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.

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