Swallowed by a Whale? Not likely!

Aloha,
Due to the winds in Kawaihae and the nature of our other charters, I don’t have any whale stats to report from yesterday’s charters, so here’s an interesting story instead:
In the 1890′s, a whaler with very pale and mottled skin named James Bartley claimed that he had been swallowed by a Sperm Whale. He had been pursuing the whale off the coast of the Falkland Islands, when he was thrown from his boat and presumed lost at sea. Two days later, shipmates on The Star of the East, killed a Sperm whale, and lo and behold —found Bartley in the whale’s stomach! Supposedly, Bartley was a “raving lunatic” for several weeks, but then recovered enough to remember the experience — enough that he was able to make a modest living travelling with an exhibit of a stuffed Sperm Whale – he claimed his skin was permanently damaged from the whales gastric juices. The story of the modern day Jonah was very popular in religious tracts and broadcasts, but has since been debunked. Not only was the Star of the East not a whaling boat, but there was no record of a James Bartley even working on the ship. Even James’ wife claimed the story was“a good yarn”.
Mahalo,
Claire

Mugged All Day – and that’s ok!

Aloha,
We had a great time on yesterday’s whale watches. On our first trip, we had two whales spend 45 minutes with us just 10 feet from the boat. We also got to see a couple of breaches about 50 feet from the boat, and lots of tail lobs about the same distance. And then, according to our on board naturalist Mike, the next whale watch was even better! The winds had calmed down a bit and we found the same two whales from the first trip, who still wanted to look at us. They were joined by 3 other whales, so now we had 5 Humpbacks curious about the boat. And on the next trip, we had 4 whales spend an hour and a half with us, surfacing, spouting, and even tail lobbing very close by! Of course, all day long we saw lots of other whales around us, but when we’re being “mugged” by curious Humpbacks, we tend to focus our attention on the whales right next to us!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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:

Triple Breach…and that was just the beginning….

Aloha,
Monday was another windy day, but we had lots of fun on the water. On our 12:30 Whale Watch, we saw about 30 different whales including 5 different Moms with their babies in tow. This trip started with a spectacular triple breach from a pod of Mom/Baby/Escort, and the breaching just kept going on. We watched a calf breach over and over and over and over…too  many times to count. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw more than 20 different whales, including a Mom and calf who stayed within 10 feet of us for almost 20 minutes (we don’t dare move the boat when they’re that close…besides the fact that maneuvering within 100 yards of the whales is illegal, we wouldn’t want to do anything that would affect their behaviors). We also saw lots of breaches and tail lobbing from different whales in the distance. When the wind calmed down enough for us to drop the hydrophone, we heard some great sounds.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:   Humpbacks can maintain a consistent body temperature even when swimming in cold Alaskan waters. How do they do that? Besides their protective layer of blubber, they actually have something called a “counter current” circulatory system. Some arteries in their flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin are surrounded by veins, allowing some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries to be transferred to the venous blood returning to their hearts, instead of being lost to the environment. Tomorrow, I’ll explain how Humpbacks keep their cool in Hawaiian waters.

Curious Calves All Weekend Long

Aloha,
We had nice weekend of whale watching – too many trips to report everything, so I’ll just summarize the highlights, starting with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise where 3 adult humpbacks decided to surround our boat for close to 15 minutes. On Saturday’s 12:30 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we got to watch an interesting interaction between Mom and her baby. The calf breached about 10 times before mom did a big peduncle throw landing her tail just about on top of the calf…was Mom trying to tell her baby “enough! settle down!”?. We also saw some beautiful fluke dives from a different Cow/Calf/Escort pod – Mom’s flukes were all black, and the escort had some very distinct white patches on his flukes. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we saw 5 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods. We had two really, really close encounters when different escorts came right up along side the boat. We also saw some pretty vigorous tail lobbing and peduncle throws from a different pod. On Sunday, guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw lots of breaches in the wind, but were most excited by the Mom and calf who circled our boat for more than 20 minutes. We all got a very good look at these whales (and they got a very good look at us too)!. And a similar thing happened to us on the Sunday Whales and Cocktails Cruise when a Mom and her calf decided to spend a considerable amount of time right next to us. We also saw a series of tail lobs and a peduncle throw from a competitive pod, and lots of breaches but they were in the wind, and we decided it wasn’t worth it to travel out there to see those whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback Whale Calf weighs betweeen 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies average 4%-5% of their Mom’s weight.
Reply
Forward

Close Encounters as the Wind Disappears

Aloha,
We finally got to say “aloha” to the wind this morning – we experienced not a breath of wind on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, which made for some great whale sightings. We must have seen close to 30 different Humpbacks. We had 4 different close encounters with different pods of whales, saw 5 breaches (though those were further away) and also witnessed a couple of tail lobs and a couple of pectoral slaps. And because the wind died down, we were finally able to deploy the hydrophone, hearing some great clear singing. What a great way to start the day! On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 25 whales, including two pods of Cow/Calf/Escort. The first of those two pods came right over to the boat and we all got to see Mom balancing her baby on her rostrum, and the baby rolling over and slapping the water with his little pec fins. We went out again from Kawaihae at 12:30, and this time we saw 30 different whales including a pod of Mom/Baby/Escort close by. The escort must have breached 30 times! And then we saw another pod of Mom/Baby breaching in the distance – Mom would breach, followed by the calf breaching. Mom breached 3 times and the calf breached twice. And we finished the day on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, where once again, everywhere we looked we saw whales. We found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod right off the bat, and they seemed curious enough about us to approach us. We saw lots of breaching and when we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some very clear singing. All in all, it was a great day on the water.
Mahalo, and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll send out the next report on Monday!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  A Humpback Whale doesn’t reach sexual maturity till it’s about 35 feet long (age 5 or 6 for females, and a little bit later for males). Researchers believe that most Humpbacks in the North Pacific don’t begin calving successfully till they’re at least 10 years old – the mean average is 11.8 years.

Breaches Everywhere

Aloha,
Yet another windy day on the Kohala Coast meant we had to cancel a few trips…but on our Breakfast with the Whales cruise on Seasmoke out of Anaeho’omalu Bay, we did get to see some action. We watched a Mom with her active baby – baby breached 3 times. We also saw some breaches in the distance (though it was too windy to get to those whales). And we had a close encounter with two big adult Humpbacks who decided to surface about 40 feet from us. On the Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw a couple of whales breaching in the distance just as we left the bay. The wind was still pretty strong, so we decided not to go out to see them, but we did count 10 breaches between the two of them. We headed north towards the Mauna Lani instead, where we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby breached 3 times right near the boat, and then we saw a huge tail lob and multiple pec slaps from the adults in the  group. After that, we found a third pod of adults and as the grand finale, one of them breached right next to the boat, giving all of us a great close-up view of the power and size of the whale.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: A humpback whale’s trachea and esophagus are totally separate tubes (unlike ours which meet up in the back of our mouths). We have an epiglottis which protects our lungs from accidental inspiration of food or liquid – Humpbacks don’t need one…but that also means that a Humpback can only breathe thru her blowholes and not thru her mouth

Little Eddie Steals the Show

Aloha,
The wind just hasn’t quit in Waikoloa, so we ran our Tuesday trips out of Honokohau Harbor (which is just south of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary waters). On our 10:00 trip we saw two whales, mostly spouting and sounding. But the Whales and Cocktails cruise started with a bang. Just as we left the harbor, we found a very excited calf who must have breached about 30 times (who can keep count when there’s that much to see??!!). We stayed with this little guy (who we named “Eddie”) and his mom (who we named “Cindy Lou”) and their escort for the entire trip — well, actually, they stayed with us. Mom didn’t seem to mind at all that we were there, and in fact, at one point she brought Little Eddie right over to check out the boat. We all couldn’t believe how active this little guy was..After doing multiple somersaults and waving his little pectoral fins in the air, Little Eddie seemed to decide that laying on his side and watching us watch him was an interesting way to spend his Tuesday afternoon.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the DayAll these new calves we’ve seen this season bode well for the future of the Humpback population in the North Pacific. According to research results released in 2008 by SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpback Whales in the North Pacific – a research project involving more than 400 researchers in 10 countries) there are approximately 18,000 – 20,000 Humpbacks living in the North Pacific, with the population wintering in Hawaii seeing a 5.5% – 6% annual rate of increase since the early 1990′s.

Wind brings out the Whales

Aloha,
Well it certainly has been windy…so windy in fact that the only whale watch we operated on Monday was our Breakfast with the Whales cruise out of Anaeho’omalu Bay. As usual when it’s very windy, it’s much more difficult to see spouts (since they dissapate so quickly), and it’s much more difficult to maneuver the boat to any whales we see. But we did find whales. We’ve noticed over the years that when the wind comes up, the whales perform a lot more surface activities…breaches, peduncle throws, pec slaps and head lunges. We’re not sure whether this is because the whales are reacting to the increased energy on the surface created by the wind… but we’ve read that the other populations of Humpbacks in other oceans react in a similar fashion to the wind.
We’re hoping the wind backs down a little on Tuesday!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According the the website of the International Whaling Commission (the international agency overseeing whaling) the only countries with people allowed to hunt Humpbacks under the Aboriginal Sustenance Hunting program are West Greenland (who are allowed 9 Humpbacks annually for the years 2013-2018), and the Bequian people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who were allowed a total of 20 Humpbacks between the years 2008 and 2012 and between 2013 and 2018 are allowed 24.  

Windy Weekend Brings Plenty of Action

Aloha,
The winds were up certainly strong past weekend, so we ended up having to cancel a few charters…but we were able to operate out of Anaeho’omalu  and here are some highlights from the past few days…On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw multiple competitive pods with lots of action consisting of many males swimming fast and banging into each other. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we enjoyed two very close encounters with two different Mom/Calf pods. We found the first pod just outside of the Bay. Baby breached 5 times before balancing precariously on Mom’s rostrum. Mom brought him right over to the boat and we all got a good look at each other! We found the second pod a little further south. This baby breached 3 times and head lunged twice before swimming our way. Again, Mom let him come right over to the boat and swim alongside before they both took off. On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 3 different Mom/Baby pods, and enjoyed watching yet another excited calf breach a few times. We also saw a couple of adult breaches (one fairly close by) and a couple of small competitive pods composed of smaller whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though Humpback whales in different hemispheres migrate on opposite schedules (when it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and therefore are very unlikely to meet, no subspecies of Humpbacks are recognized genetically. In fact there has been some research done on maternal lineages that demonstrates relationships which exist in the present across hemispheric boundaries. This suggests that at one point (perhaps in the very distant past) there was some level of inter-hemispheric gene flow.

A Day Full of Breaching

Aloha
If you read the Whale Report I sent out on Thursday morning, it may have been a little confusing since I somehow got a day ahead of myself, and I was really reporting on Wednesday’s Whale Watches…sorry about that, and here’s the recap for the real Thursday.
Thursday’s Whale Watches started out with pretty much “every activity you could see from Humpbacks” according to our naturalist Mike. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, pec slaps, head lunges and even a few breaches. We also had two close encounters with different pods of Mom/Baby who swam by to check us out. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw over 30 different Humpbacks, but the highlights were definitely the competitive pods we found  – especially the second one. The whale in front of this group (which according to researchers, is almost always the female) did 6 full breaches expressing her excitement (or anxiety, or irritation, or health…not sure which). We also saw multiple peduncle throws, tail lobs and pec slaps from the other whales in this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw lots of breaches and pec slaps in the distance, but towards the end of the cruise we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod with a very active calf. Baby breached repetitively, and the escort performed several peduncle throws right near the boat.
Mahalo, and enjoy your weekend! I really will send out the next report on Monday,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either 1). Female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partners…or 2). Female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.