A weekend we’ll never forget

Aloha,
It’s always difficult to write the weekend whale watch report because there’s just so much to say! Both Friday and Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruises were dominated by calves. On Friday, we watched as Baby tail lobbed, pec slapped and breached. Then we got to see Mom breach, followed by baby making another attempt. On Saturday, we spend most of our time with a very active and curious little calf. We saw 21 whales both days. On the 10:00 Whale Watch on Friday we saw 10 Whales of which 2 groups were competitive pods, and we even saw a few dolphins. On Saturday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch saw 15 whales in pods of twos and threes. The most exciting part of that trip was getting to witness MULTIPLE BREACHES! We saw 10 full-on breaches from the same pod of 3 whales. Our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails on both Friday and Saturday were a little quieter than the early trips. On Friday, we saw 6 whales and watched a competitive pod of 4 whales for most of the trip. On Saturday, we didn’t see anything for the first 20 minutes of the trip and then it was like someone set off an underwater alarm clock, waking up the Humpbacks. Everywhere we looked we saw spouts, tails and peduncle arches. We watched a Mom with her Calf for a good portion of the trip. Baby seemed very interested in a floating research station and kept surfacing around it. On Sunday, we ran 4 whale watches — 2 from Abay, and 2 from Kawaihae. On both our Anaeho’omalu trips we found ourselves the object of curiosity for a calf. We also some some incredible breaches, pec slaps and peduncle throws from an excited adult whale on the first trip. On the second, we watched a baby perform the same behaviors (at least that’s what we thought he was trying to do — a few of those peduncle throws ended up with sideways splashes)! On the trips out of Kawaihae, the surface activity was a bit quieter, but we did encounter Spinner Dolphins. All in all, a great February Whale Watch Weekend.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch you’ll never forget! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: There’s a time when a whale is still in its fetal stage that it’s covered in fur. By the time the calf is born, the fur has disappeared. Many researchers believe that this is another indication that whales have evolved from an animal with a common ancestor to a hippo. The idea that the stages of an animal’s fetal development reflect evolutionary development or “Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny” was first proposed by Ernst Haeckel around 1900.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

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