Aloha,
Thursday brought us a mixed bag for whale watching. Guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise didn’t see any Humpbacks, and though the guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae did see a spout in the distance, it was pretty windy, so we couldn’t get out to that whale. Captains on both cruises called the trips a “fluke” so guests aboard both those cruises are invited to return on another whale watch cruise for FREE! On our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, Captain Will reports seeing a whale off the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. They never got closer than about 400 yards to that whale, but he tells us that the guests saw the whale “spouting and splashing around a bit” on the surface.
Our Whale Watch Season has just begun….join us on any of our 3 Whale Watches Cruises departing daily. Call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for information and reservations.
Mahalo, and enjoy your weekend. I’ll send out my next report on Monday.
claire
Captain Claire’s 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.