Humpback whales are highly vocal mysticetes with a complex acoustic repertoire. Among this species' non-song vocalizations, the whup call is one of the most common call types, and is believed to facilitate contact between individuals. This call type is acoustically variable, which may reflect signature information used to confer identity over time. Here this possibility was investigated by matching the identified humpback whales with the whups recorded during the sighting period. A pre-existing humpback whale catalog and 62 days of continuous recordings from a bottom-mounted sound trap in Skjálfandi Bay from July through August 2022 were examined, where 75 different individuals were identified and 1571 whups with 15 different sub-types were detected. The whups average 0.7 s in duration, within a 58-720 Hz frequency range and had a peak frequency of 170 Hz. Whups were more frequent at night hours while sightings were more frequent at evening hours. Despite the difficulty in associating specific whup calls with identified individuals, this study provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that whup calls in humpback whales are linked to social interactions and exhibit a positive correlation with the number of individuals, highlighting the potential role of vocalizations in individual identity and social dynamics.
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