We ran a lot of Whale Watch Cruises this weekend — too many to recap all of them, so here are some highlights.Our weekend started off with a lot of action. On our Friday Wake-up With the Whales, just as we were leaving the bay, we saw a huge splash. Of course we kept watching…and got to see a whale breach 15 times in a row — not sure how he mustered the energy to do that! We also saw lots of spouts from nearby Humpbacks, and got some good tail shots, as these whales lifted their flukes to dive. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we got to see spouts from 10 different whales…most were in pods of two. We saw some breaches (but none as close as what we got to see on the first trip).

On Saturday’s Wake up with the Whales we saw about 12 different whales. One of them breached 6 times about 200 yards from us. We also saw a Mom/Calf pair who were resting quietly on the surface for about 5 minutes. And then, out of nowhere, a big adult surfaced right next to the boat, surprising us all.

And on Sunday’s Wake up with the Whales, we saw 8 different Humpbacks (all adults). We got to see a wide variety of surface action too, including pec slaps, peduncle throws, head lunges and even a couple of breaches.

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.