Stormy Weather Leads to a Fluke

Aloha,

A combination of open ocean swell and gusty winds prevented our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales cruisers to get to see much whale action. Yes, there were whales out there, and yes we did get to see some spouts and splashes…but Captain Baker couldn’t get us all comfortably out to where the whales were, so he decided to call the cruise a “fluke” and invite everyone to join us again on another cruise for FREE! The impending storm also caused us to cancel the rest of our Tuesday trips. Luckily, weather changes quickly in Hawaii, so we’re hoping we’ll have LOTS to report from our Wednesday Whale Watch Cruises!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: It is very possible that Humpback Whales did not migrate to Hawaii prior to the “golden age of whaling” in the 1820’s. Not only have we never discovered fossilized remains of Humpbacks on the islands from before that time, but we’ve never found petroglyphs of Humpbacks from before the 1820’s either. Also, there’s no word in the Hawaiian language for the Humpback whale (though there is a word for whale – Kohola). No commercial whaling occurred in Hawaii, though whalers did re-provision and spend the winters in Hawaii (especially in Lahaina). And…most interesting is the fact that no mention of humpback whales has been found in the log books of whaling ships anchored off Lahaina – and the whalers were definitely paying attention to the presence of whales, since any whale taken meant MONEY. Perhaps the whaling taking place in the North Japan Sea at that time forced the Humpbacks to search for new migratory destinations eventually bringing them to our islands.

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