Humpback’s Humps and Allomaternal Behavior

Aloha,
We didn’t get to run our normal schedule on Thursday, so I can only report on one Whale Watch, our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip. Guests aboard the trip saw two whales. Each of them was about 800 yards away from the boat, and they were travelling separately. We saw each of them spout, and we saw their dorsal fins and their “humps” (which as we know, aren’t structural humps, but postural ones) as they dove. We also saw one their flukes as they each sounded.
The spectacular 2011/2012 Whale Watch Season is coming to close…don’t let the season pass by without experiencing the action for yourself! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The maternal instinct of the Humpback is so strong that she’ll even take care of other small animals in danger! In 2009, 2 scientists sailing off the coast of South America watched as a pod of Orcas flipped a Weddell Seal off an ice flow. The seal began swimming towards a nearby Humpback. Just as the seal got close, the whale rolled onto her back, sweeping the 400 pound seal onto her chest. As the Orcas closed in, the Humpback arched her back, which lifted the seal out of the water…unfortunately for the seal, the water rushing off the whale started to wash the seal back into the sea. The scientists were astounded to see the Humpback use her flipper to gently nudge the floundering seal back onto her chest…moments later, the seal slid back into the water and swam to the safety of a nearby ice flow.
Have a great weekend — I’ll send out the next report on Monday. If you have any questions about the Humpbacks, there’s really only two weeks left of the season, so feel free to email me. I’d be happy to answer your questions in our last weeks of the season “Humpback Whale Fact of the Day”.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Triple Breach and Ancient Migratory Paths

Aloha,
Wednesday’s whale watching started off with a bang! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip, guests saw 10 different Humpbacks. Nate, our naturalist aboard that trip, reports that the best encounter though was with a Cow/Calf/Escort pod who performed a triple breach about 100 feet from the boat! Just getting to see 3 breaches in your life is a wonderful experience, but when you see 3 whales breaching simultaneously and they’re close enough that you can see their tubercles — well…that’s a sight you’ll never forget! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 2 whales, and had one close encounter. Apparently, the Humpbacks that are still here are pretty interested in us! When we deployed the hydrophone, we did here some good singing. On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we looked and looked, but we couldn’t find a whale…but the cocktails were flowing and guests enjoyed the cruise.
Join Ocean Sports for the Whale Watch Adventure of your life. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot before the spectacular 2011-2012 season ends.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though Humpback whales in different hemispheres migrate on opposite schedules (when it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and therefore are very unlikely to meet, no subspecies of Humpbacks are recognized genetically. In fact there has been some research done on maternal lineages that demonstrates relationships which exist in the present across hemispheric boundaries. This suggests that at one point (perhaps in the very distant past)  there was some level  of inter-hemispheric gene flow.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback Songs in Space

Aloha,
Well, the wind is beginning to calm down for some parts of the island, and that’s helping us get the boats to the whales! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 3 Humpbacks. 2 of them were spouting in the distance, but the 3rd was an adult that did a complete peduncle throw about 100 yards from the boat. We also got to see this whale’s flukes — black with two distinct white spots. And on the 10:00 Whale Watch, our naturalist Jonathan reports that we found 2 Humpbacks. They weren’t doing much on the surface…just spouting and sounding. But we did deploy the hydrophone and heard some pretty loud, clear and vibrant singing, which means there are still some male Humpbacks hanging out on the Kohala coast. And based on what we were hearing, they had to be fairly close to the boat. We didn’t run a Whales and Cocktails trip yesterday, so I can’t report what the Humpbacks were up to in the late afternoon.
There’s less than 3 weeks left of our fantastic 2011/2012 Whale Watching Season…don’t miss out! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The haunting song of the Humpback  has actually travelled beyond our oceans. In 1977, NASA launched two Voyager spacecrafts. Aboard each was a golden record with a collection of sites, sounds and greetings from Earth in 54 different human languages. These records also include greetings from Humpback whales!  And that was just the first time the whales’ song travelled beyond our planet…On  Earth Day (4/22) in 2005, a private organization called Deep Space Network broadcast a live feed from a hydrophone off the coast of Maui of the Humpbacks singing. They used a five meter parabolic dish antenna and broadcast the sounds about 18 trillion miles into deep space. So far, we haven’t gotten a response back….
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Mugged for 45 minutes!

Aloha,
We started off our week with a Breakfast with the Whales trip that our on-board naturalist Adam said was both “Awesome” and the “best [he’s] seen in weeks”! The trip began with a full breach about 300 yards from the boat, but that wasn’t even the best part. Adam reports that we were surrounded and mugged for 45 minutes by a very curious pod of Mom, her baby and their escort. As Adam said…they were within “spitting distance” the whole time! We love when we’re the object of so much interest by our Humpbacks! On our 10:00 Watch from Kawaihae, we saw 6 Humpbacks — two different pods of Mom/Baby/Escort. We did see one breach and when we deployed the hydrophone we heard some pretty loud, clear singing. We also saw  the Humpback’s little cousins, Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins twice on that trip. On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, the Humpbacks seemed to have quieted down quite a bit. We did see one whale, who was on a 13 minute dive pattern. S/he would surface, spout twice and then sound for 13 minutes.
Join Ocean Sports and watch the Humpbacks watching you. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Before whaling was banned internationally, Humpback whales’ livers were processed for their oil, which contained a lot of vitamin A. A fully grown Humpback has a liver that weighs between 800 and 1400 pounds.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Flukes, Peduncle Throws, and more Curious Calves

Aloha,

It’s been another windy weekend in Waikoloa, and that’s caused us to have some interesting Whale Watches. On Friday, our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales reports seeing 4 Humpbacks — 2 of them were about 100 yards away from us. We watched these close-up whales for most of the trip. They’d surface, spout a few times, and then sound for 10 minutes. We got to see lots of fluke shots, and noticed that one of our whales had mostly black flukes, and the other had a distinct white spot on each side of his flukes. We got to see our all black-fluke whale perform 2 peduncle throws (always exciting to see)! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, the wind was a-blowin’ but we saw 3 Humpbacks spouting. We did deploy the hydrophone on that trip, but only picked up faint songs (often, when the wind blows hard, it’s difficult to keep the microphone deep enough for good resolution). On Sunday, our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip reports seeing 3 different pods of Cow/Calf/Escorts. Lots of spouting going on, but no real surface displays to report….we weren’t able to deploy the hydrophone on this trip either. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 3 whales. One was spotted in the beginning of the trip, South of the harbor. And a little later, we came upon a Cow/Calf pod. Baby was really pretty small, and as with most calves, interested in us. After they sounded, we shut the engines down and just drifted for awhile, waiting to see where they’d surface next. And then, our depth sounder alarm went off — they were 10 feet under the boat! On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, Captain Baker reports finding a very active competitive pod. We felt very lucky that we were able to watch the surface fight and chase for more than 40 minutes.

 

Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure you’ll never forget. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though we don’t get to witness it here (at least not very often), Humpbacks have devised a very creative way to feed called “Bubble Net” feeding. A cooperative pod will dive under schools of krill, herring or other small fish. One whale will begin swimming in circles, and blowing bubbles out of his (or her) blowholes. Bubbles, as they rise, expand, which creates a “net” entrapping the prey. Once the prey are balled together inside the circle of bubbles, the whales will take turns lunging through the middle of the circle to gulp their lunch. The whole process is accompanied by lots of vocalizations, culminating in a loud “shriek” right as the bubble net reaches the surface and right before the whales surface…we’re pretty sure the loud noises help to scare the fish upward and further compact the “bait ball”.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

A “People Watch” for the Humpbacks

Aloha,
It was another very windy day out on the ocean yesterday, so I only have information to report from one whale watch…but it was quite the trip! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests enjoyed the gusty conditions seeing 11 Humpbacks. We saw 3 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods, and one Cow/Calf pod who decided it might be fun to take a look at us too. Mom allowed her baby to swim right underneath our stern (which is pretty unusual…most times she’ll put herself between her baby and anything bigger). The water was so clear, and they were so close to the surface that we actually got a great look at baby’s tubercles (the sensory nodules on his head). While this was going on, the sounds of  cameras taking sequential photos almost blotted out the sounds of all of us on board oohing and aahing! We also saw 3 body lunges, 4 head lunges, 2 tail lobs, and off on the horizon, 3 breaches. We did attempt to deploy the hydrophone, but in those windy conditions, all we could pick up was faint singing.
Experience the Humpback Excitement for yourself — join Ocean Sports for a whale watch. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  The intestines of a fully grown Humpback whale are about 200 feet long (approximately 5 times the length of her body).
Have a great weekend — I’ll send the next report out on Monday.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Lots of Cow/Calf/Escort pods for the first day of Spring

Aloha,
Can you believe it’s Spring already? Our first official day of post-winter whale watching was a good one. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw 8 different Humpbacks including one pod of Cow/Calf/Escort. We saw 7 breaches in the distance, but got to see one close-up too. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 16 different Humpbacks including 4 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods. We had 2 close-by breaches, 2 head lunges, 3 tail lobs, 1 pectoral slap, and 4 peduncle throws. It was too windy for us to deploy the hydrophone on that trip, so we can’t report on underwater singing action. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip, we were able to deploy the hydrophone and we did hear lots of singing from lots of different whales. We saw 7 whales on that trip and one breach fairly close up. All-in-all, a great start to Spring in Hawaii!
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch before the season ends. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to research conducted in Japan, the peak estrus period for Humpbacks (i.e. when females are in heat) overall,  is between the end of January and the end of February, but the peak estrus period for females with a calf appears to be several weeks later. Our frequent observations of pods of Mom and Baby who are accompanied by an escort this time of year seem to support the validity of these findings.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Very, very loud singing and some competition

Aloha,
We had an incredible Whale Watch at 10:00 on Tuesday. We saw 14 different Humpbacks, but spent considerable time watching a Mom, her baby and an escort trying to keep another huge male at bay. We saw 3 body lunges from this group, and 5 head lunges, plus 2 pectoral slaps and 4 peduncle throws. We also got to see Mom and baby up close as they swam right under us about 30 feet deep. We got to see right up their blow holes! When we deployed the hydrophone later in the trip, the songs were incredibly loud. The bass notes literally shook the boat…we could actually feel (and see) the windows vibrating. Oh — and we also saw a couple of breaches during the trip. It was a great couple of hours! On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, guests saw a total of 6 whales. According to our naturalist Angelica, the first whales spotted were way South of the Bay, and a good ways out to sea. We did find a pod of two whales much closer though, and spent considerable time watching them travel along the coast. They were in a 3-4 minute dive pattern, surfacing, spouting a couple of times and then sounding for those shorter dives. We got to see lots of flukes from this pair.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch and see the action for yourself. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either 1). Female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partners…or 2). Female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Triple Breach among “Right Handed” Humpbacks

Aloha,
Our Whale Watching Week began with an interesting 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise. We saw 3 Humpbacks and 2 breaches, but we actually got to hear the a Humpback song reverberating through the hulls of the boat! We never saw the singer, but he must have been within just a couple hundred yards of us for the song to be heard without our hydrophone. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 whales, but we got to see 2 triple breaches from a Cow/Calf/Escort pod about 200 yards away from us, preceded by a couple of breaches from just the calf. We also saw 15 tail lobs (10 from the baby) 4 pectoral slaps and 3 peduncle throws. But we can’t emphasize enough how cool those 2 triple breaches were, and how lucky we were to see them! When we deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were pretty faint. Since our 10:00 Whale Watch departs from Kawaihae, and the 8:00 departs from Anaeho’omalu, it’s interesting to note the difference in sound clarity between the two locations.On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 5 whales, but we got involved with a competitive pod of 3 off of Puako. We spotted them from fairly far away, and as we made our way North, they decided to come our way and at one point, one of them surfaced about 50 feet from the boat. We also saw some pec slapping from this group and some good tail shots.
Join Ocean Sports to see and hear the Humpbacks. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Muggings and Humpback Migration

Aloha,
We had a fun weekend with the Humpbacks. On our Friday 10:00 am Whale Watch, we saw 5 whales, 6 tail lobs, 2 single pec slaps and one double pec slap. We watched a Mom and her baby for a long time, thinking we’d see an escort, but either he was able to wait us out, or they were unaccompanied. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip, we had a slow start…we were all looking in every direction to find the whales, but when we finally found them it was incredible! A pod of three (Cow/Calf/Escort) took a special interest in us, circling our boat and surfacing about 5 feet off the port side! On Saturday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales saw 12 different whales. Most of them were loners…surfacing just to breathe as they swam along the coastline, but we did see 3 breaches in the distance. We also encountered a Cow/Calf/Escort pod that were joined by two other “wanna-be” escorts, who put on quite the surface chase. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise we saw just 4 Humpbacks, but that was because we couldn’t move the boat for about 45 minutes as were being mugged by 2 whales! We got to look one of the whales in the eye, as he spy-hopped, looking at us. We saw some tail lobs and breaching in the distance on this trip too. On Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip saw 7 whales — 2 of whom swam right under us for more than 7 minutes (time seems to stop for us when that kind of stuff is going on). We also saw some tail lobbing in the distance and a couple of breaches.
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: Though no one is really sure how Humpback Whales are able to navigate so accurately through the open ocean to find Hawaii, research conducted on the migratory paths of a few South Atlantic and a few South Pacific Humpbacks between 2003 and 2007 did show that regardless of currents on the surface, storms and obstacles, the humpbacks never deviated more than about 5 degrees from their straight-line migratory paths. Researchers don’t think the whales are relying solely on the earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, since magnetism varies too widely to explain the straight paths the whales swim, and they also don’t think the whales are just using the sun (like many birds do) because the ocean wouldn’t provide an adequate frame of reference. It’s possible the whales rely on both those methods, combined with celestial markers. Or maybe the whales navigate by following the sounds of each other’s voices. Researchers are still working to solve the mystery.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire