The Humpback Whale :: essays research papers

To look up into the mountains and see the steam rolling from a mountain stream on a cold winters morning is a beautiful sight. However, to look out over the horizon and see the white spray of salt water coming from the blow of a grand hump-back monster is much more exciting sight and a whole lot warmer. I lived in the mountains of Colorado for most of my childhood. The first time I had the chance to see the ocean was on a vacation to California, when I was about 15 years old. It was even better than I had dreamed it would be. The different animals in the ocean, the color of the water, and the warm sand between my toes was probably what led me to come to the islands of Hawaii. When I first saw the hump-back whale I was amazed at their huge size and how they could breach out of the water so gracefully. It is as if they were trying to play or show off. So when we were asked to choose a favorite animal, I had no problem deciding on the hump-back whale.The hump-back whale gets its name from the distinctive hump in front of the dorsal fin and from the way it raises its back heights above water before diving. They are a member of the order Cetacea. This order is of aquatic mammals and the hump-back belongs to the suborder of the Mysticeti. The Mysticeti are the baleen whales which have three families and several(prenominal) species. The family in which the hump-back belongs is the Balaenopteridae, the true fin backed whale. The thing that separates this genus from the other fin-backed whales is the pectoral fins, which grow in lengths of about 5 meters (16.4 feet). This Genus is called Megaptera meaning great telephone extension (Tinker 290). There was a controversy over the species name in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In 1932, Remington Kellogg finally settled the matter with Megatera Novaeangliae (Cousteau 84). The commons English name is the hump-back whale.The hump-back whale lives in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Since we liv e in the Pacific Ill be discussing the hump-backs of the North Pacific. They migrate from North to South. In the months of July through September they gather in the Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea or the Chukchi Sea. They head south for the winter.