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Humpback Whales :

When whales are mentioned in the Fiji context, it is usually with reference to the Sperm Whale (Physeter catadon, tavuto or tovuto), whose polished teeth are the most highly esteemed valuable in Fijian custom, known as tabua.

However another, equally impressive whale is found in Fiji's waters: the HumpbackWhale (Megaptera novaeangliae), which leaves its home in the Antarctic to breed in tropical seas from June to August every year. Sadly, this once common creature has become relatively rare in Fiji.The days when they were regularly seen rubbing against wharves and ships to remove barnacles from their bodies (as reported from Koro and Ra) appear to be long gone. Recent years, however, have witnessed a slight increase in the number of sightings, particularly along the Coral Coast, in the Koro Sea, and the vicinity of Taveuni.World-wide, the population was reduced by 90% as a result of whaling in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the ban on commercial whaling introduced in 1966 has halted the decline, though the species is still classed as'vulnerable'.

The humpback whale is one of the larger baleen whales, up to about 16 metres (50 feet) in length, and has a very large head in proportion to its size. Its small dorsal fin contrasts with its very long flippers (pectoral fins) with their distinctive scalloped front edges.These long flippers are the source of its genus name, Megaptera meaning literally 'giant wing'. Its English common name is derived from its habit of arching its back when diving or as it reenters the water after'breaching' - leaping completely out of the water.

As with other cetaceans, Fijians consider the humpback whale to be a kind of 'fish' (ika) - as indeed was the case in English until recently.The Fijian names bestowed on it focus on its spout, the condensed air that it blows spectacularly skywards when it surfaces. Perhaps the most widespread name for the humpback is bwisena, an abbreviation of buiseniivi, which means literally that it has a spout like the flower of the Tahitian chestnut !

1(Inocarpus flagger) - which indeed it does, in both shape and colour.The name used on the island of Bau and thereabouts is vivisia, which is also the word for a blowhole in a coral reef, while in the eastern Lau islands it is uvuuvuwai, literally 'water blower'.

It was whales of all sorts that attracted some of the earliest western visitors to Fiji waters: whalers from New England in the United States, and Port Jackson in Australia, frequented Kadavu, Lau and other parts in the early nineteenth century, not so much to hunt whales, which were more plentiful in other parts of the Pacific, especially Tonga, but to recruit labour and take on water and provisions.

One of the earliest observers of the humpback whale was the mid-nineteenth century whaler and writer Frank T Bullen. In his book The Cruise of the "Cachalot" he told of an interlude in a cruise round in the Pacific looking for sperm whales in which his ship sailed to Vava'u in Tonga to go'humpbacking'. He describes the humpback as having "marvellous agility and supple smartness but none of the dogged savagery of the cachalot (sperm whale)."

Particularly poignant is Bullen's account of a mother's attempt to protect her newly-born calf:"The harpooner rose, darted once, twice, then gave a yell of triumph. But, for all the notice taken by the whale, she might never have been touched. Close nestled to her side was a youngling of not more, certainly, than five days old, which sent up its baby-spout every now and then about two feet into the air. One long, wing-like fin embraced its small body, holding it close to the massive breast of the tender mother, whose only care seemed to be to protect her young, utterly regardless of her own pain and danger." Inevitably, both perished, the mother "holding the calf to her side until her last vital spark had fled."

The Stamps

Thestamps show a pair of humpbacks in the water (20c) a humback whale about to breach (50c), re-entering the water after breaching , ($1.10), and showing its flukes with thbr individually distinctive serrated edges when diving ($3)

$0.50	$0.20

$3.00	$1.10

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