Why Whales Do What They Do (maybe)

Aloha,
Wednesday’s Whale Watches were sure a lot of fun! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, our onboard naturalist Kealohi was excited to report sighting 2 Humpbacks near the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. One of the whales breached once and did 3 head lunges! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests were treated to sightings of a Bottle-nose Dolphin (which is actually kind of rare for us…we usually see their smaller cousins, the Spinners). We also got the opportunity to watch a smaller Humpback (estimated to be about 25 feet long) just outside of the harbor. This little guy breached 3 times! And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports that guests watched a lone Humpback surfacing and sounding on 19 minutes dives.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Tours. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for information and reservations.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”,you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Aerial behaviors often result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface). I’ll discuss other common theories for why the whales act the way they do in future emails.

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