Two humpback whales delighted patrol officers after greeting them with a "warm welcome" in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Massachusetts.
Footage and photos shared by the Massachusetts Environmental Police show the enormous animals jumping out of the water beside the officers' boat.
"Officers patrolling Stellwagen Bank, ensuring boater compliance with whale regulations, received a warm welcome from the locals this afternoon," MAEnviroPolice said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday evening.
Officers from the department perform regular patrols of the area to investigate and prevent illegal fishing practices, marine theft and boat registration enforcement. According to a spokesperson for the agency, Danielle Burney, the photos and video show two separate humpback whales.
The humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, gets its name from the distinctive hump on its back. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, they can be found in all the world's oceans and have one of the longest migrations of any mammal on the planet. Some populations are known to swim 5,000 miles from their tropical breeding grounds in the winter to cooler, more productive breeding grounds in the spring and summer.
These enormous mammals—which can grow to length of up to 60 feet and weight up to 40 tons—feed on shrimp and other small fish, straining huge volumes of water through their mouths.
Humpback whales are an active species and can often be seen jumping out of the water and slapping the surface with their pectoral fins.
Populations of this species have risen significantly since commercial whaling was banned in the 1980s, but while they are no longer endangered in the West Atlantic part of their range, they are still protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This prohibits harassment, hunting, capturing, collecting or killing the animals in U.S. waters.
The species are also threatened by fishing gear, vessel strikes and ocean noise.
The whales in this video were most likely "bubble feeding," Burney told The Boston Globe. This is a hunting strategy used by whales to force schools of fish up to the surface of the water by blowing large bubbles underneath them. Once at the surface, the whales can more easily catch them in their gaping mouths.
The images of the whale have been viewed thousands of times on social media.
"How incredible is this? Stunning to compare the size of the whale to the patrol boat," said Florida reporter Allie Corey.
Do you have an animal or nature story to share with Newsweek? Do you have a question about humpback whales? Let us know via nature@newsweek.com.
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About the writer
Pandora Dewan is a Senior Science Reporter at Newsweek based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on science, health ... Read more
