Singing and Breaching

Aloha,

We started out the week with a double boat Wake Up with the Whales. Both Manu Iwa and Seasmoke departed from Anaeho’omalu Bay at around the same time, so you’d think all of us would have had the same experience. But of course, we didn’t…guests aboard both boats saw spouts from more than 2 dozen whales, but Captain Jeff chose to take Seasmoke out to a competitive pod about a mile outside of the Hilton. We got to see some great peduncle throws and a couple of pec slaps and tail lobs from this pod of 3. We then found two different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Captain Will took Manu Iwa to the south, and guests also got to spend some quality time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Lots of whales around the boat were breaching — they weren’t super close, but we definitely got to see more than just the splash. And when each boat deployed our hydrophone, we got to hear some very clear and loud singing.
By the time we departed for the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, the wind had come up. We only were able to stay out for an hour, but we got to see 13 different whales (or splashes from the whales). As is usual on a very windy ocean there was lots of breaching, peduncle throwing and tail lobbing going on. Even though we saw a lot and it was really pretty exciting, since we did have to come in early we invited our guests to come back again for no charge.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale 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.

 

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