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41 Maui Whale Watch Magazine • WhaleWatching OnMaui.com Most humpbacks that live in the waters of the North Pacific migrate to warm water areas to give birth to their young. This usually happens from November to April. Then, when spring arrives, they travel back to cool northern waters to feed and rebuild their supplies of blubber. Whales that live in the Antarctic region do exactly the opposite due to opposing seasons. From December to April, they feed in the Antarctic, then migrate north to areas near the equator from May to September. Some marine researchers believe humpbacks stay an average of just a few weeks in Hawaiian waters before migrating back to Alaska, but depending upon breeding circumstances, it can be longer. Recently impregnated females are likely to return north right away, but a female who has recently given birth will stick around, waiting until her calf is strong enough to make the remarkable journey back to their feeding grounds in colder waters. The long summer days in Alaska provide plenty of hours of sunshine to grow photoplankton, which is why Alaskan waters are so green. Small schooling fish like herring and capelin depend on this plant life as their food source. An adult humpback whale can easily eat over 2,000 lbs. of these little guys in a single day. Sometimes, when humpback whales migrate, they travel in groups called "pods" that are spaced fairly far apart. Since whales need to eat a lot every day, by scattering themselves, they are more likely to find a suitable feeding place. Because of Hawaii's location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the water is relatively nutrient free (which is why our waters are so clear and blue), and too warm to support enough of the humpback's food to sustain them year round. So, during their stay here, humpbacks are said to be "on a diet," living off their accumulated fat reserve, called blubber. While in Hawaii, humpbacks congregate mainly in two areas - around the four islands that make up Maui County, and near the Penguin Banks southwest of Molokai. But during the past eleven years, researchers have also noticed more humpbacks around the other Hawaiian Islands and even into the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The waters surrounding our beautiful Islands have become such an important humpback whale habitat that in 1992, the U.S. Congress designated critical areas as the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Humpbacks are MIG RATION Photos by Marty Wolff