Radical New Music Courtesy of Humpbacks

Aloha,

Our March 30th Whale Watch Cruises were really spectacular. On our 8:00 Wake Up with the Whales Cruise, we saw 8 different humpbacks within about 1000 yards of us. But while we were sitting, watching them in all directions, we heard sounds echoing up through the hulls, There was a singer very close by — so close we didn’t even need to deploy our hydrophone to hear him. But of course once we listened without the hydrophone, we wanted to hear the sounds even more clearly, so we dropped our microphone and this is what we heard: CLICK HERE. Very unique sounds…more like an aviary than a whale…While we were listening, two very big mature whales surfaced right next to the boat and swam around us — not once, but twice!
On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch on Alala, as soon as we left the harbor, we saw some splashes to the south. So we took a turn to the left and found a pod of Spinner Dolphins. This pod was moving south fairly quickly and directly. They didn’t come to the boat, but we all saw lots of jumps and spins from this very active pod. After watching them for awhile, we saw the tell-tale spouts of Humpbacks, so we headed back north to what we thought was a pod of Mom and baby. Eventually, we figured out there were three whales in the pod when the escort surfaced too. As we watched, baby cycled between periods of activity and periods of quiet. While he was active we saw lots of tail lobs and little peduncle throws…and then he would tire out and dive down to mom. We got to see the flukes from all three of these whales — Mom and the Escort had strikingly white flukes, and baby had a definite black border around the white on his flukes. We finally had to turn back and head towards the harbor…that’s when baby started breaching and breaching and breaching.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: To our untrained ears, the sounds we hear from our hydrophones sound pretty random though we have noticed the lack of certain phrases this year that we heard fairly often last year. According to a paper published in the journal Current Biology, it turns out that our ears aren’t so untrained after all. Researchers have documented that the Humpback songs in the South Pacific are actually changing really quickly. Over the last decade, completely new song themes are appearing within a season. The researchers compared the radical evolution of the Humpbacks’ songs to human musical composition, suggesting that the themes are so novel; it’s as if whole new human musical genres were appearing that no one had ever heard just a few years ago — similar to the emergence of rockabilly in the 1950’s or hip hop in the 1970’s.

Competition Heats Up

Aloha,

Saturday’s morning Whale Watches were full of competiton. On our 8:00 Wake up with the Whales  Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay we paralleled a competitive pod of 5 or 6 humpbacks including Mom and her baby for an hour and 20 minutes. We saw them as we left the bay, and were able to stay with them till we got to Puako. These whales were so active we never were really sure exactly how many were in the pod. We saw lots of head lunges, peduncle throws and tail lobs from all the adult whales. Unfortunately, we had to turn back before we could see the resolution of the competition. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we also got to watch a competitive pod including Mom and her baby. In this case, we were able to see the pod dissolve, as one of the males gave up, leaving Mom and baby with just a single escort. Before they broke up, we saw lots of shoving and pushing between the two males, and got to see a some lunging and head lifts too. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had a repeat of the action we saw on Thursday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise…LOTS of breaching from Mom, an Escort and baby. Baby seemed to be reacting to the adults around him, because he didn’t start breaching till after they finished, but once he started, he just didn’t want to stop!
On Sunday, we operated back to back to back cruises on Alala from Kawaihae Harbor. All day long we were seeing competitive pods, and pods of Mom/Baby usually accompanied by multiple escorts, but occasionally accompanied by just one escort. Highlights included head lunges and peduncle throws from competing males, lots of breaching (from the calves too), and both tail lobs and pec slaps. Whenever we dropped our hydrophone, we heard lots of singing over a range of distances (some loud, clear voices, and a lot of faint voices joining the choir too).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Recently, researchers studying singing male Humpbacks were able to determine that immature males do join mature humpbacks in singing. These researchers theorize that every voice is important as a means to attract females to the “arena” where the males have congregated. Since we know that the females don’t respond to an individual male’s song – it’s not like a songbird’s song, designed to attract a female and repel other males – the researchers theorize that the humpbacks’ songs are meant to attract females to the” arena.” And though the immature males don’t get to mate, they may benefit too by indirectly learning the songs and the social rules of mating.

Mugged for 90 Minutes!

Aloha,

We had great Humpback sightings all day on Thursday. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we found a competitive pod of 4 whales — Mom and her baby, and two escorts competing to be just one escort. Mom did a good job of keeping her calf away from the two guys. She put her body between her calf and them…and we saw lots of lunging and a couple of peduncle throws from the competing males. According to Captain Baker, our Whales and Cocktails Cruise was “stellar”. It took us about 30 minutes to get out to three spouts we saw as we were leaving the bay.When we got to the whales, they acted VERY happy to see us. Mom, baby and escort spent 90 minutes right at our boat. If our arms were about 2 feet longer (and if it were legal), we could have touched them for most of the time! The whales were clearly looking at us from below the surface and above, spy hopping, and lifting their heads horizontally too. And it wasn’t just baby who was interested…the adults were right there with him. We saw a few peduncle throws from the escort and a few tail lobs too…We wondered what those whales must have been thinking, listening to all the shouts of excitement coming from that floating object in the middle of the ocean!
Have a great weekend…I’ll send out a recap of what we saw on Monday,
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales (and, in fact, all Baleen Whales) demonstrate something called “reverse sexual size dimorphism”. This means that an adult female Humpback is larger than an adult male (by about 5%). Though researchers are not sure of the exact reason for the difference in size, they theorize that the increased size allows the female to store more reserves to feed and care for her calf, and also to give birth to a bigger calf who might have a better chance of survival than a smaller one. Average length for a fully grown female Humpback is around 45 feet. At her heaviest, she weighs 35 – 40 tons.

Breaching all Day

Aloha,

Our Tuesday morning started off pretty calmly. We operated our our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise on Alala from Kawaihae, and saw spouts from 5 different Humpbacks. One of them gave us a tail lob right near the boat. We got back to the harbor at 10:00, picked up some more guests and went right back out again. This time we saw a lot more…for about 15 minutes we watched a couple of adult humpbacks pec slapping and tail lobbing. We also got to see baby trying out his skills with some mini tail-lobs. And then for a grand finale, we saw both Mom and baby breach! And the highlight of our Whales and Cocktails was watching an adult humpback breach.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1919, R.G. Meyers, who was working towards his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, conducted a chemical analysis of Humpback whale blood collected from the thoracic cavity of a whale killed in Monterey Bay. He found that the Humpback’s total cholesterol level was similar to a healthy human’s, but the glucose level was 4 times what’s considered a “healthy” level for a human. Since there are not a lot of carbohydrates in a Humpback’s diet, a Humpback’s liver and pancreas must work differently than ours.

Patience is a Virtue when Watching Humpbacks

Aloha,

We woke up to beautiful skies and a beautiful ocean on Monday. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we found a couple of Humpbacks surfacing lazily just outside the harbor. This pod of two adults was on 8 minute dives…so after watching them for a bit, we headed up north to where we saw a couple more spouts close to shore, and found another pod of 2 quiet humpbacks, These two were coming up to breathe a bit more frequently than our first pod — we got to see them every 4 minutes or so. And once again, patience paid off for us, as just before we were going to turn the boat back to the harbor, these two decided to surface really close to the boat. There’s something so magical about not just getting to see, but getting to hear those spouts too. On the way back to the harbor we all saw some huge splashes from whales breaching a couple miles off shore. Those splashes sure got our attention, making us wonder what all those whales closer by were thinking about all that action.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers watching Humpbacks feeding in Stellwegan Bay (off the coast of Massachusetts) documented a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Humpbacks there weren’t just bubble-netting. They were spending a lot of their feeding time totally submerged. With the aid of “Critter Cams” the researchers were able to document three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping. Why does this matter? Now that we know how Humpbacks move when they’re underwater, we can take steps to reduce their vulnerability to entanglement to bottom set fishing gear.

Spinners Join the Fun

Aloha,

Lots to report from our weekend of whale watching. On Friday’s 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, a very active and aggressive competitive pod spent a lot of time with our boat. Guests got to see a lot of head lunges and shoving. At the at the end of the cruise, the whole pod took a turn towards us, cruising right along side the boat. Saturday, we found ourselves surrounded by Humpbacks all day. We saw lots of competitive pods — lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods — and lots of breaching, pec slapping and tail lobbing.And on our Sunset Cruise, we not only saw all of the above…but a pod of Spinner Dolphins found the boat and put on quite a show. During the late afternoon, the Spinners wake-up from their daytime resting period and begin the procces of getting ready for their cruise out to deeper water to feed on the vertical migration of small squid and weird fish like lantern fish…so getting to see them at this time of day is always a treat. Not only do they love to ride our bow wake, but we get to see lots of end-over-end flips, spins, arcuate leaps, and tail lobs. On Sunday, we operated private cruises all day from Kawaihae Harbor…and though most of them weren’t strictly for Whale Watching, the whales didn’t know that. As is usual for this late in the season, most of what we saw revolved around the female Humpbacks taking care of their calves, and the rest of the Humpbacks creating next year’s calves. We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and lots of competitive pods. It seems like it’s a much rarer occurrence for a Humpback to be alone this time of year than in the beginning of the season.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1918, in effort to stockpile more beef, mutton and pork to send to the American troops fighting the 1st World War, the US government sponsored a luncheon at the American Museum of National History in New York featuring Humpback Whale meat. Several dignitaries were invited (including Admiral Peary) to feast on the menu created by the Head Chef of Delmonico’s, and were quoted saying the meat tasted like pot roast or venison. During the luncheon, the museum’s “reliable sources” reported that if all of the 7 operational whaling stations on the Pacific Coast began processing whale for food (instead of for fertilizer), more than 20 million pounds of whale meat could be distributed to the American public during the summer months alone at a cost of 12.5 cents/pound. The idea never really caught on with the American public though

 

When getting Mugged is a Good Thing

Aloha,

We took out two boats for our Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Thursday. Guests aboard Seasmoke found ourselves the object of attention for our favorite pod — Mom and Baby. These two whales stayed with us for over an hour, diving and surfacing right next to the boat, We wore ourselves out running from bow to stern, port to starboard, watching the whales as they watched us. We loved seeing them right below the surface of the water  – their white pec fins glowing with that incredible turquoise color as they reflected through the water, and we loved looking into their eyes when they surfaced. Watching baby sit on Mom’s rostrum was a real treat too! When we were able to take our eyes away from them, we also saw tail lobs and breaches all around us from other whales.
And though Manu Iwa departed from the same location at the same time, guests aboard that boat had a slightly different experience – an experience that can be summed up in just one word, “Breach”! A pod of Mom and baby found the boat quickly and baby breached so many times that we all lost count. Then we saw a sub-adult breach right next to us…then we saw a fully grown adult Humpback breach right next to us!
On the 10:00 Signature Whale Watch Cruise from Kawaihae we were astounded by the absence of activity. Though we did see a Humpback surface several times, and some of us saw a breach, it really wasn’t the experience we want to give our guests so Captain Kino called it a “Fluke” and we invited our guests to join us again on another cruise for free. So…did the Humpbacks move away from the area because of the tiger shark that had been seen at Hapuna Beach? Did the low flying helicopters that were out looking for the shark alter the behavior of the Humpbacks? We don’t know for sure, but it’s only the third week of March, so we know there are still lots of Humpbacks visiting the area.
Have a great weekend – I’ll send out my next report on Monday,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers taking DNA samples from the whales take pencil eraser sized plugs of skin and blubber by using a dart tip on the end of an arrow propelled by an air-rifle or crossbow. Tissue samples are used to ascertain a wide variety of information including sex, age, hormone levels, dietary composition, stress levels, contaminant levels, and the presence of viral or bacterial diseases among other things.

 

Surprised by a Breach

Aloha,

Even after 3 decades of running Whale Watch Cruises, we still find ourselves surprised and astounded by the varieties of behaviors we see from the Humpbacks along our coastline. Case in point: on Wednesday’s Signature 10:00 Whale Watch, we were paralleling a competitive pod of 6 or 7 whales. Most of the time, this group was underwater doing whatever it is the Humpbacks do to compete under there. We watched them surface several times and got to see a few tail lobs, and some bubble blowing, and we got to hear and see some powerful spouts. This went on for quite a while, when seemingly without any prompting, a very large Humpback breached fully out of the water between 50 and 100 yards from our boat. Those of us who were looking in the correct direction shouted when we saw the whale’s rostrum coming up…and that allowed a bunch of the rest of us to witness most of the breach. We couldn’t decide if it looked like it was happening in slow motion (or maybe it was due merely to the whale’s size), but from start to finish, that breach seemed to last a very long time. And that’s why we love Whale Watching…you just never know what you’ll see!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In August 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed the status of the Humpback Whale from “Vulnerable” to “Least Concern” reflecting the general upward trend of population levels. According to IUCN standards, animal populations in the “Least Concern” category are at a low risk for extinction. The IUCN classifies the status of humans in the same category.

Great Weather to Whale Watch

Aloha,

We had a lot of fun on our Tuesday Whale Watch Cruises. The weather was great, and we ran too many cruises to tell you what we saw on each…but suffice it to say, there was a lot of action. Pods of Mom and baby seemed to gravitate towards our idling boats all day. We all saw competitive pods charging around on the surface. As usual with a competitive pod, there was lots of head lunging and throat inflation to see, and lots of trumpeting to hear. When we deployed our hydrophone throughout the day, we got to enjoy a veritable symphony of whale songs. Most of the whales we were listening to were not extremely close, but once in awhile we were able to pick out a singer nearby. We did see breaching, tail lobbing, and peduncle throws throughout the day from both adult humpbacks and calves.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers studying the totally geographically isolated Arabian Sea Humpbacks have recently noted that these Humpbacks sing songs that are a whole level less complex than the songs Humpbacks in every other ocean of the world sing. Arabian Humpback songs are comprised of notes, making phrases, which are repeated in the same order, while other Humpbacks group the phrases into themes and the repeated themes comprise the song. If I’m interpreting this correctly, the Arabian Humpbacks’ version of say “Old McDonald Had a Farm” would feature only one farm animal, and they’d be singing about that one animal over and over and over. Humpbacks elsewhere would be able to use the structured verse to sing about lots of different animals on the farm…If there are any music theorists out there please help me out.

Watching Baby Learn

Aloha,

We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods on our Wake up With the Whales Cruises on Monday. Guests on Manu Iwa got to watch baby whale breach repeatedly. Guests on Seasmoke also got to watch an active calf breach a bunch of times. They also saw a couple of Manta Rays at the surface…and watched these rays breach too! When we began our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae, there wasn’t much going on at the surface. We saw some spouts and dorsal fins but not much else, so we decided to put the boat in idle and drop the hydrophone. What a treat! We got to hear some very loud and clear singing. We could tell by the volume that at least one of the singers was within a mile or so from us, and the others were a bit further away.. On the way back to the harbor, we found a cow/calf pod. Baby seemed to be intent on practicing her surface behaviors. We were delighted to see lots of little tail lobs, pirouettes, and a couple of breaches. All of our “oohs” and “ahhs” must have peaked her interest too, as she approached us to take a good look at what was making all that noise!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpbacks can maintain a consistent body temperature even when swimming in cold Alaskan waters. How do they do that? Besides their protective layer of blubber, they actually have something called a “counter current” circulatory system. Some arteries in their flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin are surrounded by veins, allowing some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries to be transferred to the venous blood returning to their hearts, instead of being lost to the environment.