to hunting" section again. This time I removed:

"The stranding of fourteen Humpbacks off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1987 was one of the events, along with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, that led the United States to develop a legal framework and procedures for dealing with MMUMEs (Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events). The United Kingdom also has programmes to investigate events of the large scale death of marine mammals, such as the 1988 epizootic that killed 18,000 common seals."

This sounds accurate, but it doesn't say much about Humpback conservation specifically, and it implies that large-scale die-offs are more of a threat than, say, reproductive failure. This section needs a lot of work. I'll see what I can do to expand it. Please try to beat me to it ;) Cheers, Kla'quot 06:10, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Population and distribution issues
The other issue is the discrepancy in migration stats in terms of km travelled, if you have a look at the first para. I added the 2nd after a recent study published. Will look more later but just alerting folks. cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 06:53, 17 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Maybe one figure is one-way and the other is round-trip? Kla'quot 06:07, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm getting conflicting data on the population estimates. This ref: http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfg=endangered.humpbackwhale says there are 1000-1200 humpbacks in the North Pacific. This one: http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0701/feature2/index.html says there are 10,000 to 25,000. Can anyone explain this? Kla'quot 06:07, 19 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Weird...the 2nd article says its a new study soon to be published. Could have a preamble saying 'reports vary' or highlight numbers are difficult to obtain etc. I recall reading somewhere that numbers can be hard to estimate but not sure where that was now.. Also numbers may be increasing though I didn't think Humpbacks bred that quickly :) cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 06:31, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

That sounds right. Here are the numbers I'm currently crunching:
 * National Parks Conservation Association: Worldwide pre-whaling pop. 125,000, current pop. 5,000 to 7,500.
 * American Cetacean Society: Worldwide current pop. 30,000-40,000 at present, or about 30-35% of the original population.
 * Marinebio.org Worldwide current pop. 60,000, or about 30-35% of the original population.
 * National Geographic (2007): Largest study to date, by SPLASH, puts the current North Pacific population at 10,000 to 25,000.

As SPLASH has the best research methods, I'm inclined to consider it the most reliable, so the National Parks Conservation Association is probably in error here. I'll try something like "worldwide population estimates range from about 30,000 to 60,000." Kla'quot 05:02, 21 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 09:14, 21 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The article used to say 5,000-7,000, now says 30,000 - 50,000. This is even better than tripling elephants! Kla'quot 08:25, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Updated with the above NG figures for the N-pacific (is that source already among the footnotes?) and 30.000 for the N-Atlantic with sources. This, with the southern population of 50.000 (Is there a source on that?) brings the total to about 100.000. I'm raising the intro to 60.000-120.000. Asgrrr (talk) 05:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

NOAA states that the North Atlantic population is at about 11,570. The estimate is over a decade old, so it could possibly be an underestimate. Heres the pdf: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2006_whhb-gme.pdf. A recent report submitted to the IWC stated that there are over 50,000 humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere. Heres the pdf: http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/sci_com/SC59docs/SC-59-ForInformation25.pdf Jonas Poole (talk) 23:49, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Come on now, a decade old number is no use. The source I cited fulfills the criteria for a reliable source. Unless someone has a better one, there is no foundation for removing it. Asgrrr (talk) 09:45, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Find an ENGLISH source that gives 30,000 as the current population size, and how that estimate came to be. Come on now, you're telling me that the humpback whale population in the North Atlantic nearly trebled in a decade in a half when it is estimated to be increasing at around 3% annually? I'm removing it until you find a RELIABLE source. Jonas Poole (talk) 01:34, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

According to the AP the humpback whale population(s) in the North Pacific now numbers between 18,000 and 20,000. Here's the press release: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWFkQCL_vHK6YpzN4u_OGxhZdm6AD90RC50G0 I don't know how to add in-line references to news articles on the page, so in the edit I'll just say "See Discussion." Anyone want to add the link for me it would be much appreciated. Jonas Poole (talk) 20:53, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Suggested edit (because i don't know how to do edits properly) would be to update the migratory range of 8,300 km referenced using citation 29 (even though it's listed as 28 in the actual lists of references).... a more recent article (Oct.13, 2010) in Biology Letters (fulltext) says that they have found an individual that travelled 9,800km, beating the previous record that was written about in Rasmussen et al's 2007 publication. (more info in link).--&#91;&#91;User:Mwalle&#124;Mark&#93;&#93; (talk) 18:00, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Cooperation in defending from Orcas
I've removed this claim as I can't find a ref to support it, and most of the literature is sketchy on the whole subject. (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02943.x?journalCode=mec states males do not directly defend mothers and calves under attack, which is a strike against it) Yomangani talk 09:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)


 * How do you guys feel about the article now? The only other thing I could think of was a wikilink to a description of "blow" as I didn't immediately know what it was, however none of the meanings on blow are accurate. Only a very minor point though. cheers, Casliber | talk  |  contribs 09:33, 23 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I've got some articles to write to fill some redlinks for this article - I've done Remington Kellogg, but SPLASH, Regnum Animale and Blow (cetacean) are all on my list. I'll try and do blow tomorrow (hold on, that's today), but I'm a little busy at the moment. Some of the refs could do with moving to the cite template in line with the others and some ISBN numbers need adding, but, again, minor points. Yomangani talk 09:43, 23 April 2007 (UTC)


 * No major issues. There can probably be some quibbles about things like whether numbers should be numbers or words. Something should be added about theories as to why humpbacks migrate. I'd also like to add more about rescues of humpbacks entangled in fishing nets. Kla'quot 05:32, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

semi-protect
What is it with whales? First Blue Whale, now this one are copping daily hits. I've semiprotected it for a month to see if it dies down...cheers, Cas Liber | talk  |  contribs 02:45, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, unprotected and lasted all of an hour or so before being vandalised...let's see how we go......cheers, Cas Liber | talk  |  contribs 06:40, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Life time citation
The article claims humpback whale can become 40-50 years old, but doesn't cite a source. It is known that some related species can live for up to 200 years.

Delta and Dawn were in the Port of Sacramento in the City of West Sacramento75.8.108.180 04:09, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

The moratorium went into effect in 1986 - not 1966. Please correct this major typo.

Whaling section
"The first recorded Humpback kill was made in 1608 off Nantucket. Opportunistic killing of the species is likely to have occurred long before, and it continued with increasing pace in the following centuries. By the 18th century, the commercial value of Humpback Whales had been recognized, and they became a common target for whalers for many years."

I for one would like to see the original document that states that a humpback whale was killed off Nanucket in 1608. It wasn't settled until 1659, so it may have been some unknown explorer (to me at least) who witnessed native americans hunting this supposed humpback? I know the reference came from Phil Clapham's book Humpback Whales (1996), but he doesn't provide a source, and knowing his rather ignorant remarks made on whaling history (calling the bark Superior the Thomas Roys, the ship's captain), I'd show caution in using him as a source on this subject. Shall this part of the section be removed or edited in some way? Jonas Poole 01:47, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Absolutely - if you have a higher level of knowledge and are fairly sure of the above then please step in and alter. I was one of the folk that rescued this from FAR and am only an enthusiast not an expert. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:56, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, I remembered that John Smith fitted out or was at least part of a mixed voyage to New England in 1614, in which they had whaling experts with them. Now Ellis (Men & Whales, 1991) had left out what species they attempted to catch (as they weren't able to catch any), but I found a reprint of Smith's writings and it stated they were hunting "iubartes" or "jubartes," which is a french term for the humpback whale. Now perhaps the beginning should be rewritten as such, "One of the first attempts to hunt the humpback whale was made by John Smith in 1614 off the coast of Maine." Anyone else feel free to suggest an alternate intro. Heres the book, which I'm not quite sure how to cite as it has more than one title: http://books.google.com/books?id=FwAbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=smith,+john&ei=tBjzRuuWM6S4pwKVouVf&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA175,M1 Jonas Poole 01:07, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Featured Picture?
Hey all. With a Featured humpback article already, I've nominated one of these images as a featured picture. If you have time, maybe you could check out the discussion and voice your opinion on THIS PAGE.-- Eva  b  d  19:46, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Room for another Featured Picture candidate?
There is a very nice image of a humpback whale breaching up for consideration to be a featured picture. However, one of the criteria for being a featured picture is contributing significantly to an article, this image isn't even in any articles, and there is already a very nice image of a whale breaching on this page. Does anyone know of a good place Image:Humpback stellwagen.JPG could go? Enuja (talk) 03:18, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Conservation status
Some recent news sources have indicated that the IUCN now classifies Humpback Whales as "least concern" instead of "threatened". Are these sources trustworthy? --UberScienceNerd Talk Contributions 01:47, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. This is from the IUCN.  See this IUCN press release and this update to the cetacean species for the 2008 red list.  Neil916 (Talk) 04:37, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I am confused. The 'conservation' section still talks about them to be endangered and threatened. Does that need to be updated as well? Splette :) How's my driving? 13:35, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. This is a new development and it hasn't been completely integrated into the article yet.  Sorry I have such little time, or I'd do it myself.  Neil916 (Talk) 15:24, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I've been meaning to make these changes too. This all just happened literally within the last week. --JayHenry (talk) 00:08, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
 * The IUCN templates that show Humpback Whales as "Vulnerable" should probably be removed from the page now (and updated to the extent those templates are used on other article pages). Rlendog (talk) 02:44, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Famous humpbacks: "Colin" the abandoned baby humpback whale
The section concerning famous humpbacks in my opinion should be expanded to include the current story unfolding in Australian waters with Colin, the abandoned baby whale. This whale is currently attracting national media attention in Australia. Major news outlets covering the unfolding story include:


 * The Australian
 * The Daily Telegraph
 * The Age
 * Australian Broadcasting Corporation

- Zzrbiker (talk) 09:59, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
 * "Colin" turned out to be female. 203.7.140.3 (talk) 04:33, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Unnoticed vandalism?
Under Description and lifecycle. Current text reads "The largest humpback on record, according to whaling records, was killed in the Caribbean. She was 88 ft long, weighing nearly 90 tons--although clearly bullshit to anyone with half a brain." 82.21.232.166 (talk) 12:26, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Fixed, thanks for noticing. This remained unnoticed for more than a month! -- Unpopular Opinion ( talk ) 13:48, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Status
In the Conservation section it incorrectly starts by stating that this species is Vulnerable. However, as also stated in the end of the same section (and also in the taxobox) it is now listed as Least Concern with two subpopulations as Endangered. Someone should consider correcting this. 212.10.82.176 (talk) 05:15, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Confusing wording
I take issue with the phrase "but it is likely that young calves are sometimes killed." in the Feeding section. Likely sometimes? Very vague and confusing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.207.206.210 (talk) 18:27, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Also, there's on instance of "bubblenet" (as one word) when the rest of the article uses two words.--66.207.206.210 (talk) 16:59, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Incorrect Whaling Moratorium Year
Third paragraph from the top, this line: " Due to over-hunting, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a whaling moratorium was introduced in 1966. "

The Moratorium was placed in 1986 actually.

This is for a full commercial ban, if this is what you're talking about.

But, it may be about a ban on hunting the Humpback Whale, which was actually placed in 1963. Either way, the date is wrong.

Thanks guys, NoFlyingCars (talk) 14:25, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Killer Whale Predation
The article states that killer whale kills of humpback calves have never been witnessed. This article begs to differ: http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/nature-turns-nasty-as-killer-whales-hit-calves/story-e6frfq80-1226101653107 Can someone more familiar with wikipedia editing correct this? I'm kind of nervous about barging in and just pulling out an entire section of page, even if it is inaccurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.194.237.110 (talk) 06:29, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Whale Watching
Specifically the areas listed in the square Summer by North Pacific. This square incorrectly identifies a Canadian city (Vancouver) as an area. It should list the area as British Columbia, which is the province. In fact Vancouver is located on the Georgia Strait and baleen whale sightings in that area are extremely rare. Seamountie (talk) 04:28, 14 June 2009 (UTC) There is a part in the description section, that's incorrect. The Pectoral fins are almost half the length of the body and the distinctive identification marks that are just like a finger print are on the Flukes aka the tail. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.192.11.226 (talk) 22:48, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

More confusing wording
This bit doesn't really make sense to me. "Internationally this species is considered least concern from a conservation standpoint as of 2008."

I would change it to "Internationally this species is classified as 'least concern' from a conservation standpoint as of 2008."

I originally thought it was written by a non-native speaker or just badly written until I checked and found out that 'least concern' is an official IUCN category. I think it need quote marks at least. I would have added it myself, but most of my edits were done before I registered so no changes to semi-protected pages for me. If someone else could do it that would be great. Thanks. Mistermanana (talk) 18:45, 30 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I think you are right. I added quotes for clarity. Rlendog (talk) 02:15, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Migaloo
I was going to add a line that says Migaloo may well be an albino and, as such, may not be able to breed owing to a low sperm count. This was based on the ABC News article quoting Professor Harriman of the Southern Cross University whale research centre. The article is here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/10/2622688.htm

However, I couldn't do it as there is no edit tab on the page - it appears to be protected, so could someone with editing powers please update the Migaloo section with this new information? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.167.67.50 (talk) 03:28, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Whale Watching Table
A small thing but it just looks like some syntax error. In the summer seasons it isn't broken up correctly between the atlantic and pacific columns so places like alaska and california are found on the atlantic side instead of the pacific side and antartica is listed as north pacific.--12.169.71.4 (talk) 20:00, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Note that the Bay of Biscay is not a modern wintering ground in the North Atlantic. More appropriate would be to replace that with Silver Bank, north of the Dominican Republic, or to generalize to the Greater Caribbean. Silver Bank is the main aggregation site for humpback whales in the North Atlantic in winter.

editsemiprotected - Major Typo
There is a typo in the whaling section. the moratorium went into force in 1986, not 1966. See http://www.iwcoffice.org/index.htm. Please make this change.

Article title
Why a capital W? Wouldn't Humpback whale be more in alignment with the Manual of Style? — OwenBlacker (Talk) 20:44, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Indeed, could someone change that, please? – Acdx (talk) 17:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The Cetacean Wikiproject (WP:CETA) has standardized the naming convention for cetacean species to capitalize the common name of species. There have been many long discussions of that over on that project, feel free to raise the issue there.  Neil916 (Talk) 17:33, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

are they really whales
My school had people come and say that they aren't whales they are dolphins —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.103.37.143 (talk) 01:37, 16 June 2010 (UTC)
 * They are certainly not dolphins. But even if they were dolphins, they would still be whales. ErikHaugen (talk) 07:00, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Whales and dolphins are both cetaceans, but are not the same thing. Humpback whales are whales, and not dolphins, and dolphins are not whales, but a different group defined by their distinctive features. Bergjacobe^^ (talk) 18:35, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

WhalePower
A discussion of the humpback's contribution to aerodynamics is warranted here, in my opinion. See []. At very least, I think the tubercule section should note that they also appear along the leading edge of the pectoral flippers. Bluej100 (talk) 03:51, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

Black / white colouring of Humpback populations
I seem to recall once reading that a difference between the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere populations of Humpback whales is that the southern hemisphere whales have a predominantly white belly, whereas the northern hemisphere whales are blacker. Is there any truth to this? Anyone know any sources? Would be good to get a little more information about colouring in the article. --Stuart mcmillen (talk) 06:40, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Needs moore references
Many of the "facts" have no citations. Which "researchers"? Who are they? Thanks, :) Loopy48 (talk) 00:45, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, too many repetitious images. Decreases impact of each image and breaks up the text flow with large gaps of white space only. Ugh. Loopy48 (talk) 20:53, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Work needed
Hi everyone, this article currently appears near the top of the cleanup listing for featured articles, with several cleanup tags. Cleanup work needs to be completed on this article, or a featured article review may be needed, cheers Tom B (talk) 22:57, 27 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Agree. I am trying to rehabilitate a few articles at FAR currently but would like to see this kept. Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:42, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Migration Path(s) Alaska to Hawaii - Is there any information regarding this? I have been unsuccessful in locating anything other than the end points. Is there ongoing research, including how the whales navigate? Glenn Cannon 6 February 2012 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gacannon (talk • contribs) 07:36, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

False informations
We'll have to change parts of the first paragraph because obviously a humback whale is larger than 1-2 m and weighs more than 3 kg. Although it has "long things", I don't think it is appropriate to say so. Finally, I doubt humpbacks can be "found in cars and water bottles". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dmerette (talk • contribs) 13:06, 9 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It was obviously vandalism done by some bored preteen. It's been reverted. You could have easily done this yourself instead of complaining on here. It's not something difficult to change. OldBabyBlue (talk) 19:39, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Winter Feeding
I am no whale expert, but I've seen a group of humpback whales joining killer whales in a feeding frenzy complete with birds circling overhead. This was yesterday (29th December 2013) near Sommarøy in Norway (inside arctic circle) on a whale watching excursion. This continued for about half an hour. An engine failure and fix later, our boat caught up with the whales by searching for a large school of fish with the use of a fishfinder.

This is completely at odds with the notion that they do not feed over winter. Maybe the behaviour is different for whales that do not migrate to warmer climates? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.92.16.212 (talk) 22:51, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Conservation
The Humpback whale is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) as this species has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. In addition, Spinner dolphin is covered by Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region (Pacific Cetaceans MOU). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Water manager (talk • contribs) 10:44, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Aboriginal/Aborigines
In the Migaloo section, the word Aboriginals should read Aborigines. Aborigine is the noun, Aboriginal is the adjective. Pedantic matter I know, but proper grammar is important. Lezman (talk) 23:02, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Whale Watching and other facts - South Western Group
Additions needed to the “Whale Watching Table” There is no mention of the South Western Group at all. As this is, and has been, a multimillion dollar industry for W.A., and it is one of the larger groups on the planet, it needs to be included. Approximately 35000 humpbacks range from the North West Pilbara coast off Western Australia where they give birth, to down past Perth between Rottnest Island and onward to Antarctica to feed. They have been doing this since prehistoric times and during early colonisation of Perth, the phrase “You could walk from Perth to Rottnest on the back of a humpback whale” was coined due to the sheer numbers of them before whaling started. This corridor is now referred to as the “Humpback Highway” when they begin heading South around September each year. (full migration data easily available to you elsewhere) Other facts about the South West Group (one of the 6 major worldwide groups) •	The females in the group are the largest of any other group •	South West Humpback have all white undersides, not mottled like the Hawaiian or other groups (another contributor has asked to confirm this question on the talk page) •	The males head South first, sometimes in pairs or groups, the mothers and calves follow later •	The group have gone without eating for about 5 months, this is the reason why you can see the rippled bumps on their backs rear of the dorsal fin as they have lost so much weight their spines have become defined. •	In (1986 or 9?) A South West Humpback male returned to the East coast of Australia instead of the West coast for reasons unknown where his song was so successful he outbid all other males for the females. •	The following season, all the East Coast males had copied the West Coast whales’ song and only one song was hear all that season. (I don’t remember the exact year, but can find out)

Other Humpback facts

The milk produced by the mothers is thick in consistency like chewing gum and is close to 50% fat, calves can gain as much as 45kg in weight in one day

Humpbacks move slowly, around 5km/h The fastest known time for a humpback to pass Perth on the ‘Highway’ was 3 days, the slowest, 10 days.

Earwax has been found up to 1 metre in length (and is used to help identify age)

Lungs the size of cars (each) can inhale and exhale that volume in around 2 seconds

Combined weight of testes can be 1 tonne

Contributors notes. All this information is from a visiting Marine Biologist on board and the regular tour guide on a whale watching tour I did in September 2011. They offered much more information (of which none is cited on this Wiki entry) and had props for demonstration and an actual inner ear bone (larger than a softball) which was very dense, explaining that the density of the bone slows down the sound waves to assist in direction finding/point of origin of the sound. I can attest to the inquisitiveness of humpbacks as the 2 we encountered stopped swimming, checked us out for over 15 minutes, lifting their heads out of the water, rolling onto their backs as they swam under the boat (can clearly see their white undersides) fin slapping and tail slapping as well as blowing bubbles for brief periods. After that time they lost interest and continued swimming South. (I have it all on HD video and still photos)

The tour I was on (one of many available in Perth) Check out "millscharters.com.au/whale-watching/"

Perhaps some of my data you may choose not to include until you verify it, however, in the very least, in the Whale Watching section, the existence of this group must be recognised. Tanukikousagi (talk) 01:46, 1 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, perhaps you should add it yourself instead of complaining about it. 35,000? That's either a typo or an exaggeration. There's about 20,000 that migrate off the east and west coasts combined. And humpback lungs are no where near the size of cars. SaberToothedWhale (talk) 00:58, 24 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, SaberToothedWhale  I would add it myself however the page is controlled and the talk section was the only place I could add this information. I do not have permission to edit directly. Second, I am not 'complaining', I am merely making a suggestion that this data be included by whomever is able to update the page. 35000 is not an exaggeration as it came directly from the Marine Bioligist herself, they have been tracking the migration for years. In addition, a recent article has stated that the West Coast of Australia has one of the largest, if not the largest collections of cetaceans in the world.

All the data is there to be verified. Check it out if you feel the urge. I wanted to reply to directly but could not find a way to do so. Apologies to others who read this. Tanukikousagi (talk) 01:59, 24 November 2011 (UTC)
 * You only have to edit for a short while to edit protected pages. I believe it's only a few days. I honestly don't care what figure this so-called "marine biologist" gave. The most recent estimates (made by scientists studying this population for years) are no where near 35,000. A "recent article"? So a newspaper? So what they said is worthless, because it's a newspaper. And to reply directly all you had to do was go to my talk page and create a new section. It's quite simple, really. SaberToothedWhale (talk) 01:16, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Feeding 4.1
Confusing sentences: The whales then suddenly swim upward through the 'net', mouths agape, swallowing thousands of fish in one gulp. Plated grooves in the whale's mouth allow the creature to easily drain all the water that was initially taken in.

Possible replacement: The whales then suddenly swim upward through the 'net', mouths agape, engulfing thousands of fish. Pleated grooves in the whale's throat expand to hold the great volume of water and prey. Then the water is forced back out the mouth with the baleen acting as a strainer, trapping the fish inside to be promptly swallowed. Zipzip50 (talk) 06:12, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Famous Humpbacks
Does this section really need to exist? I can see it getting excessively long (which it might already be) in the near future. I understand mentioning Migaloo and Humphrey, but all these other whales? Mr. Splashypants? Really? Does anyone else agree this section should be trimmed? Perhaps removed altogether? SaberToothedWhale (talk) 01:08, 24 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I gave plenty of time to reply, but no one bothered to say anything, so I removed most of the content. I decided to keep Migaloo and Humphrey. I honestly hate this age of social media where every little animal that makes the local news gets some stupid name and now is considered notable enough to be included on wikipedia? Why? Because they existed? Stupid as hell. SaberToothedWhale (talk) 00:34, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Influence of Star Trek IV
Does anyone know if the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had any effect on conservation efforts or reduction in whaling? I think I once read that following the movie, hunting of humpbacks essentially stopped altogether. I'm not sure that could be correct as article says the ban has been in place since 1966, 20 years before the movie was made. But, has anyone else heard of Star Trek having an impact? 150.203.110.172 (talk) 06:47, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The species was already severely reduced worldwide long before that movie came out, so I'd so no, it had no effect on the species' conservation. SaberToothedWhale (talk) 22:52, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
 * But what was the effect after the movie? Did numbers being to recover dramatically or were numbers recovering already and the movie made no impact on it? 150.203.110.172 (talk) 12:07, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Nothing (or close to it). Numbers were already increasing before the movie came out. SaberToothedWhale (talk) 22:10, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Lifespan
So, do they live up to 48 years, or 100? This article states both. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.152.91.228 (talk) 18:21, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 28 July 2013
Please change "Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter." to "Humpbacks feed mostly in the summer in polar waters and feed whenever the opportunity arises as they migrate to tropical or subtropical waters where they give birth and breed in the winter. It was commonly accepted that whales didn't feed while migrating but whales are regularly seen and documented by whales researchers in the beautiful waters of the Kimberley, Northern Australia, feeding on schools of bait fish before and after giving birth."

recent studies by researchers investigating the effect of a LNG project at James Price Point on the whale population observed tens of thousands of whales between 2011 and 2012 with many documented feeding periods being observed and recorded.

Angelamcintosh (talk) 12:25, 28 July 2013 (UTC)


 * They've also been documented feeding in southeast Alaska in winter and probably a host of other places. And I would take out the "beautiful waters" part -- sounds likes advertising. SHFW70 (talk) 19:58, 28 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Rivertorch (talk) 06:59, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

Editrequest
Please add to the Migaloo section since  redirects to it, and there are other uses. -- 76.65.128.222 (talk) 03:21, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done  -Ryan  04:32, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

"In popular media"
I see no benefit whatsoever in having an unreferenced "in popular media" section that provides no analysis of either the role of humpback whales in popular media or the impact depictions in popular media had on humpback whales. A list of examples does not improve our readers' understanding of humpback whales at all, and there are WP:OR issues. Thus I'll remove the section. Huon (talk) 19:48, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Error in description
The description says ″The two most enduring mention the higher maneuverability afforded by long fins, and the usefulness of the increased surface area for temperature control when migrating between warm and cold climates.″ - this doesn't make sense, although I haven't edited it as I don't know what it is trying to say. The two most enduring mention... what? ... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.63.57.150 (talk) 12:05, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

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About the Lead Image
Is the lead image of a juvenile humpback whale? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Esagurton (talk • contribs) 07:00, 10 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Can't tell w/o size comparison, but since the original source talks about "humpback whales in the singing position", that would indicate adults. -- Elmidae (talk · contribs) 07:28, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

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Late Miocene
Considering that:


 * the first section says: "The rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene era. However, it is not known when the members of these families diverged from each other";
 * the only pre-Pleistocene occurrence of this taxon on the Paleobiology Database is dated to a very vague "Neogene 23.03 - 2.588"; and
 * the primary source given for this occurrence is over 110 years old;

Should the infobox state so unambiguously that Megaptera novaeangliae dates back to the Late Miocene? I know that PaleoBioDB explicitly says "Age range: base of the Neogene to the top of the Holocene or 23.03000 to 0.00000 Ma", but every single PaleoBioDB data sheet with an age range says "Age range: base of the X to top of the Y", so it seems to be more of a standardised text than anything else.

Furthermore, if we were to strictly follow the PaleoBioDB reference, the base of the Neogene is the Early Miocene... which would further conflict with Gingerich, 2004.--Leptictidium (mt) 16:32, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm going to change it to a more flexible "Miocene".--Leptictidium (mt) 06:20, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

What does the reference Katona and Beard 1982 refer to?
I couldn't find what it referred to: nothing to look up. VickiMeagher (talk) 13:29, 10 July 2019 (UTC)