Monthly Archives: December 2013

Juveniles Cruising the Coast

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Aloha,
Guests on all of our Thursday cruises saw Humpbacks. On the 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala out of Kawaihae, we cruised around for almost the whole trip till we found a juvenile Humpback right in front of the harbor. This whale was pretty mellow, just surfacing, spouting, and then diving for 7 minutes before coming up and doing it all again.  Since it took so long for us to find each other, and with the support of the guests on board, Captain Will decided to stay out for an extra half hour so we could all enjoy the experience.
On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, two sub-adult whales found us and appeared to be curious about our presence, They hung around with us for about 30 minutes! At one point, one of them surfaced about 20 feet from our stern, so we all got a good look at each other. We also got to see a peduncle throw from one of them (a “peduncle throw” describes the whale throwing the back half of his body out of water – generally thought to be an expression of aggression towards another whale close by).
Hope your Thursday was as interesting and fun as ours!
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)!

Breaches in the Distance

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Aloha,
On yesterday’s Whales and Cocktails, guests saw two different Humpbacks – both adults (or sub-adults). We saw the spout from one of them…and the other breached. The breach was in the distance though, so we saw the splash better than we saw the whale! Since one of the theories about why Humpbacks breach is to communicate their location to other whales by creating that big splash, we figured that either the whale knew we were here and wanted us to know where he was, or that there were more whales in the vicinity that we didn’t see!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: There are Humpback Whale populations in all the oceans of the world. The whales we see here each winter are part of the North Pacific population. “Our” whales feed in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska during the summer months. They swim the 3500 miles to Hawaii each year to calve in warm waters and to mate. Recent research suggests that “our” humpbacks are actually part of a distinct genetic population, and that there are a total of 5 distinct North Pacific Humpback populations. I’ll tell you more about that in a future email.

Close Encounter Already

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Aloha,
We’re all very excited that Whale Watch Season has begun!
On our Wednesday 10:00 Whale Watch, guests aboard Alala were fortunate enough to spend 30 minutes with a juvenile Humpback who was cruising along side the boat as we headed up the Kohala Coast. Humpbacks are a protected species in the United States, so we can’t approach them in any way closer than 100 yards or do anything to alter their behavior… but the conditions yesterday were perfect for Captain Will to stop the boat and turn off the engines after the whale did a dive. Now we can’t say for sure that this whale was curious about us,  but we can say that the whale wasn’t afraid  –  since he surprised us all by surfacing RIGHT NEXT TO US,  giving us our first close encounter of the season.
We not only got to see several spouts from this whale, but we got to hear them as well! And if you’ve ever heard that WHOOOOOSH from a Humpback exhalation, you’ll know why we were so thrilled!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales received protected status from the International Whaling Commission in 1966, banning most nations from hunting them. In the U.S., the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 provide additional protection to the whales. In fact, unless operating under a federal research permit, approaching humpback whales within 100 yards (300 feet) or within 1,000 feet from aircraft is prohibited by federal regulations