Slow Motion Breaching

Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started off well, with sightings of a Mom/Calf pod on our Friday 10:00 Whale Watch. This pod not only held our interest, but they also held the interest of a small pod of Spinner Dolphins, who were accompanying the whales. We also a double breach off in the distance. At the same time, we were running a Kid’s Field Trip Whale Watch Cruise on Manu Iwa. The kids got to see lots and lots of spouts and flukes as the Humpbacks were surfacing, breathing and diving. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we got to watch a competitive pod of 6 Humpbacks charging across the surface of the ocean. We also saw a very close-by breach – and when the whale is as close as this one was, it looks like he’s going in slow motion!.
Mahalo, On Sunday, we saw Mom/Baby/Escort, and lots of spouts from single whales off in the distance.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According the website of the International Whaling Commission (the international agency overseeing whaling) the only countries with people allowed to hunt Humpbacks under the Aboriginal Sustenance Hunting program are a tribe in Greenland (who were allowed 9 West Greenland Humpbacks annually for the years 2010-2012, and 10 Humpbacks annually in 2013 and 2014), and the Bequian people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who were allowed a total of 20 Humpbacks between the years 2008 and 2012 and  a total of 24 Humpbacks between the years 2013 and 2018. The IWC specifically bans the killing of calves.

Humpbacks Can Sleep – But How?

Aloha,
Between our regularly scheduled cruises, our kid’s field trip cruises, and some private cruises, we ran 5 different Whale Watch Tours yesterday — with all those cruises, there are just too many details to send in an email. Suffice it to say, the majority of the pods we saw throughout the day were Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We did get to watch some pretty wild surface action on a couple of our trips, with competitive pods charging around the Mom/Baby duo. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, a couple of breaches and lots of spouts and dorsal fins too. We deployed our hydrophones several times throughout the day with mixed results. We were always able to hear the underwater chorus the whales listen to all day, but only a few times did we hear very loud singing (indicating close-by males). Based on what we were watching on the surface, the males close by to us were way too busy to stop and sing!
Have a great weekend,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Humpback Whales don’t sleep as soundly as we do — if they did, researchers believe that they’d drown. Humans breathe in response to carbon dioxide build-up in our blood, but Humpbacks and other marine mammals have to keep part of their brain awake at all times so they remember to breathe. When a Humpback sleeps, he floats just under the surface of the ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. We call this behavior “logging’ as the whale looks a lot like a floating log.

New Humpback Research Published

Aloha,
On Wednesday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we watched a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. As is often the case when we get to see this particular grouping of whales, Mom does a lot of shallow dives, but the escort will actually show his flukes when he dives (he goes deeper and the researchers suggest that the vertical flukes-up dive is the optimal position to be in when beginning one of those deep dives). We did see the escort’s flukes, and knowing that the pattern on his tail is unique to him, we hope to recognize him again this season. We also saw spouts and dorsal fins from some other whales a bit further away from us. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a different Mom/Baby/Escort pod just as we left the bay. They were heading north slowly, so we paralleled their path and watched them for most of the cruise. We also saw some spouts from a couple other big adults who were cruising in deeper water..
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers just published results of a study identifying the core bacterial communities living on Humpbacks’ skin regardless of which ocean the whales inhabit. Though they aren’t sure exactly how these bacteria interact with the whales, it is possible that the bacteria may be the reason the skins of the whales don’t get overwhelmed with organisms (the way boat hulls do). Also, by identifying the bacteria living on healthy whales, the researchers may have a new way to identify stressed and less healthy whales (by comparing the types of bacterial colonies from skin samples). In case you’re curious, the bacteria are Tenacibaculum and Psychrobacter (neither of which are found on the skins of healthy humans).

Competitive Pod Forms Before our Very Eyes

Aloha,
On our Wednesday 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 8 different whales. As we exited the harbor, we turned south and just cruised the coastline watching multiple spouts, dorsal fins and flukes as these whales surfaced and dived. Just before the trip ended, we saw what everyone hopes to see on a whale watch — a full breach. And then another full breach…and then a third full breach! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod just outside of the bay. We paralleled them, staying with them for almost the entire cruise. We actually got to watch a competitive pod form, as other males in the area located Mom. By the end of the cruise she had 4 males chasing after her and battling among each other for that prime escort position.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to the experts at NOAA, in 1966 when commercial whaling was finally banned, the Humpback population in the North Pacific was estimated to be fewer than 1400 individuals.

What do Warthogs have in Common with Humpbacks?

Aloha,
We experienced some pretty breezy conditions on Monday, so we only were able to operate our two morning Whale Watch Cruises. Our naturalists are still reporting lots of spouts, but we’ve been noticing that the migration back to Alaska is in full swing. Generally the whales we see later in the season are pods of Mom/Baby/Escort, and lots of lone whales (who researchers are now identifying as alpha males that are optimizing mating opportunities before migrating north). We’re also seeing lots of competitive pods associating and disassociating as they battle to establish dominance among themselves. When we are able to deploy our hydrophone, we’re hearing a lot of singers too. We’ve always maintained that though it’s sad to say Aloha to our Humpbacks, the last three weeks of every season does bring some exciting surface action. Combine cute curious calves with an uneven ratio of males to females, and add in some desperate-to-mate male Humpbacks, and we get the recipe for incredible whale watches!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Starting out as a way to pass time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid18th century, “scrimshawing” (or the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen) survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs.

Mugged by a Baby

Aloha,
Our weekend started out, to quote Captain Will, as “CRAZY”. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we cruised out of the bay and just outside the Hilton we saw a Mom and calf surface about 150 yards from us so we shut down the motors and just drifted. We looked, and looked, and then all of a sudden they both popped up right next to the boat. They swam under us and around us for more than 40 minutes. Every once in awhile, the calf would stop looking at us to breach right next to us! A couple of kayakers paddled by, and the whales left us, and swam right under them (which must have been a pretty intense experience for those people in their little boats), only to return to us for some more viewing. After these whales got enough of us and headed off, we saw another pod of two adult whales tail slapping near Honoko’opae Bay. We also two breaches from some other adult Humpbacks about 800 yards from us.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we got to see a couple of different pods of whales, but the highlight of the trip was watching a full breach just 30 feet (not yards — FEET) off the boat. We also saw flukes and spouts from lots of other Humpbacks cruising the coastline.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.

Feeding Techniques of the Humpbacks

Aloha,
Thursday’s Whale Watch Cruises were pretty mellow. We’re still seeing lots of pods of Mom/Baby/Escort. These pods are interesting to watch as it’s often difficult to determine exactly who is leading the pod. Yesterday’s calves were rolling around a lot on the surface, and from our vantage point, it looked like their Moms were just trying to keep up with them. When we were lucky enough to see the escorts surface, they were usually in the rear, and the Moms most often were positioned between the escorts and their calves. We also saw a lot of spouts, dorsal fins, and flukes from lone whales. Since research has shown that females without calves leave the breeding grounds after mating (presumably successfully), we’re guessing that a lot of these loners are males trying to optimize mating opportunities. We did see some splashes more distant from us – some of these were caused by whales breaching, and some by peduncle throws. When we were able to deploy our hydrophones, we heard lots of loud clear songs, and lots of other background songs, so we know there are still plenty of whales around South Kohala.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers watching Humpbacks feeding in Stellwegan Bay (off the coast of Massachusetts) documented a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Humpbacks there weren’t just bubble-netting. They were spending a lot of their feeding time totally submerged. With the aid of “Critter Cams” the researchers were able to document three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping. Why does this matter? Now that we know how Humpbacks move when they’re underwater, we can take steps to reduce their vulnerability to entanglement to bottom set fishing gear.

Humpbacks Look for Attention

Aloha,
Guests aboard our Wednesday Whale Watches did see a lot of Humpbacks. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw at least 20 different Humpbacks, but according to our on-board naturalist Captain Mike, they were all pretty mellow. Just after we left the harbor, a pod of Spinner Dolphins found our boat, and as usual, seemed to think we were an interesting object to play with. We had lots of bow-surfing, and lots of jumps and spins all around us from the dolphins. After they left, we were approached by a couple of big whales, who surfaced about  20 yards from us– followed by a close encounter with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. If that weren’t exciting enough, we saw a couple of total breaches just 300 yards away. As we cruised back to the harbor, we saw lots more flukes and spouts from various whales who were cruising the coastline. On the 10:00 Cruise, we spent our time with two different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Both babies were kind of restless, rolling around a lot on the surface. And on our Sunset Cruise, we were visited by a lone (maybe lonely?) young adult whale. This guy came right up to the boat and spent some time hanging out with us.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A Humpback whale’s trachea and esophagus are totally separate tubes (unlike ours which meet up in the back of our mouths)…but that also means that a Humpback can only breathe thru her blowholes and not thru her mouth. So how does a Humpback blow a small stream of bubbles from her mouth? Research suggests that a Humpback can move her epiglottis against her soft palate, and channel air thru her larynx to her mouth.

Humpback Calf Checks Us Out

Aloha,
Highlights from Tuesday’s Whale Watch Cruises include sightings of two different Mom/Baby pods on our 10:00 Cruise. Neither of these pods were accompanied by an escort (or if one was around, he didn’t surface). The weather was calm enough that Captain Will could turn off the engines, so once we spotted the Mom/Baby pods, we were able to just drift. Apparently, our lack of movement was not threatening to the whales, because one of the calves came right over to us to inspect the boat. Mom was about 35 feet long (so she was a young mother), and her calf was really little with a very bent dorsal fin (indicating a recent birth). We also got to see a breach from a big adult about 800 yards from us, and as we cruised back to the harbor, we watched a couple of other adult Humpbacks cruising calmly along in our direction.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:The first whales to leave Hawaii each year are mature females (who are either newly pregnant, or taking a year off), followed by sub adult whales, and then, mature males. The last to leave are new mothers with their calves.

Baleen Revisited

Aloha,
I hope everyone had a good week!
As the winds diminished on Monday, we had some great Whale Watch Cruises. On our Breakfast with the Whales, we saw multiple Mom/Baby/Escort pods – lots of spouting and fluke diving too. On our 10:00 Cruise, we saw more than one competitive pod with the kinds of surface activity you’d expect from male whales in close proximity of each other. We also saw lots of HUGE splashes from surface activity occurring all around us. As more and more Humpbacks leave Hawaii in March, it seems like the whales that are left here are getting more and more desperate to find a mate (or several mates), so the battles between them get more intense. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we enjoyed some time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod, but saw lots of other flukes and spouts too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t have teeth — they have approximately 270 – 400 pairs of baleen plates hanging from the top palate of their mouths ranging in length from a foot to about 3 feet long. Where the baleen is attached to the palate, it feels like a horse’s hoof — but it fringes out to form dense mats allowing the whale to “strain the soup of the ocean” when feeding. And in case you’re curious, Humpback baleen is black.