Monthly Archives: February 2014

Muggings, Close Encounters, and Lots of Surface Action

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Aloha,
Thursday was an incredible day for whale watching. Between our 3 boats, we ran a total of 11 Whale Watch Cruises, so reporting details for each would be pretty difficult. Highlights included several muggings (the first on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, where we were approached by two different Mom/Baby pods at different times). On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we also were approached several times by different whales checking us out. We got to see a whale calf attempting multiple breaches (sometimes he just couldn’t quite get the timing right and did more of a back-flop). We also watched a competitive pod of 6 whales charging along the surface of the ocean. Our afternoon trips allowed our guests to see pretty much every surface behavior of the Humpbacks in Hawaii including tail lobs, pec slaps, head lunges, peduncle throws, throat inflations (from whales in competitive pods), and multiple breaches.
Mahalo… have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Valentines Day!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Valentines Day Humpback Fact of the Day:  A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to measurements made by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 times per minute.

Barnacles and Breaches

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Aloha,
We ran 4 Whale Watch Cruises on Tuesday, and to quote Captain Patrick (who was on Alala from Kawaihae all day), “there were LOTS of whales all around”. We saw multiple Mom/Baby/Escort pods, multiple unescorted Mom/Baby pods, multiple competitive pods, and even a couple of lone whales. On days like Tuesday, it’s difficult to keep accurate counts of the number of surface displays we saw, so instead of reporting them, we’ll just have to say we saw a little of everything throughout the day, including breaches, tail lobs, head lunges, and peduncle throws. When the whales approached us, we were able to see some interesting scarring on some of their bodies, and when we got lucky enough to see close-up fluke dives, we could actually see the barnacles living on the edges of the whales tails. We did deploy our onboard hydrophones throughout the day, and we got to listen in to all the singing and vocalizations going on underwater too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The barnacles called “Coronula diadema” live only on Humpback Whales, and they seem to prefer to live on areas of the whale where the water flow is consistent (chin and fins). Though researchers aren’t sure how the barnacle can even find a whale to live on, there is some speculation that because the barnacles are spawning during the winter in Hawaii, the whales here are swimming in “barnacle larvae soup”. When a whale swims by, those “baby” barnacles chemically sense it, and hop on where ever they can. They use their antennae as “feet’ and walk around the whale till they find a suitable spot (which can take quite a while… if the barnacle were the size of a person, the whale would be 20 miles long). Once they find a spot they like, they flip over and produce tube-shaped cavities in their shells that actually draw in prongs of growing whale skin, holding their position on the whale for life.

Massive Humpback Tongues

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Aloha,
There was lots of great activity to see this past weekend. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests were delighted to watch a Mom/Baby pair. Baby was busily breaching repetitively, while Mom stayed just below. We also saw some great tail lobs and pec slaps from a couple of nearby adults. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we got to see a VERY competitive pod chasing across the ocean. We saw lots of chin slaps and quick changes of direction and got quite the surprise when they all surfaced next to us, surrounding us. They spent almost 10 minutes using our boat, and all of us humans got quite the workout trying to follow them as they surfaced on opposite sides of the boat over and over again. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we loved watching a Humpback tail lob 30+ times right in front of the boat. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports watching 2 competitive pods, but the highlight of that cruise was the Mom/Baby/Escort pod that chose to stay with us for 45 minutes. On Sunday’s 10:00 Cruise, two whales spent considerable time right next to our boat. On our 12:30 Cruise we got to watch baby whale breach 36 times (we counted) right in front of the boat. Mom cruised right alongside her calf. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we paralleled a very active competitive pod as they headed south. We saw lots of whale aggression – head lunges, chin slaps, and lots of shoving around.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales have massive tongues. An 80,000 pound Humpback has a two-ton tongue!  Taste buds appear to be atrophied…and they are unable to protrude their tongues from their mouths.

Cloud Cover Doesn’t Alter Activity Levels

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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.

Pods of Cows and Calves Predominate

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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 Day:  Researchers 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.

Mom’s, Calves, and Escorts

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Aloha,
The weather returned to normal on Monday, and the Humpbacks were out in full force. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we were surprised by a calf that wanted to take a look at us. Mom and the Escort also surfaced close by. We got to see another Mom/baby pod on this trip as well as a few tail lobs and a spy hop from another big adult Humpback.
 On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw more than 20 different Humpbacks. Most of them were in pods of two, just cruising along the surface. We did see two different Mom/Baby pods and neither of them appeared to be accompanied by an escort. We also saw 3 pectoral slaps from a fairly young whale (not a calf – but this whale had a short “arm”).
We went out again in the afternoon, and this time we saw 10 different whales. We spent some time watching a small Mom and her calf, and were very surprised when Mom did a fluke dive. First of all, females with calves rarely lift their flukes when they dive – that’s the posture Humpbacks use to begin a longer deeper dive, and Mom doesn’t leave her baby near the surface unless she’s close by. The other reason we were surprised to see her flukes is that when she lifted her tail, we realized that she was the SAME whale we had seen a few days ago off of Anaeho’omalu Bay. The right side of her fluke had a chunk missing and it sure appeared to be an old injury from an encounter with an Orca. Since this whale was really small and accompanied by a very small calf we hadn’t seen the last time we saw her, we’re guessing this may be one of her first calves…and that she gave birth very recently. We’ll definitely be on the look out for her the next couple of days.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The most recent (2008) International Whaling Commission estimate of the total world-wide population of Humpbacks is between 112,000 and 180,000.