Humpback Harmonies

By now, most North Pacific Humpback Whales have passed through our region on their annual migration to warmer tropical waters where they will mate and deliver their cute little 1,500 pound, 15 foot-long babies.


In a reverse of what we post-Thanksgiving humans do, the whales don’t feed in the winter, but live on the fat stores they piled on during all that krill, herring, etc., chowing-down that we observed out by the Farallon Islands (and up in the higher latitudes; colder water being more nutrient rich).


I always miss them. And it’s a big event when the first northward Humpback raises its flukes in salute - what an entrance! Sometimes when the Humpbacks are seen in our region (a good part of the year actually, sightings are most abundant in the summer but they’re seen in spring and fall also), and especially when we’ve cut the boat’s engine because curious whales have drifted towards us, we can hear clicks and whines, moans and groans, creaks and squeals - the Humpbacks are singing!


Until you’ve been way out to sea, beyond sight of land, with the distinction above and below the horizon barely registering any difference as the grey sea mirrors the grey color of the sky, you won’t understand the impact of those rumbling whale sounds that lets you know that it is the sea that holds the mysteries, that its deepness is the infinite space, and that you are the alien in a world belonging to them, you are the accidental guest.


I thought about all of this when our friend, Pierre Lavagne of France, came for a visit recently and demonstrated his “Shelltone” whale-call invention that replicates the sounds of Humpbacks (our local San Francisco ABC station, KGO-TV, ran a story with Pierre and Verne Bryant, SF Whale Watching’s owner and patron saint, demonstrating the Shelltone: Invention Mimics Humpback Whale Sounds.


Right now, in those warm southern waters where the Humpbacks are breeding, the songs of amorous males can be heard more than 20 miles away from the spot where they vie for the female’s attention.


Female Humpbacks sing too, but it is males who produce distinct “melodies” as they do their courting. Of course, scientists also surmise that there is a dark side of love, and that the serenade is rivalry between potential mates.


Individual songs are composed of many tones and notes and are repeated for hours or days. Researchers don’t really know how the sounds are produced since Humpbacks don’t have vocal chords, and their mouths don’t move as they sing. Theory has it that air circulated through passage-ways and chambers in their respiratory systems produce the sounds.


So as we await the return of the Humpbacks and this season’s calves, it’s fun to think of them singing and socializing in tropical waters. Those thoughts, and these shots of varied Humpback activity, taken throughout peak season near the Farallones, will hold me over until spring...


Photos and Text by Kathleen Jacques.