In the western North Atlantic, humpback whales are widely distributed from north of Iceland, Disko Bay and west of Greenland, south to Venezuela and around the tropical islands of the West Indies. They have been reported from the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Summer ranges extend at least from New England north to the pack ice, and feeding concentrations may be found in any portion of this region. During winter, humpback whales migrate southward to the shallow borderlands of Bermuda, to the Bahamas, and to the West Indies to calve and mate.
Stranded Specimens
The most distinctive features of stranded humpback whales are 1) the ventral grooves, 14-22 in number, very wide and extending to the navel; 2) the tuberosities of the snout and lower jaw, often the sites of numerous barnacle colonies; 3) the long flippers (to nearly a third of the total body length); and 4) the distinctive rounded projection near the tip of the lower jaw.
If these characteristics are not sufficiently clear, the species may be identifiable by the characteristics of the baleen plates ([Table 2]).
