Singer with 100% white flukes
This whale was documented as a singer in Feb 2010. HMMC researchers determined that this male was singing by listening with an underwater microphone and observing that the singing stopped when the whale came up to breathe every 12 minutes or so. Humpback whale song is one of the most complex animal vocalizations on earth. The reasons that males sing are still elusive, although it is clearly a display related to mating. Some males even begin to sing in late summer in their high-latitude feeding grounds like southeastern Alaska.