Monthly Archives: April 2012

Less than one week left of the 2011/2012 season

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Aloha,

It was another very windy day in Waikoloa today, and we only ran two Whale Watches. We didn’t see Humpbacks on either trip…probably because it’s really difficult to see spouts when they dissipate so quickly in the blustery conditions. Our morning trips are guaranteed though, so all the guests have been invited back with us on other whale watches (and our guarantees are good not just till this season ends, but for life)! Remember, some of our most exciting encounters occur at the ends of seasons…the remaining Humpbacks are here either because they’re females with small calves, or they’re adults still looking to mate.

 

Join Ocean Sports on a Guaranteed Humpback Whale Watch before the season ends. See a Humpback, or ride again for free! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot before it’s too late!

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Humpbacks, Melon Heads, Spinners and Sharks!

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Aloha,

Our weekend of Whale Watching was a lot of fun. On Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw a pod of 3 whales. Two of them definitely were Mom and Baby, and the third was maybe an escort, but we couldn’t be sure. At one point each of the whales breached, so we saw 3 breaches in total. When we deployed our hydrophone, we were able to pick up one very faint song. We also saw a HUGE pod of spinner dolphins — maybe 200 or 300 of them (it’s hard to count when the pod is so big). On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Saturday we headed North until we encountered a pod of 4 Humpbacks, surrounded by a pod of Melon Head Whales. They, in turn, were accompanied by 3 Pelagic White Tip Sharks. The Humpbacks, Melon Heads and Sharks all hung around us for almost 30 minutes — just about 15 feet away. It was really fun (especially since those deep water sharks didn’t need to be near the surface to breathe…we hardly ever get to see them). And to top it off, we were escorted back to the harbor by a pod of Spinner Dolphins. On our Sunday 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we did find a Humpback, but all we saw was a spout and a quick dive, so we called it a “fluke” and invited our guests to come back with us another trip for free. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see that huge pod of Spinner Dolphins again. They put on quite the show for us, leaping, spinning, and bow riding, but since we were out looking for Humpbacks, we called that trip a fluke too, and offered our guests another chance to see the Humpbacks for free.

 

Don’t miss out on the last week of Whale Watching during our 2011/2012 season. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today!

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: In August 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed the status of the Humpback Whale from “Vulnerable” to “Least Concern” reflecting the general upward trend of population levels. According to IUCN standards, animal populations in the “Least Concern” category are at a low risk for extinction. The IUCN classifies the status of Humans in the same category.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Late Mating and Record Breaking Humpback Migration

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Aloha,
I don’t have much to report from our Thursday Whale Watches. The ocean was kind of choppy, and that, combined with the vog, made sightings pretty difficult. Neither of our “official” whale watches found any whales, but our onboard naturalist Mike reports that he did see a pod of Mom/Calf on the evening sail. He said that the baby was really small…which makes sense in terms of what we know about the Humpbacks’ migratory patterns. A female Humpback who got pregnant late last season would give birth late this season. She’ll stay around the shallow waters of Hawaii till her little calf is big and strong enough to begin the swim back to Alaska. Mike said that the adult looked pretty small too…again, it makes sense if you attribute some of the mating strategy management to the females. Though we’re not sure that this is what’s actually going on, if mating isn’t dominated by the biggest toughest males, and if the female does have something to do with choosing her mate, then a smaller, less dominant female might be one of the last to mate in the season, thus producing a late season calf. We just don’t know….
Join Ocean Sports during our last week of Whale Season. Our morning Whale Watches are guaranteed. If you don’t see a whale, you get to ride again with us for free! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today!
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Based on the number of Humpback sightings we’ve been experiencing, we know that most of the Humpbacks have begun their almost 3000 mile long migration to the waters off of Alaska…which sounds like a very long swim. But in 2001 a Norwegian tourist snapped a photo of a female Humpback in breeding grounds off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. When he found the photo again in 2010 and posted it, researchers were able to match the flukes to a photo they had taken of the SAME whale in breeding grounds off the coast of Brazil — which means she had swum more than 6000 miles! Researchers aren’t sure what motivated the whale to swim across the Atlantic– until this whale was identified in both places, it was assumed that Humpbacks only travelled across latitudes, not longitudes. Which just goes to show you…we still have a LOT to learn.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll send out the next report on Monday.
Captain Claire

Mom and Baby Just Travelling and the art of Scrimshaw

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Aloha,
We began our Wednesday Whale Watching with some nice sightings on our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales. Guests saw only one pod with two Humpbacks, but it was our favorite pod to see…Mom and her Baby. The pair was just travelling down the coast near Keawa’iki (south of Anaeho’omalu). They weren’t accompanied by an escort, and they didn’t display much activity on the surface. We know that the main activity for young calves is travelling (when they aren’t resting)…so we were happy to see the baby getting her morning exercise. We did deploy the hydrophone, but we weren’t able to pick up any singing. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks. Again, the end of the season usually is more hit and miss for us in terms of finding the Humpbacks, but since our morning trips are GUARANTEED, guests are invited back with us on another whale watch for no charge, and getting to spend two mornings on the water for the price of one is a lot of fun! We didn’t run a Whales and Cocktails on Wednesday, so I can’t report what the whales were doing in the afternoon.
Don’t miss out on the spectacular 2011/2012 Humpback Whale Season in Hawaii. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to book your adventure today. And remember, Ocean Sports guarantees our morning Whale Watches — see whales, or ride again with us for FREE!
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Starting out as a way to pass time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid 18th century, “scrimshawing” (or the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen) survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs .
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpbacks Singing New Songs

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Aloha,
We only ran one Whale Watch on Tuesday and that was at 10:00 on Alala out of Kawaihae. We travelled up the coast and then down the coast and we never did see a whale. That doesn’t mean they’re gone…just means there are fewer of them around the island, and that we didn’t connect. Since our morning trips are guaranteed, we called that trip a “fluke” and all of our guests are invited back again on a Whale Watch for Free! This time of year, we often see Mom’s and Calves (they’re the last to leave…Mom will stay here till she knows her calf is big enough and strong enough to begin the swim back to Alaska) and whales that still want to mate. So the end of our Whale Watch season each year can be really exciting. Cute calves and desperation (due to lack of mating opportunities) can make for some really exciting encounters for us!
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 adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: To our untrained ears, the sounds we hear from our Hydrophones sound pretty random, though we have noticed the lack of certain phrases this year that we heard fairly often last year (most notably, a phrase that sounded like “whoop,Whoop, WHOOP, WHOOP WHOOP“). According to a paper published in the journal Current Biology, it turns out that our ears aren’t so untrained after all. Researchers have documented that the Humpback songs in the South Pacific are actually changing really quickly. Over the last decade, completely new song themes are appearing within a season. The researchers compared the radical evolution of the Humpbacks’ songs to human musical composition, suggesting that the themes are so novel, it’s as if whole new human musical genres were appearing that no one had ever heard just a few years ago.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Whale Calves Playing and Barnacles Travelling

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Aloha,
Monday’s whale watches were a mixed bag. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip out of Anaeho’omalu, we travelled up and down the coast looking for Humpbacks but we didn’t see any. Since we guarantee our morning Whale Watches, our guests were invited to return on another Whale Watch for free! I guess the Humpbacks had all decided that the Northern part of the sanctuary waters was the place to be, because on our 10:00 Whale Watch out of Kawaihae, we saw 6 Humpbacks. We saw 3 lone whales and one pod of Cow/Calf/Escort. We saw a breach on the horizon, 3 pec slaps and 2 double pec slaps (those were from the calf who seemed to be enjoying his time on the surface). We deployed the hydrophone twice on this trip. The first time, the sounds we heard were really faint, and the second time, they were a little better, but we could tell the singers weren’t in our direct vicinity.
The Humpback Whale Watching Season ends April 15th — don’t miss out! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your Guaranteed adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  The barnacles called “Coronula diadema” live only on Humpback Whales, and they seem to prefer to live on areas of the whale where the water flow is consistent (chin and fins).  Though researchers aren’t sure how the barnacle can even find a whale to live on, there is some speculation that because the barnacles are spawning during the winter in Hawaii, the whales here are swimming in “barnacle larvae soup”. When a whale swims by, those “baby” barnacles chemically sense it, and hop on where ever they can. They use their antennae as “feet’ and walk around the whale till they find a suitable spot (which can take quite awhile…if the barnacle were the size of a person, the whale would be 20 miles long). Once they find a spot they like, they flip over and produce tube-shaped cavities in their shells that actually draw in prongs of growing whale skin, holding their position on the whale for life.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpbacks, Spinners, and Melon Heads!

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Aloha,
It was yet another windy weekend here in Waikoloa, but we did manage to have some good times on our whale watches. On Friday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip saw 5 Humpbacks. We saw 3 breaches in the distance, but watched 2 whales lob their tails about 50 or 60 times (there was way more action than we could keep track of)! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we braved the gusty conditions and headed out to sea where we saw 4 whales, 2 breaches and 2 head lunges. But our favorite part of the trip was watching a Mom and her Baby accompanied by a pod of Melon Head Whales (these are smaller, toothed whales identified by, you guessed it — their melon-shaped foreheads). On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise, we saw just one whale, but s/he spent considerable time with us. The whale was on a 5 minute dive pattern, so we saw lots of surfacing, spouting and flukes, and lots of beautiful footprints. According to our onboard naturalist Angelica, this was a big Humpback with flukes measuring a good 15 feet across. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see a super-pod of more than 200 Spinner Dolphins North of the Harbor. The dolphins stayed with us for about 15 minutes as we headed North, and then as we headed back to the harbor, we got to see them again! And on our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we found 4 whales, including an unescorted Mom and Baby. They spent some time near our boat, giving us 3 close encounters.
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 adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Those lines we see under the Humpback’s mouth are actually pleats that allow for the expansion of her mouth when she feeds. This expansion, combined with her ability to flex her jaws, allows her to hold up to 15,000 gallons of sea water in her mouth at one time — that’s the equivalent of 160,000 cans of Diet Pepsi (or Budweiser) in every gulp — of course, she doesn’t swallow the water she gulps…just the unlucky fish that had been swimming in it.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire
P.S. Keep those Humpback questions coming…there’s only two weeks left of the season!