Since its creation by Congress 25 years ago, NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary has been vital to the protection of humpback whales, being the only place in the United States where these majestic cetaceans reproduce. Scientists estimate that up to 12,000 whales—more than half of the North Pacific humpback population—return to Hawaiian waters from November through May to breed, calve, and nurse their young. No one knows exactly how long humpback whales have been mating and reproducing in the islands' warm, shallow waters, but narrative reports from whalers document seeing them as early as the 1840s.

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