Monthly Archives: January 2015

Best Whale Show This Year!

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Aloha,

January 1st brought us the best whale shows we’ve had all year (ha ha ha)! Seriously though, on our 8:00 Whale Watch, Captain Ryan reports that despite the bumpy ocean conditions guests saw a LOT of activity — everything from multiple pec slaps, to multiple peduncle throws, to close encounters. Breaches could be seen in the distance too. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we also had a close encounter. We got to see two Humpbacks just kind of milling about and saw some peduncle throws a couple of miles from us. And on the Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we saw 14 different whales. Most of them were a couple of miles away, but we did get to watch 3 Humpbacks close to shore chasing each other around, and we also saw 3 very clear (but kind of far away) breaches.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll check back in again on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Why would a whale waste the energy to throw the back half of his or her body out of the water in a peduncle throw (sometimes repetitively)?? Since the whales won’t tell us, all we can do is try to interpret their behavior in terms of what else is going on in their lives at that moment. We know that Humpbacks very rarely eat while they’re in Hawaii, and since a peduncle throw is a huge expenditure of energy — if you don’t believe me, try it yourself the next time you’re in the ocean — it’s got to be important to the whale. Throwing half of yourself out of the water results in a huge splash and might be a way to communicate location, health, excitement, or even aggression and irritation to nearby whales. Especially if the nearby whale happens to be so nearby that he gets landed upon!

Modern Day Jonah?

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Aloha,

Well 2014 “went out like a lion” for us — lots of wind and choppy seas. And while we know that we can see a lot of Humpback surface activity when the waters are rough, we weren’t able to do that from our Wednesday Whale Cruises. It was just too difficult to get the boats to where the action was. So I’ll share a story instead….
In the 1890′s, a whaler with very pale and mottled skin named James Bartley claimed that he had been swallowed by a Sperm Whale. He had been pursuing the whale off the coast of the Falkland Islands, when he was thrown from his boat and presumed lost at sea. Two days later, shipmates on The Star of the East, killed a Sperm whale, and lo and behold — found Bartley in the whale’s stomach! Supposedly, Bartley was a “raving lunatic” for several weeks, but then recovered enough to remember the experience — enough that he was able to make a modest living travelling with an exhibit of a stuffed Sperm Whale – he claimed his skin was permanently damaged from the whale’s gastric juices. The story of the modern day Jonah was very popular in religious tracts and broadcasts, but has since been debunked. Not only was the Star of the East not a whaling boat, but there was no record of a James Bartley even working on the ship. Even James’ wife claimed the story was “a good yarn”.
Hau’oli Makahiki Hou from me and the whole  Ocean Sports ‘OhanaSlide1