Aloha,

All I can say about Thursday is “WOW”!  Our Thursday began with a triple boat Whale Watch Charter out of Kawaihae, so guests aboard Alala, Manu Iwa and Seasmoke saw practically the same activities. All three boats spent more than 70 minutes literally being mugged by whales! We all spotted competitive pods about a mile out of the harbor and began heading South to see them. The whales must have been looking forward to our arrival because when we all turned off our engines the whales took turns swimming RIGHT UNDERNEATH EACH BOAT! Seasmoke and Alala were watching a competitive pod of 4 adults, and the female kept rolling over onto her back (an evasive maneuver) just under the surface of the water. We actually got to look into a whale’s eye as he was looking at us while swimming under our stern. At one point, all of the guests on Seasmoke were so enthralled by the whales swimming right below our stern that all but two of us missed seeing a different whale breach 50 feet from our Port side. Guests on Manu Iwa saw a whale calf breach 3 times in a row close by, and all of us got to see a different pod of Cow/Calf and two escorts. When we deployed our hydrophones on the boats, the songs were so loud that we had to keep turning down the volume on the speakers! On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we saw 12 whales — lots of tail lobs and peduncle throws, and again, we heard some loud singing when we deployed the hydrophone.

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: Yesterday, I promised to explain how Humpbacks keep their cool when swimming through our warm Hawaiian Waters. During prolonged exercise in warm water, excess heat is shed by increasing circulation to a network of capillaries (in Latin they’re called “retia mirabiliia” which translates to “miracle network”) near the surface of the Humpbacks’ flippers, flukes and dorsal fin — the excess heat is shed to the external environment. In fact, many researchers believe that whales lifting their pectoral fins into the air, or resting with their flukes exposed vertically are actually trying to cool off.

Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend — I’ll send the next report out on Monday,

Captain Claire