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.