Aloha,

Guests aboard both our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala and our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise report seeing a Cow and Calf (which is what we call mother and baby whale, though from now on I’ll stick with the unofficial “mom and baby” labels). At 10:00, our Mom let her baby actually come close by the boat to investigate us! We saw a total of 15 whales on that trip, and had one breach within a couple hundred yards of the boat — and saw 5 other breaches off on the horizon. At 3:00, our Mom and Baby were accompanied by 2 other whales. The closer whale (the primary escort) spent more than 30 minutes fighting with the other whale — at one point we could see them banging into each other and one actually lifting the other (think “WWF Wrestling). Eventually the 4th whale gave up and swam away…we also saw 2 breaches within 300 yards of the boat and a couple of peduncle throws.

See the action for yourself! Ocean Sports operates whale watches daily from 2 different locations within the Hawaii islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to get in on the fun.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We frequently see Mom and Baby whale accompanied by a third whale. We used to think it was a female helping mom take care of her baby, but now that we can identify gender more easily, we know it isn’t. It’s a male — not Dad — but a “wanna-be” Dad. Mom is capable of getting pregnant right after she gives birth (though she usually waits a year between pregnancies).

Mahalo,

Captain Claire