What Do Humpback Whales Eat? Everything You Need to Know

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are large baleen whales found in all oceans, known for their extensive migrations between their polar feeding grounds and their tropical breeding areas. They range from 42 to 63 feet in length and can weigh up to 44 tons. Humpback whales are typically gray, with long pectoral fins and knobby heads. Humpback whales are filter-feeders that use baleen plates to trap food. Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about what humpback whales eat.

What Foods Do Humpback Whales Eat?

Humpback whales eat plankton, fish, and crustaceans. They are omnivores that eat both animal and plant matter. These mammoth creatures must consume enormous amounts of food each day to maintain their massive bodies and fuel their long-distance migrations. They can consume up to 3,000 pounds of food a day, including:

• Zooplankton
• Squid
• Phytoplankton
• Salmon
• Krill
• Herring
• Pollock
• Haddock
• Sand lance
• Sea snails
• Mackerel
• Capelin

How Do Humpback Whales Hunt?

Although humpback whales are primarily solitary, they exhibit highly cooperative, social hunting behaviors in which groups of 10 to 15, or even massive supergroups of up to 200 individuals, feed together.

Bubble-netting is a cooperative hunting technique where humpback whales dive below schools of fish and release air bubbles in an upward spiral, forming a net that traps the prey. This ring of bubbles forces fish to gather near the surface, allowing the whales to swim up through the center with their mouths open and engulf large quantities of prey in a single lunge.

While bubble-netting is usually a coordinated group activity, researchers have observed solitary humpback whales creating bubble nets. Humpbacks are likely the only baleen whales capable of this because their unique pectoral flippers allow them to make the tight, precise turns needed to create the spiral.

Beyond bubble-netting, humpback whales employ other hunting techniques to capture fish and krill. These include lunge feeding, in which whales accelerate with open mouths through prey schools, and flick feeding, in which they use their tail flukes to slap the water and stun their prey.

Humpback whales also engage in deep-dive feeding, using vocalizations to herd fish.

What Do Baby Humpback Whales Eat?

Humpback whales are mammals that give birth to live young after a long gestation period that takes almost a full year. The babies, called calves, weigh over a thousand pounds when they are born, but they are not quite ready to assume the same eating patterns as their parents.

For the first seven months to a year of their lives, the calves will receive milk from their mother. Unlike other mammals, the calf does not latch onto the mother.

This milk consists of 40% to 60% fat, and the calf can drink up to 150 gallons of milk each day. During this first year, the young whale will continue to grow almost a foot in length per month. However, in most cases, they are weaned after about seven months.

Are Humpback Whales Dangerous to Humans?

The humpback whale’s massive size is enough to inspire fear in people.

Humpback whales are intelligent creatures that are not overtly aggressive. Their massive size scares off just about every predator because a simple smack from their tail could put an end to most marine animals.

Nevertheless, there have been stories about humpback whales swallowing human beings, including one in which a lobster diver was gobbled up by a humpback whale before being spit out.

However, in this case, as in other similar incidents, the person was actually held in the whale’s mouth until the whale realized it had caught something other than prey. Humpback whales’ throats are not large enough to swallow a person. Therefore, the diver was accidentally engulfed, not intentionally attacked or swallowed.

In the strictest sense, a humpback whale could kill a human, but they typically do not pose a threat to humans.

What Predators Eat Humpback Whales?

Humpback whales are protected from most predators by their size. The majority of creatures in the ocean simply could not hope to kill a humpback whale, even a young one, without a serious risk of injury or death.

Some animals do kill and eat humpback whales, even if it is a rare occurrence. Humpback whale predators include:

• Humans
• Great white shark
• Tiger sharks
• Killer whales (orcas)

These creatures have the best chance of killing a whale. Most commercial whaling practices have been banned since the 1980s, though a few countries still hunt whales. Today, human activities such as ship strikes, bycatch, and pollution are the primary threats to humpback whales. Orcas, tiger sharks, and great white sharks can all kill a humpback whale, but they usually need either exceptional skill or to hunt in groups to succeed.