Humpback Whales an endangered species

Humpback Whales are endangered species on the earth,there are only between 30,000 and 40,000 humpback whales remain in the world. This is about one-third the number of whales that originally roamed the seven seas. It is important to protect humpback whales.

 Humpback Whales belong to the group of whales known as rorquals, a group that includes the Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Bryde's Whale, Sei Whale, and Minke Whale.

Rorquals have 2 characteristics in common:

dorsal fins on their backs, and ventral pleats running from the tip of the lower jaw to the navel area.They are characterised by the possession of baleen plates for sieving the krill upon which they feed.Humpback Whales are regular visitors to the waters between Hervey Bay and Fraser Island.Many humpback whales arrive in Hervey Bay from late July and remain until November when they begin their return to the southern ocean.Mothers and calves are a common sight for whale watching visitors. Responsible cruise operators are dedicated to keeping whales off the endangered species list.Humpback whales eat krill, which is a tiny shrimp. 

    

Size :-

Adult male humpback whales are between 40 and 48 feet long. Females are slightly longer, averaging between 45-50 feet. Adult humpbacks weigh between 25-40 tons and eat one and one-half tons of krill daily. Krill are tiny crustaceans similar to shrimp.Female humpback whales give birth to babies that are 10 to 15 feet long at birth and weigh around 2,000 pounds, one ton. The female is pregnant for 12 months and then nurses her calf for another year. She can give birth to a baby calf about once every three years.

Humpback whales can be found in all of the earth's seas. Except for one group of humpback whales that live in the Arabian Sea, these whales follow an annual migration. They go to the cooler temperate and polar oceans to feed in the summer and then swim south to the tropical seas to mate and give birth to their calves in winter.Hunting is not the only reason that the humpback whale is endangered. The destruction of their habitat also contributes to the disappearance of these animals e.g. humpback whales migrate from Mexico, Hawaii, and Japan to Alaska's Glacier Bay to feed on krill during the summer. This bay receives runoff from the waters that flow through the Tongass Forest. As long as it was a protected wilderness area, the bay was safe. However, since 2003, when the Healthy Forests Initiative opened 9 million acres of this forest to logging, the bay is at risk from runoff that contains sediment and nitrates from logging. This has the potential to kill the krill.