Aloha,

We were happy to be back on the water on Thursday, and we think the whales were happy to see us too! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw 15 whales and 5 breaches. One of those breaches was actually a double breach — Mom and baby coming out of the water at the same time. We also saw two other Cow/Calf pods, but the highlight of this trip was definitely the singing. At one point, the singing whale was so close that we were able to hear him in the cabin without the hydrophone! Of course when we did deploy the hydrophone the singing was very LOUD and very clear. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise from Anaeho’omalu, we saw a breach right outside the bay — we had the hydrophone in the water at that point so not only did we get to see it, we got to hear what the whales must hear when one of their buddies lands — it was really incredible. We were also quite the object of curiosity for a calf — the cute little guy kept trying to approach us, but Mom did her job and kept pushing him away. Angelica, our naturalist aboard that trip reports that they saw so many whales in every direction she couldn’t even keep count of them.

Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch and see so many whales you can’t keep track of them all! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to research reported by the Keiki Kohola project, very young calves (identified by the extent to which their fins are still furled from their time in utero) are much more active than older calves, swimming and twirling and kicking. These researchers theorize that all that exercise leads to the production of a necessary oxygen storing protein called “myoglobin” (pronounced “my-oh-globe-in) in the whales’ muscles. One of the reasons adult humpbacks can hold their breath for 45 minutes is that they can store so much oxygen in their muscles, and baby is training to be able to do that too.

Have a great weekend…I’ll be sending the next report on Monday,

Captain Claire