Active Adult Humpbacks and a Curious Calf

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

Based on the Humpback activity these days, you can sure tell it’s February! On Monday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we had barely left the harbor when we saw 2 full breaches from what turned out to be a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Unlike our experiences the past few days, it was the adults who were most active, and baby just swam on the surface. After watching this pod for awhile, we headed over to a competitive pod of 5 whales where we heard lots of trumpeting (the sounds whales make when they’re breathing hard) and saw lots of tail lobs. As we headed back to the harbor, we found the same Mom/Baby/Escort pod we had seen in the beginning of the trip. This time, baby decided it was time to check us out, and we watched as he made his approach to the stern of the boat. He couldn’t get too close though before Mom decided to step in and guide this little guy away from us. To top it all off, a big pod (we estimated about 150) of Spinner Dolphins found us and decided our boat was worth playing with – many of them swam right over to ride our bow and stern wakes.

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).

Mugged and Breaches

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae got to see more than 28 different Humpbacks. It was another very calm day, so we could spouts and dives and dorsal fins from miles away. We didn’t have to travel far before we saw our first spout though, as a Humpback was spouting and tail lobbing just outside of the harbor. After watching that whale for a few minutes, we saw more splashing from a pod of two a bit further south, so we headed in that direction. One of the whales in this pod did a few peduncle throws (most likely directed at the other whale). We also got to see pectoral slaps, and lots of tail lobs. Later in the cruise, we saw a very small spout, so we turned and watched a pod of Mom and baby resting on the surface. Well actually, it was mom who was doing most of the resting – baby was twisting and turning, and tail lobbing and diving – she even spy-hopped to take a look at us. After a few minutes of watching this, the escort surfaced, and Mom quickly put herself between the escort and the baby. We finally had to head back, but not before a pod of about 40 Spinner Dolphins found the Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Some of the dolphins made a b-line right towards the whales, riding the Humpbacks’ bow wakes, and the rest of the dolphins did the same thing with our boat. It was really fun to watch part of the dolphin pod leap all around the whales, while the others played with us.

And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had a full breach on one side of the boat and a mugging by two whales on the other side. We saw some great fluke dives from the muggers – and when whales dive so close to you, it makes you realize how wide their flukes really are. We also saw some very close-by pec slaps.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback whales can’t cry — they don’t have tear ducts (they don’t need them — their eyes are always bathe d in salt water) but they do have glands on their outer corneas which secrete an oily substance that helps to protect their eyes from debris in the ocean.

Gutteral Grunting and Playing with Dolphins

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

Our weekend of Whale Watching started with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, where among other things, we got to watch a competitive pod of 6 whales (including a Mom/Calf pair). Mom did a good job of keeping her baby in front of her and away from the pursuing males. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we heard some incredibly loud sounds when we dropped our hydrophone in the water, including a “new sound” for this year. We’ve just started hearing a very guttural grunting sound, and based on how often we’re hearing it, these singers must really be liking their new tune.

On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we hadn’t even left the harbor when we saw a baby whale tail lobbing repetitively. This little guy was lobbing backwards and forwards, and then backwards again, making us wonder if he was trying to twist around or was just really uncoordinated. We also got to see an interesting interaction between a Cow/Calf pod and a pod of about 10 Spinner Dolphins (including a dolphin calf that was only about 2 feet long). The dolphins spent a lot of time trailing the whales, but at one point they got in front and rode the Humpback’s bow wake. The dolphins did lots of spins and leaps all around the whales which must have amused the baby whale too, since while the dolphins were busy, baby took a roll right down Mom’s rostrum (head) .

Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales and 10:00 Whale Watch can be summarized with just one word: “BREACH”! It seemed like everywhere we looked during both cruises, we got to watch a whale breach out of the water. Calves were breaching…their mom’s were breaching…single whales were breaching…and we even saw a couple of double breaches! We also deployed the hydrophone on each of these trips and heard lots of singing and vocalizing, so I guess there must have been as much activity going on underwater as there was at the surface.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers report that Humpbacks in Alaska can consume a ton of food in a day. The Humpbacks’ diet consists mainly of very small fish like herring, capelin, sand lance, and krill. Based on the calorie count of herring, a Humpback in Alaska is consuming 1,500,000 calories each day!

Did we see Humpbacks Mating?

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

Thursday brought us some interesting whale sightings. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we saw more than 20 different whales, but spent most of our time paralleling a competitive pod of 7 whales that included a Cow/Calf pair. These whales used our boat a lot (which was really exciting) diving back and forth underneath us. We also saw several breaches and tail lobs from some whales a bit further away. As if all that weren’t enough, we were accompanied by a pod of Spinner Dolphins on the way back to the bay.

On our 10:00 Whale Watch we watched lots of pods of two. Most of them were just cruising at the surface heading every which way…so Captain Baker decided to head to the south. We had several close encounters with whales spouting and surfacing right behind the boat and right along side, and we got to see multiple breaches and tail lobs from different whales within about 500 yards.. After cruising along for awhile, we decided to stop the boat and drop the hydrophone. We were delighted to hear several singers (we knew a few of them pretty close by since the sounds were so loud). While we were listening, two Humpbacks started interacting with each other just about 100 yards away. One of them spy hopped several times, but what was so interesting was the way in which these two whales were interacting. The spy hopper rolled on his/her dorsal side (back) just under the surface of the water, and we could see just the tips of her curled pectoral fins. Meanwhile, the other whale appeared to be floating just on top of the first whale, They did this several times, alternating with gentle pectoral slaps and sideways fluke dives (we could see just one half of the fluke). We really wished we could have seen what was going on below the surface!

Finally, on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we spent a lot of time watching a calf breaching over and over and over again. This little guy had energy to burn as he breached more than 20 times and threw in a few tail lobs for good measure.

Mahalo and have a great weekend,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though Humpbacks come to Hawaii primarily to have babies and make babies, and though researchers have watched them closely here since the early 1970’s, interestingly enough there are no documented observations of Humpbacks mating or calving! Those of us lucky enough to have been on today’s 10:00 Whale Watch left the boat wondering if what we were witnessing was Humpbacks mating!

Curious Humpbacks and Dolphins

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

The rain on Tuesday held off just long enough that we could run a Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, and it was a lot of fun. As we headed out of the bay, Captain Baker decided to go with gut instincts and took a turn to the left. It paid off because we found a pair of pretty curious whales who wanted to spend some time with us. We got lots of good views of them (including some wonderful fluke shots when they decided to do a deep dive). Once they were underwater, we decided it might be interesting to drop our hydrophone, so we did. We picked up some great vocalizations – very clear, and very loud (but not loud enough to be from the whales we had just watched dive). Time was running short, so we headed back to the bay, and just before we got there, we ran into the Humpbacks’ smaller Cetacean cousins – a pod of about 100 Spinner Dolphins. Some of the dolphins came over to us to ride our bow wake, while others lived up the their common name by jumping and spinning all around us! It was a great finale for a fun Whale Watch.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:We used to think that the whales that arrived on the coast of the Big Island spent their Hawaii-time here with us. Research and close observation of individuals has proved us wrong. While the Humpbacks seem to prefer to spend most of their time on the lee sides of islands and in water less than 600 feet deep, they will travel between the islands (not in any particular direction that we’re aware of)….females who have calves travel less frequently though.

Whales and Dolphins Interact

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Claire

Aloha,

On Tuesday’s Breakfast with the Whales we saw a LOT of breaching and most of it was within 100 yards! Of course we always stop our approach when we’re more than 100 yards away, but if the whales choose to come to us…Anyway, we also got to watch some pectoral slaps (which are really amazing to see, because a full-grown humpback has a 15 foot long pectoral fin (arm)). As we were watching all those whales breaching, a pod of Spinner Dolphins got involved in the action – and it appeared to us that the breaching Humpbacks were landing on top of the dolphins! Undoubtedly, that was more fun for us to watch than it was for the dolphins… On the 10:00 Trip, things quieted down a bit, but we still got a few close encounters and saw multiple breaches. On each trip, we deployed the hydrophone, but the sounds we heard were pretty faint. And on each trip we were able to see spouts and flukes from at least 15 different whales.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:When we see a Humpback wave his pectoral fin, it looks really floppy — as if there were no bones inside it at all. But if you were to x-ray that fin, surprisingly, you’d find all the same bones and joints that we have in our arms — all the way down to the smallest digits of our fingers. Though according to researcher Spencer Wilkie Tinker, Humpbacks are missing what would be the third finger on a human.

2 Sub-orders of Cetaceans

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Claire

Aloha,

Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae on Thursday got to see a Mysticete and a whole bunch (I guess I should say “pod”) of Odontocetes. Our Mysticete was a lone Humpback that was swimming towards the west. We first saw his spout about 2 miles from shore, and were able to watch him surface for about 30 seconds at a time, and then dive. Captain Will estimates this whale to be about 40 feet long, and since the whale stayed with us for about a half hour, we all got a good look at him, Our Odontocetes were actually a pod of Spinner Dolphins doing what they do best…swimming, jumping, twirling, flipping and whistling! On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay, our onboard naturalist Captain Mike reports that guests got to see a lone Humpback as she cruised down the coast. She looked like she was on her way somewhere important, as she just surfaced to breath only to dive down and swim underwater some more before repeating the pattern.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:Though the Humpbacks we see average between 40 and perhaps 50 feet long, there is anecdotal evidence that the largest Humpback killed by whalers was 88 feet long. This Humpback was taken in the Caribbean.

Baby Breaches

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Claire

Aloha,

Monday’s 10:00 Whale Watch started off as a dolphin encounter. Just as we left the harbor, we encountered a pod of Spinners who found us to be quite the attraction. As soon as they heard the boat, the made a B-line towards us so they could surf our bow wake. We saw lots of spins and end-over-end flips from these guys. We then found a Humpback who was swimming pretty fast on the surface. We paralleled this whale until we saw encountered a second whale. The two started competing a bit, and we saw some pectoral slaps and peduncle throws from the two of them. On our Snorkel Sail, Captain Will reports finding a Mom with a very energetic calf. We were under sail, but the calf must of thought it would be fun to check us out as he swam over to us and then started breaching just about 100 yards from the boat. We saw 5 breaches from this little guy including one complete flip! And on the Champagne Sunset Sail, we found 3 pods with two whales in each. These pods were all off shore of Puako, and all these whales were big adults.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I promised to tell you the rest of the Humphrey the Humpback Whale story. After successfully luring Humphrey to the ocean in 1985, researchers were a little surprised to see him back in San Francisco Bay again in 1990. This time, he got stuck on a mud flat south of Candlestick Park. Rescuers from the Marine Mammal Center and the US Coast Guard used a cargo net and a boat to free him. Then, he was guided out of the Bay to the ocean by a flotilla of boats behind him full of people banging on steel pipes (a Japanese fishing technique called “oikomi”). At the same time, those same attractive sounds of Humpbacks feeding that lured Humphrey out to sea in 1985 were broadcast from boats in front of Humphrey. It worked. Since then, Humphrey’s story has been memorialized in a number of children’s books, a movie and he even has a Facebook page!

Humpbacks and Spinners Visit Us

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Claire

Aloha,

What a weekend! We started our sightings on Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales. Throughout the trip, we estimate that we saw spouts from 20 different Humpbacks, but we spent most of our time with two pods. The first was a Mom/very small calf/escort pod. Baby was interested in the boat, and eventually Mom must have decided we weren’t much of a threat because she let him come over to investigate. He spent considerable time looking at us before moving on. We then found a competitive pod of 7 whales. We got to see some breaching, tail lobs and peduncle throws from this group. Interestingly, the whale in the front of the pod for most of the time we were watching (which we assume is the female) had a lot of white markings on her body. She’d be very easy to identify if we see her again before the season is over. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales we found a competitive pod of 7 whales (again) — this pod did not include our white-marked whale from Friday though — who were making a lot of noise on the surface, spouting and trumpeting and splashing. We saw 6 breaches just 40 feet from the boat. We also came across a couple of other pods who were surfacing and spouting. And on Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we found two different sub-orders of cetaceans — spinner dolphins and Humpbacks. We spent most of our time with the Humpbacks though, watching a quiet Mom/calf pod.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1985, a Humpback whale nicknamed “Humphrey” swam into San Francisco Bay and then up the Sacramento River towards Rio Vista, Ca. After a couple of weeks in fresh water, Humphrey started showing signs of physical stress, turning grey and listless. Researchers and scientists were at a loss on how to help him back to the Pacific Ocean, until an acoustician offered the recordings he had made of humpback whales feeding as a way to lure Humphrey down the river to the ocean. It worked — Humphrey followed a ship broadcasting the sounds down the river and as soon as he encountered salt water perked up and began doing longer deeper dives. On November 4th, 1985, at 4:36 pm, he swam past the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south. Humphrey showed up again in 1990…and I’ll tell you how researchers managed to redirect him again tomorrow.

A Little of Everything

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Claire

Aloha,

We had a great weekend of Whale Watching. Since we ran a LOT of charters, I’ll just report on the highlights. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails we were delighted to watch a calf breach more than 30 times in a row! This energetic little guy was accompanied by his Mom and an escort…later in the same trip we saw another Mom/Baby/Escort pod with another energetic calf. This time we got to see a lot of tail lobs and pec slaps from the baby. We also saw a couple of HUGE adult breaches from different whales.

On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we got to see a pod of two adult whales really interacting with each other. The smaller of the two was doing a lot of diving and then surfacing right next to the other whale. We also saw a cow/calf/escort pod…and then watched something really interesting. We found a Mom/Baby pod in about 25 feet of water just north of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The mom was floating on the surface, and every 25 minutes or so, would take a few breaths. Baby was swimming around her fairly actively. Captain Matt had seen this pod doing the same thing for a couple of days, so he called the experts at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary who said that they had been observing the pod for a few days too. They assured us that this was natural behavior…most likely the adult was sleeping (or resting).

On Sunday, Captain Paul on the 10:00 Whale Watch Alala reports a “great show” that started with a pod of Spinner Dolphins just outside of the harbor. We headed south on that trip and encountered 3 different Mom/Baby pods, only one of whom was accompanied by an escort. We did get to see a lot of breaching from one of the calves…and we also saw 2 adult Humpbacks we had never seen before. One of them had a split dorsal fin, and the other looked like it had two dorsal fins…one in the regular place, and one just above his flukes. Very interesting…we hope to get photos of these whales from one of our guests and if we do, we’ll post them on our Hawaii Ocean Sports Facebook page.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t sleep as soundly as we do — if they did, researchers believe that they’d drown. Humans breathe in response to carbon dioxide build-up in our blood, but Humpbacks and other marine mammals have to keep part of their brain awake at all times so they remember to breathe. When a Humpback sleeps, he floats just under the surface of the ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. We call this behavior “logging’ as the whale looks a lot like a floating log.

Big Island Whale Watching

Hawaii Humpback Whale and Spinner Dolphin Sightings and Statistics from Ocean Sports Whale Watch Cruises.

Category Archives: Dolphin Sightings and Statistics

Active Adult Humpbacks and a Curious Calf

Mugged and Breaches

Gutteral Grunting and Playing with Dolphins

Did we see Humpbacks Mating?

Curious Humpbacks and Dolphins

Whales and Dolphins Interact

2 Sub-orders of Cetaceans

Baby Breaches

Humpbacks and Spinners Visit Us

A Little of Everything