Monthly Archives: December 2013

Spouts and Splashes

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Aloha,
On Monday, we ran two different Breakfast with the Whales Cruises. Guests aboard Seasmoke watched 6 different Humpbacks. All of them were in pods of two. At one point, these three pods joined up, and according to Captain Baker, it was fun watching them all play around each other. Guests aboard our Manu Iwa Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw 7 different Humpbacks. Some of them were in the distance, so we concentrated on watching a very active juvenile who breached multiple times. The conditions were finally calm enough for us to drop our hydrophone…but when we did, we weren’t able to pick up any voices. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we spent most of our time watching 2 Humpbacks. This pod was slowly cruising together down the coast, just surfacing for a couple of breaths before diving down and continuing their swim.
Mahalo,
Claire
Looking for the best Whale Watch Cruise in Hawaii? Join Ocean Sports – call us at (808)886-6666 or visit hawaiioceansports.com
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.

Reverse Sexual Size Dimorphism

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Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started out with a lot of surface activity. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw 4 different Humpbacks. Two were in the distance, but the two closest to us were excited about something – we got to see tail lobs, pectoral slaps and even a breach! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we saw 7 different whales but spent most of our time with a competitive pod of 4 that chose to come pretty close to us. We saw multiple tail lobs and peduncle throws, and at one point, one of the whales surfaced just 50 feet from us. Saturday and Sunday brought us more of the same great action. Highlights included seeing breaches, tail lobs, and pec slaps all from what our onboard naturalist Gary reports as a yearling (based on her size) just out of Anaeho’omalu Bay on Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch guests saw 5 different whales and lots of surface activity including multiple breaches, pec slaps and tail lobs.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales (and, in fact, all Baleen Whales) demonstrate something called “reverse sexual size dimorphism”. This means that an adult female Humpback is larger than an adult male (by about 5%). Though researchers are not sure of the exact reason for the difference in size, they theorize that the increased size allows the female to store more reserves to feed and care for her calf, and also to give birth to a bigger calf who might have a better chance of survival than a smaller one. Average length for a fully grown female Humpback is around 45 feet. At her heaviest, she weighs 35 – 40 tons.

Breach!

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Aloha,
We only operated two Whale Watch Cruises on Thursday due to the building wind and surf conditions. The ocean conditions in the early morning were really nice though, and guests on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw 6 different Humpbacks. They were all travelling in pods of two, and while Captain Baker reports there wasn’t a lot of surface activity to watch, everyone did see one full-on breach – always an exciting event! By 10:00, the wind had come up, making it very difficult to find the whales…so Captain Will called it a fluke and gave all the guests aboard the boat the opportunity to join us again on another Whale Watch for FREE. Hopefully ocean conditions will calm down again for Friday so we can go out again!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:Just how difficult is it for a 40 ton, 45 foot long animal to “fly” from the sea in a total breach? Observers have reported seeing Humpbacks breach after only two kick strokes for propulsion. Based on the formula for calculating horsepower, measurements of laminar flow around cetacean skin (how water flows past the skin of the animal), girth and drag in the water, the breaching whale is producing between 1500 and 1700 horsepower in order to “catch air”. We used to think it was closer to 5000 horsepower, but with the aid of a calculator and more accurate measurements, we’ve been able to recalculate more accurately…still, try this yourself next time you’re in the water. We’re betting you won’t get very far!

Accompanied by Whales

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Aloha,
We only got to operate 2 Whale Watches on Christmas Day, but they both were great trips! Our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise started off with a bang. We were about a mile or so offshore of the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort when we all got to see a very big whale breach about 100 yards off our bow! This whale was accompanying a pod of two other whales – Mom and Baby, The trio stayed with us for more than a half hour, and at one point, the escort surfaced very close to us. We also saw lots of good fluke dives from him. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we were accompanied by two whales who seemed pretty interested in what we were doing out there, since they stayed with us for over an hour. Our onboard naturalist, Adam, reports that one of these whales had a “mangled fluke” – the left side of his fluke had what appeared to be a healed-up injury from an entanglement at one point in his life. The old injury didn’t appear to be impairing his swimming – and we’ll definitely be on the look out to see if we can find him again.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:One of the best ways whale watchers have to identify individual Humpbacks is by the unique markings on the ventral (underside) of their flukes (tails). Currently, the National Marine Mammal Laboratory based in Seattle maintains a data base containing more than 30,000 photos of the North Pacific Humpbacks flukes dating back to 1966, but other researchers, including those involved in the 3 season SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks) Project have also used these patterns to identify who’s who in the whale world, and estimate  Humpback population levels.

Escorted Pod

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Aloha,
Guests aboard our Whale Watches on Tuesday so the whole gamut of whale behaviors. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we watched two whales on the move for pretty much the entire trip. These two would surface simultaneously, spout two or three times, and then do a shallow dive (we didn’t see their flukes) and stay underwater for 20 minutes, only to surface again further down the coast. They were in a real pattern…staying underwater the same length of time between breaths…and travelling about the same distance before surfacing each time. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, a pod of three whales found us – Mom, Baby, and Escort (the whale we call the “Escort” is almost certainly not the father of the calf – but he is a male who is hanging around Mom for as long as she’ll let him – I’ll tell you more about this in today’s fact of the day and in future emails).. They were very active – we saw multiple breaches, pec slaps, shark finning (that’s when the whale turns sideways just below the surface showing only half of his fluke and it looks a lot like a shark fin) and head lunges. Mom was a big whale, but her baby was really small. Captain Ryan said it was “the best trip [he’s] had so far all season”!
 
Mahalo and Mele Kalikimaka!
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:We frequently see Mom and Baby whale accompanied by a third whale. We used to think it was a female helping mom take care of her baby, but now that we can identify gender more easily, we know it isn’t. It’s a male. Though a new mom rarely ovulates, researchers believe that perhaps the male whale is “hoping to make a good impression” so when she is receptive, he may be the first to mate with her.

Competition and Migration Order

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Aloha,
Well after a long weekend of high surf, we were finally able to go Whale Watching again. On Monday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we really didn’t see anything till the very end of the trip. Just as we were pulling into the bay, guests saw a breach and some splashing on the horizon. We really didn’t think that this qualified as a Whale Watch, so even though we shared lots of information with our guests, Captain Ryan called the trip a “Fluke” and everyone aboard has been invited back again on another Whale Watch with us for no charge. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 2 Humpbacks…and on our Snorkel Cruise from Anaeho’omalu guests also saw 2 Humpbacks (always a treat, since we really aren’t searching for them…but when the whales find us, we’ll definitely stop to watch them)! We ended the day with a great show on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise. Our onboard naturalist Angelica reports that we found two Humpbacks together. There seemed to be a bit of a competition going on (maybe they were trying to determine who was dominant) – we saw a pectoral slap and a couple of head lunges from one of these whales. And then a third whale showed up in the area…and perhaps announcing his presence (or maybe expressing aggression or excitement) did a full breach!.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to researchers, the first whales to arrive in Hawaii each year from Alaska are females with a yearling, followed by sub-adults (the teenagers of the whale world). The next to arrive are mature resting females (ovaries and mammary glands show no signs of recent activity) followed by mature males, and finally late pregnancy stage females.

Humpbacks Hawaiian Style

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Aloha,
Our Wednesday Whale Watches began with Breakfast with the Whales from Anaeho’omalu Bay. On this cruise, guests saw a total of 6 different Humpbacks, in 3 different pods of 2. We saw a breach in the distance, and did have a close encounter when one of the whales decided to surface next to our boat. On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we did see a spout and a breach in the distance, but that wasn’t good enough for us, so we invited all our guests to come back with us another time for FREE! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also saw a Humpback spouting and diving…but on our Champagne Sunset Cruise, guests were delighted to spend 45 minutes with a very curious Humpback who just kept approaching us, and surfacing on all sides of the boat. At one point we were looking at a whale off our port side, and a double rainbow off our starboard side! Lucky we live Hawaii!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see the spout from a whale, you’re actually looking at an interesting combination of things. Some of what you’re looking at is condensation from the whales’ lungs (the same thing you’re looking at when you see your own breath after exhaling in a cold environment); some is atomized ocean water (Humpbacks live in a wet world, and there’s always some of the ocean pooled on top of their blow holes when they surface); and…since Humpbacks don’t have cilia in their respiratory tracks (little hairs)…a lot of what you see (and occasionally feel) is actually mucus! Yuck!

A Pod of Two

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Aloha,
On Monday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae on Alala watched two Humpback Whales cruise along the Kohala Coast. These two whales were pretty mellow, just surfacing, spouting a few times, and then diving. We weren’t really sure what they were doing underwater (we never really know), and we think they weren’t too sure what we were doing on the surface because at one point, one of them surfaced right behind the boat, surprising us all!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size human adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult human exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.

Repeat Sightings

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Aloha,
Guests aboard the Ocean Sports Whale Watches had some great experiences this past weekend! Highlights include being surrounded by 3 whales on Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch. One whale breached right near us…and another was very curious about us and after breaching on his own for awhile, surfaced right near the boat. We also saw tail slaps and peduncle throws during that trip.
On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, a juvenile Humpback (about 30 feet long) must have decided that we were the most interesting thing in the ocean because he spent a good 90 minutes right next to the boat. He “mugged” us several times, and dove and surfaced on all sides of us. Our on-board naturalists Angelica and Gary are pretty sure this Humpback was a young male based on all the scarring near his dorsal fin (like many other male mammals, Humpbacks really shove each other around at times)! We also got to see the spout and flukes of another whale a bit further away from us during this cruise.
On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 3 Humpbacks – one of whom was the same one we saw on Saturday (we could tell by his size, but the real give-away was the scars on his dorsal fin). Today, he was accompanied by another juvenile about the same size. These two stayed with us for about 20 minutes and at one point, our whale from yesterday did approach us and surfaced fairly close by. We also saw a breach from another whale further down the coast, so we went to investigate. This whale turned out to be quite a bit bigger than our first two, and after surfacing, did a longer, deeper breath hold dive.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A fully grown Humpback Whale can hold his or her breath for around 45 minutes. Usually, that’s not what we observe in Hawaii though. We’re more likely to witness 10-20 minute breath hold dives, and if the whale is really active, s/he surfaces to breathe a lot more frequently.