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Megaptera novaeangliae

Humpback Whale

Speciesaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 137092ITIS 180530key worms:137092
i

2026-08-05: itis_id 180530 via WoRMS external link

calcofi:marine_mammals

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual and is the only species in the genus Megaptera.W CalCOFI holds 173 observations of it in 2 datasets between 1987 and 2022.R

173
observations
173
records
171
sampling events
1987–2022
years
2
datasets
18.9 m
max length
Humpback whales in the singing position. Humpback Whale NMS.
Photo · Dr. Louis M. Herman. · Public domain · commons

Observed in 2 datasets
i

One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses (dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet pill marks a name the authority does not accept.

  • 169 obs169 events1987–2020
    name used: Megaptera novaeangliae Humpback Whale · code HUWH
  • 4 obs2 events2022
    name used: Megaptera novaeangliae · code urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:137092

Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON

Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
ERDDAPCalCOFI's own server, the Seabirds & Marine Mammals table constrained to this taxon
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/farallon_bird-mammal.html?&taxon_key=%22worms:137092%22

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.20, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it 18.9 m max
Humpback Whale18.9 m
R/V Reuben Lasker63.6 m

max · sealifebase

Every mark is a measured length with its own source — hover one to read it. The reference objects are _data/size_reference.csv: two of them, the 505 µm bongo mesh and the net's ring, are CalCOFI's own sampling gear.

Lineage 14 ranks · Biota to Megaptera
Credits silhouette · photo · text · length
  • Silhouette · T. Michael Keesey · CC BY-SA 3.0 · PhyloPic, drawn from Balaenoptera novaeangliae · source
  • Photo · Dr. Louis M. Herman. · Public domain · commons · source
  • Text · Wikipedia, “Humpback whale” · CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1372441376
  • Length · sealifebase
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · GBIF

WikidataiNaturalistGBIF

The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.

Cite the release, v2026.10.20

Cite the release, v2026.10.20; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗