Humpback whales are the best documented great whales, and we know a great deal about their lives, because they are so easy to tell apart. We don't have to "tag" them. We have a natural tagging method of simply photographing the underside of their tail, which is usually raised before a deep dive. The coloration ranges from all black (what we call Type 5) to all white (Type 1). Most are a mixture of black and white and unique to each whale like a fingerprint for a person. So by photographing the fluke pattern we can get a positive identification for each individual humpback whale. Over 4,000 individual humpbacks have been documented this way in the northwest Atlantic Ocean alone. They, like the fin whales, are each given catalog numbers, computer codes and field "names." Researchers see many of the same individuals year after year - some for over 20 years!

Pick the Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) fluke

Spoon, a very large female, was first sighted in 1977. She has be seen again every year except 1978. In the summer of 1986 she traveled all the way to Brier Island Nova Scotia to feed. The first calf she was seen with was born in 1983, a male given the name Regulus. Six years later she had another male calf named Vesuvias, and two years after that another calf named Fork. In 1995 she had her fourth known calf.

Most of the humpbacks of the Northwest Atlantic give birth in December and January down south in warm tropical waters. The baby whales are born without a protective blubber layer and probably wouldn't survive in colder waters up north here. The largest breeding ground for these whales is a place called Silver Bank, which is far south in the West Indies, just above of the Dominican Republic. If, in fact, this is where Spoon gave birth, she and her calf swam about 2000 miles to come here this summer! Other humpbacks swim even twice as much distance, to feed farther north in the waters near Greenland and Iceland. West Coast humpbacks have a similar migration, feeding in Alaskan waters and traveling south to breed around the Baja and Hawaii.

Since it is August, this calf is about 7 months old. At birth it was 12-15 feet long, and has been nursing constantly, drinking up to 50 gallons of Spoon's milk each day, gaining several hundred pounds every week, and growing about 1 and 1/2 ft in length every month! It is now about 22 feet long.

There are about 350 plates of baleen, hanging very close together like a comb, on each side of the upper jaw. In the very front of the mouth the plates are only about 6 inches long. In the back of the jaw they grow to a length of about 2 1/2 feet.

The mouth is huge, but the throat is so small it is said that a humpback would choke on a grapefruit. For this reason, and because they don't have teeth to chew large fish, their diet is made up of only small fish like sand lance, herring, mackerel, capelin, and even tiny shrimp-like crustaceans called krill.

Humpbacks whales sometimes blow underwater bubbles that rise to the surface when they are feeding. It is believed that the rising bubbles confuse and concentrate the fish into a dense bunch so the whale can get more in each mouthful. The bubbles may also camouflage the whale so the fish can't see it coming toward them.

This calf, being only about 7 months old, is probably still nursing and hasn't begun feeding on its own. As soon as Spoon stops feeding, they will join up, as mothers and calves have a very close relationship. In fact it is the only really lasting bond of a baleen whale. They do not live in family groups, or pods, like the toothed whales. Sometimes they group up to feed or travel together, but it is only temporary.

Often young calves have gray areas on their flukes, which may change quite a bit during their first year or so. It is important to photograph and pay attention to any black parts. They will probably remain the same. In a year or two a permanent black and white pattern will appear and will be this young whale's "fingerprint." This calf has already been given a catalog number, but it won't be give a name until next spring. In April researchers on the East Coast will meet to look at the fluke patterns of the previous season's calves and unknown whales. Names will be suggested and voted on then.

Greater shearwaters can skim so close to the water surface because of small thermal updrafts caused by the difference in the water and air temperature, and also by the wind riding over the waves. By letting their broad wings ride on these updrafts they can glide inches above the surface without actually touching the water. They feed on small fish and crustaceans.

Common terns are nicknamed "sea swallows" and will dive from great heights to capture fish and shrimp and insects. They can be very aggressive in their breeding colonies and will often attack people who wander too close.

Wilson's Storm Petrels feed on tiny fish, shrimp and planktonic animals. They are also called "St. Peter's birds", named after St. Peter who was supposed to have walked on water. They flutter and hop over the waves, pattering with their webbed feet to stir up the food to eat.