Monthly Archives: January 2014

Who’s Watching Whom?

Posted on by
Aloha,
We had multiple breaches right off the bat as we left A’bay on our Breakfast with the Whale Cruise on Monday. There seemed to be a whale on the surface no matter which direction we looked, and we saw some great fluke shots throughout the trip. On the 10:00 Whale Watch we had a lot of activity pretty close to the boat. We focused on 3 whales who pretty much swarmed us. We saw lots of breaches and lots of other surface activities from this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails, we got mugged for about 15 minutes by three HUGE whales! Everyone on board was just blown away by the whales’ attention to us. We’re not the kind of people who like to say we’re the most interesting thing in the ocean, but for these 3 whales, for at least 15 minutes, we were!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The Whales “mugging” us are definitely taking a look at us. Though Humpbacks rely on their sense of hearing far more than any other sense, we do know that vision is also important to them. Based on the shape of the Humpbacks’ corneas, they can certainly see us…but, they’re probably a bit farsighted when looking through water and a bit nearsighted when looking through the air. And in case anyone asks you, Humpbacks have beautiful brown eyes. Their eyeballs weigh, on average, 2.16 pounds. Human eyeballs weigh about a quarter of an ounce.

So Many Muggings

Posted on by
Aloha,
Lots to report from our Whale Watch Cruises this weekend, so as usual, I’ll just touch on the highlights. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we started out with a breach right in front of the boat (that’s the sight everyone wants to see). But what really made our day was a whale who was acting slightly unusually, This whale swam right below the ocean’s surface – never diving – for more than 20 minutes. After 20 minutes of paralleling him 100 yards or so away, we stopped the boat, and the whale turned and came right toward us, still on the surface. We’re thinking this guy might have been curious about what was making all the noise on the boat, (we were encouraging him to keep approaching)! Our encouragement worked, because he surfaced near us and after that close encounter to check us out, he turned away again and resumed his swim north.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, a whale approached us again. This whale was apparently interested in us as he spy-hopped just 20 feet away from the boat. After that, he did a peduncle throw…and then breached just 50 feet away from us! Unfortunately we had to head back to the bay, but it wasn’t all bad, because we found several more whales right at the mouth of A’bay! On the 10:00 trip, most of the activity seemed to be to the south of the Bay. We found one whale who spy-hopped about 100 yards from us multiple times. We also encountered a pod of three who were swimming so hard they were trumpeting as they were spouting.
And on Sunday’s Whales & Cocktails, we were visited by a whale who wouldn’t leave us alone. Our guests named her “Pele” and she lived up to her volcanic moniker. She spent more than an hour RIGHT NEXT to the boat, swimming next to us, and underneath…and contorting her body. She spy-hopped to look at us…and after she finally moved off a bit to begin a sequence of deeper dives (showing us her beautiful flukes), each time she’d surface, she  would breach. It was absolutely incredible. All of us aboard were cheering for her like 3rd graders – a trip we’ll remember for a lifetime!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: We now know that not every Humpback who survives the summer season in Alaska will choose to migrate back next winter. Based on information compiled by our favorite researcher Chris Gabriele and her cohorts for the National Park Service in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait, at least 10 Humpbacks have been documented spending one winter off the coast of Sitka, and at least one off the coast of Juneau. We really don’t know how common this behavior is because almost no photographic identification research takes place in SE Alaska over the winter (and really, who can blame the researchers when there are such great opportunities to conduct their studies in sunny Hawaii during this time period?!).

Mystery of Meaning of Humpback Song Solved!

Posted on by
Aloha,
The ocean calmed down for us on Thursday, and we were able to run 5 great Whale Watch Cruises. When there are that many cruises, there are way too many details to list in an email update so here are a few of the highlights.
On Manu Iwa’s 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we had a moment between sightings, so we dropped the hydrophone into the water. The vocalizations we heard were really loud and clear. And we may have had a break-through in animal-human communication when Captain Will put the telephone next to the hydrophone. We use a Google Voice Mail transcription service to log our reports…and when the song the whale was singing got transcribed, here is what Google said we were listening to…
Yeah, hey hello, hello hey hello a hello. Hey, hey. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hmm. Hey, this is why I will report for tonight and January will call our number is. Play message
Apparently the mystery of the whale song has been solved…the whales are just saying  “hello” to each other!
The highlight of our 10:00 Whale Watch on Seasmoke had to have been all the surface activity. Mike reports multiple breaches, tail lobs, pectoral slaps and peduncle throws. There was activity on the surface in every direction! And on our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we encountered a competitive pod that was just breaking up…the two rejected males swam off separately, and the whales we are assuming to be the victorious male and the female swam away together in a different direction. That was fun to watch, but while we were floating motionless, we got a huge surprise when a BIG whale surfaced 30 feet behind our stern! S/he must have thought we were interesting because s/he stayed at the surface looking at us for a long time. Finally, after several spouts s/he arched her back and lifted her flukes to begin a long deep dive. We all got a great look at her tail (which is about 15 feet wide) as she dived.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When we say we heard LOUD singing, just how loud do we mean? Well, Humpback whales have been recorded producing sounds at around 185 decibels. Because the decibel scales use different references for sounds underwater than through the air, that’s the equivalent of about 123 decibels for us on the surface…which is as loud as the amplified music at a rock concert when you’re standing directly in front of a tower of speakers.

Tail Lobbing from Excitement

Posted on by
Aloha,
Patience paid off for guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch on Wednesday. First of all, there were so many whales to watch that we had to choose where to go…and then when we chose a direction, the whales seemed to choose our boat as an object of interest. A pod of 5 humpbacks approached us, and we watched as one of them breached and then, as our onboard naturalist Brooke put it, “tail lobbed like CRAZY”. That must have prompted some excitement in the other whales (it sure got us excited), because one started pec slapping, and then two other whales surfaced right next to us multiple times – there came up so close that we could recognize them. We also watched multiple breaches in the near-by distance (not from our competitive pod) and then got to see a coalition of 5 other whales form. We thought this might turn into another competition, but we had to return to the bay before anything materialized.
For the best Whale Watch Cruises in Hawaii, Call Ocean Sports – (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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 partner; or; 2). female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.

Lots of Competition

Posted on by
Aloha,
With the challenging weather conditions on Tuesday, we were only able to run one Whale Watch Cruise – but it was a good one! Guests on Tuesday’s Breakfast with the Whales were fortunate enough to watch a competitive pod of 6 whales. As usual, with a competitive pod, there was a lot of surface activity going on – pectoral slaps, peduncle throws, and even a couple of tail lobs. We also saw a couple of breaches, but they were from whales that were further away.
Mahalo,
Claire
Looking for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Cruise? Call Ocean Sports at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:The Humpbacks we see off Hawaii’s coastlines travel quite a bit between the islands, but researchers have yet to observe a directional trend. In other words, some whales travel North to South, some South to North, and some travel back and forth…a lot like our human visitors.

Female Humpback Uses the Boat for Protection

Posted on by
Aloha,
Guests on board Monday’s 10:00 Whale Watch from Anaeho’omalu Bay got to see a competitive pod of 6 whales about 3 miles offshore of Keawa’iki (south of the Bay). A very big female (with her calf) appeared to be using our boat to shield herself from those 4 male humpbacks (we didn’t mind – we were happy to be of service). The whole pod actually stayed with us for awhile – and we saw a lot of head lunges from the group. We also saw about 15 other whales spouting and fluke diving throughout the trip. Over the years we’ve noticed a pattern of Humpback arrivals that seems to be playing out this season as well,. Every year we notice an abrupt increase in population density at the end of the first week of January (we’re not sure if the Humpbacks are timing their arrival with the departure of all our holiday visitors….).
On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw 6 whales, but the one that stole the show was a very active sub-adult. This whale must have breached 10 times right in front of us. He also did multiple pectoral slaps and tail lobs, and surfaced more than once right next to the boat – and this activity went on for close to 40 minutes, making for a really exciting trip!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”, you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Aerial behaviors often result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface).

Breaches, Close Encounters and Maybe some Tutoring?

Posted on by
Aloha,
After a weekend of very challenging weather, the ocean finally calmed down on Sunday and we had some great Humpback encounters! On our Breakfast with the Whales cruise, within minutes of leaving the bay we saw a breaching Humpback. As we cruised over to investigate, we all got to see multiple breaches from this whale. And then, much to our surprise two whales surfaced very close to us. We absolutely love it when we can see their white pec fins reflecting as turquoise when they’re just below the surface.
On our 10:00 Cruise, the same whales chose to come and investigate us further, surfacing and diving all around us. We even got to watch one whale swim right underneath us between the hulls! And if that weren’t exciting enough – we got to watch a Mom/Baby pod. Baby was breaching a lot, and Mom was breaching too – we’re never really sure if she’s teaching her baby how to breach or if she’s just excited (or slightly irritated) by all of baby’s activities. We also saw multiple pectoral slaps from another whale, and lots of flukes. There were whales pretty much every direction we looked!
Mahalo,
Claire
Join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Cruises. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback whale calf weighs between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds which is between 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies are proportionally larger, averaging  4%-5% of their Mom’s weight

Suprised by Spouts

Posted on by
Aloha,
Guests on both of our Whale Watch Cruises on Thursday got to experience the best that Whale Watching in Hawaii has to offer! On the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we found Humpbacks just outside of the bay – we watched them for awhile, but were distracted by all the splashing going on about a 1/2 mile further. So went to check it out and found some whales that wanted to look at us. They came right by the boat more than once. We also saw pretty much every surface display you ever read about in the whale watching books – pec slaps, peduncle throws, head lunges and breaches! Guests on our 10:00 Whale Watch also had some great viewing. We watched a pod of three Humpbacks (most likely one female and two males – based on their behavior). The two we were assuming to be males got into a competition – shoving each other around – until one of them must have had enough and swam away, leaving the other two to swim off together out to sea. As we were all enjoying that sight, two whales that we didn’t even know were there surfaced right next to us, startling all of us with their loud spouts (if you’ve ever heard the powerful sound of a whale spout close by, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about) And if that wasn’t enough…for our grand finale, as we were coming back into the bay, we all got to see a big Humpback breach completely out of the water!
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Experience the excitement for yourself – join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Tours – call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to book your adventure today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  When we watch a surface active competitive pod of whales, we assume it is comprised of one female either leading or being chased by a group of males. It often appears that every male is competing with every other male for access to the female. Recently researchers have observed that male humpbacks may form coalitions, working together to corral the female so that one may have easier access to her. 

Who’s Watching Whom?

Posted on by
Aloha,
The first Whale Watch Cruises of 2014 were really pretty incredible. Guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw more than 20 whales, but we focused our attention on a pod of two sub-adults. At first these two whales were acting kind of aggressively towards each other, blowing bubbles and shoving each other around a bit. When Captain Ryan turned off tour boat’s engines though, the whales seemed to get very curious about us. They spent 45 minutes diving and surfacing right next to the boat. At one point, one of the whales spy-hopped (that’s what we call it when the whale surfaces vertically, holding his head above the water and looking around). The spy-hop was so close to the bow of the boat that we could have reached out and touched him! We could clearly see his eyeball looking at us!  On our 10:00 Whale Watch saw at least a dozen different Humpbacks. We saw the Humpbacks doing lots of fluke dives (that’s the posture the whales use before beginning longer, deeper dives). We also got to see the outlines of a few whales just under the surface of the water..and when we dropped our hydrophone today, we heard a lot of loud, close-by singing and vocalizations.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Spy hopping is one of the ways a Humpback can see what’s going on above the surface of the water. Because Humpbacks have really big heads proportionally, their eyes are about a third of the way down their bodies. When the whale spy hops, she rises slowly and vertically from the water, head first. If she’s a fully grown whale, her rostrum may be 15 feet above the surface before her eyes get there!