Monthly Archives: January 2013

Humpback Migration Speeds

Posted on by
Aloha,
The highlight of our Wednesday whale watches happened on our 10:00 Whale Watch cruise from Kawaihae where we found 4 juvenile whales. When we first saw them, 3 of them were together, travelling down the coast. We watched the other whale actually join the trio as they continued to travel. The group also performed a few head lunges, and came up on both sides of the boat.
 
Join Ocean Sports for your whale watch adventure. We depart daily at 8:00, 10:00 and 3:00 from two locations within the Hawaiian Humpback National Marine Sanctuary. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com for reservations.
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: It takes an average of just under 3 months for the Humpbacks to migrate from the summer feeding grounds in Alaska to Hawaii (although at least one Humpback was seen in Alaska and then in Hawaii just 45 days later). That means the Humpbacks are generally swimming at a speed of about 4 knots (a little bit faster than we travel when taking a brisk walk)!

A New Year and a New Calf

Posted on by
Aloha,
Our 2013 Whale Watches began with sightings of 5 different Humpbacks on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We also saw a breach off in the distance on this cruise. On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala, we were delighted to see 2 whales…Mom and her baby. Our onboard naturalist Jonathan reports that the calf was very young – perhaps just a few days old, since it was still very grey and still had the natal folds indicative of a newborn (when the baby slides out of its mom’s birth canal, he’s really wrinkled from his time in the womb – it takes several days for the wrinkles to smooth out). This little calf was very active too…performing 3 tail lobs and 2 little pectoral slaps. Since Mom and baby were just over 100 yards from the boat, we also got to see the little guy’s head poke out of the water a few times as he tried to get a better look at us! We finished the day with our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, where everyone enjoyed seeing spouts and flukes from several different whales.
 
Join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best 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: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is between 10 and 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter.
 
 
 
 

Our First Calf of the Season!

Posted on by
Aloha,
Our Monday Whale Watches brought us some nice surprises. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw 4 different Humpbacks. A smallish whale seemed very interested in us and swam under the boat and surfaced right along side of us. We also saw several tail lobs from a different whale, and Captain Will reports seeing some spy hops as well. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae we all were very surprised when we saw 2 Humpbacks at the end of the trip south of the harbor. The surf was HUGE, but the water conditions were glassy so we could see spouts and activity from quite a distance. But the biggest surprise happened on our Whales & Cocktails Cruise…we had headed north from Anaeho’omalu towards Mauna Lani Bay where we found a pod of two Humpbacks…Mom and her very young calf! This is the first time this season that we’ve seen a calf! We watched this pair for about 20 minutes but didn’t want to bother them, so we left them and headed south again. We saw two more big whales spout and dive before we had to head back to the Bay.

 

 
Join Ocean Sports for the Hawaii Whale Watching at its best! Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for reservations today.
 
Mahalo, and Happy New Year!
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We know Humpbacks are big animals, but it’s not until we have a CLOSE ENCOUNTER that we really appreciate how big they are. But Humpbacks are only the 5th largest of the great whales — Blue whales, Fin Whales, Grays, and Right Whales (including Bowheads) are all longer (on average)– and if you want to count the toothed whales in the list, Sperm Whales are longer too.