Monthly Archives: February 2015

Bigger Equals Tougher

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Aloha,

It was a calm day on the water on Thursday, and the whales seemed to be enjoying the peaceful seas after Wednesday’s wild winds. Guests aboard our Wake up With the Whales on Seasmoke got to see a LOT of whales. In fact, towards the end of the cruise, I asked everyone how many different whales they thought we actually saw, and all we could agree on was that it was a “bunch”! Most of the whales were just surfacing and breathing before diving again, but we did get to watch the formation of a competitive pod. At first we were just watching 3 humpbacks swimming together, but when a fourth whale joined the pod, the action got a little more intense. They all started swimming much faster, and at one point, one of them lifted his head out of the water and we could clearly see that he was inflating his mouth (for a Humpback, “bigger” equals “tougher”). We also saw several breaches and tail lobs a bit further away.
At 11:00, we took two school groups out for a Whale Watch on Seasmoke — about half of them were 4th graders from Kona Pacific Public Charter School with a few of their teachers and parents, and the other half were visiting 9h graders from a private school in Connecticut. The kids asked some great questions, and  got to view some great action too. We spent a good amount of time watching a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. The escort was substantially bigger than Mom (probably older). For quite a long time, the baby alternated between lying on Mom’s head, and diving down below her (nursing maybe?). We also heard some great sounds when we deployed the hydrophone — lots of submerged singers fairly close by. We saw some breaching, pec slapping and tail lobbing from other adult humpbacks in the distance.
Alala also ran two morning cruises and the boat was “mugged” both times by the SAME Mom/Baby/Escort pod who spent considerable time right under and on the surface – right next to the boat – and below the boat! Fantastic!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Research suggests that most Humpbacks who come to Hawaii don’t’ spend the entire winter with us. An average stay lasts between a month and 6 weeks. Possible exceptions to this rule include dominant males, who may spend more time here to optimize mating opportunities, and females who give birth after arriving in Hawaii. They might spend a little longer here so that their calves can grow large enough to successfully swim back to Alaska.

Very Different Activities Observed Throughout the Day

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Aloha,

Wednesday was our last  9 Whale Watch Charter day this week. What was most interesting is the differences between what we saw on the cruises…especially because we departed from the same locations and had very little time in between cruises. Guests joining us on our first Seasmoke Cruise got to see lots of spouts and flukes from pods of two adult Humpbacks. We also saw a few pectoral slaps, and a few peduncle throws happening from a pod of three whales. As we gazed out to the horizon, we also saw some huge splashes from breaching whales. Just one hour after we returned from that cruise, we departed again, and this time we saw  so many close-up breaches that we actually lost count. We were watching a competitive pod of 5 adult humpbacks for the first hour of the cruise, and these whales came right up to our boat, swimming across our bow, diving and surfacing on all sides of the boat. We also saw a bunch of head lunges and tail lobs, and a couple of double pec slaps. After about an hour of non-stop activity, this pod took a deep dive, and either separated, or swam off fast and far, because we never saw them again (though we did see spouts, flukes, and plenty of other whales). After that incredibly exciting cruise, we went out again two hours later. This time, it took us awhile to even see a spout. But the whales found us, and we ended up watching 6 different pods of two adults, and towards the end of the cruise, got to see a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. To us, it appeared that baby was leading the adults around…since baby kept changing directions, followed by mom and the escort. They came pretty close to our boat, checking us out too. We actually got to watch baby lying on mom’s rostrum, and as mom swam, we got to watch the baby roll right up her head and onto her blowholes!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that Humpback calves are very playful, investigating all kinds of objects in their environment (including our boat), interacting with their moms, and even interacting with passing pods of dolphins. But for as many calves as we see in Hawaii during the winter, we never have observed the calves playing with each other. Though we’re not sure why this is, perhaps the new moms won’t allow a calf not her own to approach, because she doesn’t want to feed the wrong one.

Mugged by Two Adults

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Aloha,

Tuesday was another 9 Whale Watch Cruise day for us. Highlights included watching a competitive pod of 5 whales from the Alala from 8:15 till 9:45. We found this pod off of Spencer Beach, and paralleled them as they swam north. We saw lots of head lunges, and lots of jaw claps. We also saw 6 pectoral slaps from the whale in the front of the pack, and lots of head butting from the whales behind. At one point, we saw the lead whale peduncle throw on top of one of the followers. And when we stopped the boat and deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were so loud they almost shook the boat. On the next cruise, the competitive pod was no where to be found, but we did see lots of pods of two…and one pod of two came to see us for more than 20 minutes, surfacing right next to us, and diving right underneath us. Guests aboard Seasmoke and Manu Iwa departing from Anaeho’omalu Bay also got some great sightings with a couple of close encounters. Each cruise reports seeing 15 – 20 different whales, most in pods of two, but there were several competitive pods of 5 and 6 whales too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpbacks produce sounds in frequencies ranging from 10 hz to 24 khz. A healthy young adult human can generally hear sounds in frequencies between the ranges of 20 hz to 20 khz.

Competitive Pod Captivates

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Aloha,

For the next three days, there’s a big convention on the island (SAP), so we’re running 9 different Whale Watch Cruises every day. And since it’s still height of the season for the Humpbacks in Hawaii, we’re seeing too much to report in one email…so I’ll just list some highlights from a couple of our trips. On the Alala, guests got to see a Mom/Baby/Escort pod up close. The seas were calm, so we were just idling, and baby kept approaching closer and closer every time he surfaced. Generally, we’ll watch Mom get fed up with that activity and eventually push her baby away, but not today. All three of theses whales came right up along side of the boat and stayed there for quite awhile. We also got to see baby breach several times! On our last cruise of the day on Seasmoke, we saw our first Mom and Baby pod about midway through the cruise, but we spent most of our time watching a competitive pod of 5 whales in a very aggressive chase. These whales didn’t care that we were there as they kept changing directions all around us. We watched one of the big males head lunge with an open mouth right on top of another whale at least a dozen times. We also got to watch lots of shoving at the surface — we could see one of those big guys push his big head right into the side of another whale and shove him aside. The whale in front of the chase (we’re almost positive it was a “she”) expressed her displeasure or excitement or irritation with a couple of pec slaps and peduncle throws…but mostly she just kept changing directions. We finally had to leave the pod to head back to the bay…and on the way back we had a couple more close encounters with a lone humpback, and then with a very small calf and his mom. Baby had a very angled dorsal fin and was pretty light in color so we’re guessing he was pretty young.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A baby whale, called a “calf” looks so small and cute when seen playing with her Mom. But everything is relative…when the calf is born, she can already be 10 to as much as 15 feet long, and she weighs 2000 to 3000 pounds! The calf is about 26 feet long when it’s weaned (at 10-11 months).

Spouting at the Ladder

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Aloha,

As usual, a whole weekend’s worth of whale watching provided us with way too much to

Breach

Breach (Mahalo to Helen Turner for this image)

talk about in one email, so I’ll just recap a few of our favorite cruises.

Our weekend started out fantastically with guests seeing the whole gamut of surface activities on Friday’s Wake up with the Whales. Not only did we see 5 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods, but we got to see lots of full breaches, pec slaps, tail lobs, and head lunges too! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, all the action was right in front of the Hilton Waikoloa Village where we found a Mom and her calf. We got to watch a competitive pod form as two males approached Mom and baby. Once these guys got to where Mom and Baby were resting, they got really active — we couldn’t believe our eyes as we watched them smack each other with their pectoral fins and peduncles, and shove each other around with their huge rostrums. On Sunday’s Wake up with the Whales on Alala, we found a Mom, Baby and Escort right outside of the harbor. We enjoyed watching them surface multiple times, but since we didn’t want to bother them, we decided to leave and check out some action a bit further down the coast. This turned out to be another Mom/Baby/Escort pod. This time we got to see baby breach, followed by Mom, followed by the Escort. And right after that, both adults breached again! And finally, on Sunday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we had two close encounters in the beginning of the cruise by two different whales. After that excitement, we headed out to sea a bit and idled. Two humpbacks spent over an hour RIGHT under the boat, spouting between the trampolines and all around us. We saw a breach and a tail lob 30 yards from us. The whales wouldn’t leave, and finally, Captain Ryan had to roll out the staysail so we could get back. As we started to sail away, one of the whales chased us down and followed us back to the bay.
Mahalo,
Claire

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Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: You may have read about the entangled Humpback whale that was just freed by the Whale Entanglement Response Team off the Maui coastline (if you haven’t, click here )…but did you notice the route taken by the whale since it was first spotted off the Hamakua coast? In the space of a week, this whale circled the Big Island, and then crossed the Alenuihaha Channel to Maui — all while entangled in more than 200 feet of heavy line and crab buoys. Pretty amazing — and we know it’s common for Humpbacks who aren’t all tangled up to swim between the islands too — not in any particular direction we’re aware of. Some travel south to north, and others north to south…much like our human visitors!

Hear What We Heard – Humpbacks Sing

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Aloha,

On Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales, we dropped the hydrophone and heard all sorts of interesting and different sounds and phrases…check it out here. But we also got to see a lot. Throughout the course of the cruise, we must have seen 30 different humpbacks including 4 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods and a couple of competitive pods. We got to watch two double breaches just 400 yards from the boat, and saw more single breaches than we could count a bit further away in different directions. We also got to see a couple of big adult Humpbacks tail lobbing and then slamming into each other at the surface.On the 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we found a Mom/Baby/Escort right outside of the harbor. Baby had energy to burn and breached multiple, multiple times, while Mom came right up to the boat to take a look at us. On our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we paralleled a competitive pod of 7 Humpbacks, staying with them for about 40 minutes. We saw lots of head lunges, peduncle throws and heard lots of trumpeting. We also saw three separate Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and watched a whole lot of tail lobbing going on from some other big adult humpbacks.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send a recap of our weekend whale watches out on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:There’s a time when a whale is still in its fetal stage that it’s covered in fur. By the time the calf is born, the fur has disappeared. Many researchers believe that this is another indication that whales have evolved from an animal with a common ancestor to a hippo. The idea that the stages of an animal’s fetal development reflect evolutionary development or “Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny” was first proposed by Ernst Haeckel around 1900.

Magic on the Water

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Aloha,

Our Wednesday Whale Watches were really fun. On our Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Manu Iwa, we got to see 4 double breaches — we’re never really sure how whales can time that so perfectly and it’s astounding to see. Our idling boat was also approached by a couple of big adults who decided to take a good look at our hulls, diving just below us. The water was so calm and flat that we could almost count the tubercles on their pectoral fins as they swam underneath. And our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala was just magical. Shortly after we left the harbor, we found a Mom with her baby and an escort. According to our on-board naturalist Donna, guests could clearly see baby resting on Mom’s rostrum (her head). They stayed that way for a very long time, until baby rolled away. Then, Donna reported seeing some splashing further down the coast so Captain Kino cruised over to see what was going on. There were 3 adult humpbacks on the surface just rolling around. It wasn’t aggressive…they were showing their flukes, their bellies, and their pec fins. They kept rolling around each other getting closer and closer to our idling boat. Then they decided to dive underneath us, but even then they stayed close enough to  the surface for us to see them. After passing underneath us, we had to head back to the harbor where we saw our  Mom,baby and escort again…this time accompanied by a pod of Spinner Dolphins! And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Kealohi reports that guests saw about two dozen different whales…lots of Mom/Baby pods (most accompanied by escorts), and 4 different competitive pods.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks don’t associate with each other at all while they’re in Hawaii. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that the females do associate with each other in Alaska — they’ll even feed cooperatively there. Since the females come here just to mate (and calve), we can postulate that female-female interaction must somehow get in the way of successful mating. Maybe groups of females would attract too many competitive males for safe mating to occur….what do you think?

Life Cycle of Humpbacks

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Aloha,

Researchers think that the gestation period for a Humpback is around 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last year…and on Tuesday, we got to see both aspects of the life cycle, Our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales Cruise began with Mom and calf right outside of the bay. They stayed with us for about 15 Baby breachesminutes, and then we saw a competitive pod starting up, so we left our Mom and calf and headed out to see what was going on. There were some really aggressive whales in this pod, banging into each other, head lunging and pec slapping. It was difficult to see if there was a female being chased, or if this was just a group of males fighting amongst each other. We were fortunate enough to watch this pod for over an hour before we had to leave them and return to the bay.On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, a Mom/Calf pod spent some time with us, followed by a different Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby breached repeatedly (and adorably). And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also got to watch two different Mom/Calf pods. The first was accompanied by 2 escorts, and the second pod was accompanied by 3 escorts. There was a lot of competition going on between the males in the second group, which got baby excited. That little guy kept breaching and breaching and breaching just about 50 yards from our idling boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Not all whaling activity occurred during the “golden age of whaling” at the beginning of the 19th century. Based on catch records corrected for illegal Soviet whaling, a total of more than 200,000 Humpback Whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1980. Also, Illegal Soviet takes of 25,000 Humpback Whales in two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) precipitated a population crash and the closure of land stations in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Friday the 13th brings Good Luck to Whale Watchers

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Aloha,

Friday the 13th didn’t live up to its reputation for guests aboard our first cruise of the day. On Friday’s Wake up with the Whales on Manu Iwa, guests enjoyed smooth waters and a couple of surprise visits from two different curious sub-adult Humpbacks. The first time we were idling with the hydrophone in the water listening to a symphony of songs when a whale popped up about 50 feet from us and swam right alongside the hull. The second time, we were idling again, waiting for some whales we had seen dive to resurface. This whale also popped up next to us to take a look at a bunch of very excited whale watchers who were taking a look at him too!
We were able to run our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae on Friday too before the wind picked up. Guests aboard Alala got to see two different calves…we found the first one in in the beginning of the cruise accompanied by a very large mom and escort. This little guy was really young — we could clearly see his bent over dorsal fin. At the end of the cruise we got to watch a very active calf breach over and over again. But we had plenty to watch in between these sightings…lots of tail lobs and breaches from various adults who were hanging out in the wind line.
We weren’t able to run cruises on Saturday due to the stormy conditions, but Sunday’s cruises provided some great sightings. Lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods…lots of competitive pods…and lots of surface activity. When the weather cooperates, you just can’t beat February for whale watching off the Kohala Coast!
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either: 1). female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partner; or; 2). female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.