Aloha,
Thursday morning we woke up to overcast skies, and on our 10:00 Whale Watch, one of the first questions a guest asked me was “What do the whales prefer? Sunshine or clouds?”. I’ve never read any research documenting surface activity levels based on cloud cover, but based on what we got to see on this cruise, I’d have to say the whales sure didn’t let the grey skies slow them down. We spent much of our time watching a competitive pod of 4 whales. The one in the lead (which we’re guessing was female) spent a lot of time at the surface pec slapping and tail lobbing. We got to see some great bubble trails from the primary escort (researchers suggest the primary escort blows bubbles as a way to mask the presence of the female from the males behind him), and a couple of times he lifted his head showing us an inflated throat (another aggressive move — inflation makes him look bigger to the other males). We also saw not one, not two, but 3 breaches from this pod…and all them were right in front of us. During the cruise, we also saw lots of other Humpbacks spouting, peduncle throwing (twice) and tail lobbing.
We went back out again at 12:30 with 50 keiki from Wai’aha School (and their parents and teachers). Though we were only on the dock for about 5 minutes between the trips, the weather changed entirely. The wind came up – and so did the whales! We saw lots of tail lobs and peduncle throws during this cruise. All told we saw more than two dozen whales. And when we deployed our hydrophone, we heard very loud clear songs.
On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, not only were we visited by a Mom/Baby/Escort pod, but we got to watch a tail lob competition between two adult whales.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The smooth round flat spot we see on the water after a whale dives is called the “footprint”. Whalers thought it was caused by oil from the whale’s skin calming the surface of the water, but water samples have proven that theory to be false. When a whale dives (or kicks just below the surface) his flukes break the surface tension of the water and create a vertical wake, forming the circular footprint.