Pods of Cows and Calves Predominate

Aloha,
Guests aboard both of our morning Whale Watch Cruises spent lots of time with Humpback Calves. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, 3 different Mom/Baby pods found us. The first baby was pretty curious and tried to approach us, but Mom wouldn’t let him get too close. We also saw some BIG splashes caused by some adult breachers a couple of miles away. On our 10:00 Cruise, the water was eerily calm…and we could see spouts from miles away. Captain Pat made the decision to head west, where we found a very small Mom and calf. At first, they were accompanied by a single escort, but as we watched, 2 more big escorts joined the pod. These big boys decided to fight a bit, and we got to see a few head lunges and a throat inflation from one of them. Mom didn’t appear to be too impressed (or threatened) by the antics of the escorts, as she continued cruising slowly with her calf along the coast line. She did do a good job of keeping herself between the inquisitive calf and all the escorts though. We also got to see one more Mom/baby pod, and 8 other whales in pods of two on this cruise.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the DayResearchers are not sure how Humpbacks find their way from Alaska to Hawaii each winter…after all; Hawaii is the most isolated land mass in the world. Since small particles of a form of iron called “magnetite” have been found in Humpback’s brains, some researchers theorize that the magnetite acts like a magnet, helping the Humpbacks to feel the magnetic pull of the earth and keeping them on track. Other researchers disagree, claiming that the Humpbacks swim in such straight lines when they migrate that they must be orienting themselves with a combination of methods, including some celestial markers like the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night.

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