Hawaiian Humpback Whale By Valentina The humpback whale’s Hawaiian name is Kohola and the scientific name is Megaptera novaeangliae. The Humpback whale is considered endangered according to U.S Wildlife Service, but Wikipedia says their status is improved to “least concerned.” Their song for mating usually takes about 10-20 minutes. Humpback whales can stay underwater for 35 minutes at a time.
Description You can identify a humpback whale by the obvious hump on the
dorsal ridge, long pectoral fins that are one-third their body size, and black dorsal fins. Humpback whales can be black-blue to gray and with white markings on the belly. The white markings are different with every humpback whale. The markings act the way fingerprints do on humans. The adult humpback whales range from 12 to 16 meters and weigh about 79,000 lbs. They can live about 45 to 50 years. They can go as fast as 3 to 9 miles per hour and go as fast as 15 to 16 miles per hour when they feel threatened.
Habitat The Hawaiian Humpback Whales migrate to Hawaii every winter to give birth to their calves and mate. They can also be spotted in Australia, New Zealand, South America, Canada, and around the United States. Most of the Humpback Whales migrate to Hawaii and to Alaska.
Conservation There are about 4,000 to 10,000 Hawaiian Humpback Whales. There is a sanctuary for Hawaiian humpback whales called Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary that surrounds the Hawaiian Islands. This humpback whale sanctuary is one of the world’s most important, because thousands of the whales go there for the winter to give birth in the warm waters.
Why are they Considered Endangered? Humpbacks are considered endangered because lots of humpback whales wash on the shore and because people hunt them. They were hunted for oil and meat and were harmed by pollution from the ocean, ships hitting them, and getting stuck in fishing nets.
What Can We Do To Help Work is already being done to help humpback whales. There are laws and bans on whale hunting. For example, everyone has to be at least 100 yards away from the whale. If you want to help, don’t touch,
chase, surround the humpback whales, or litter in the ocean.
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