A Hui Ho!

Aloha,

As this ends our Humpback Season, I thought I should leave off with some good news. All the new calves we’ve seen this season bode well for the future of the Humpback population in the North Pacific. According to research results released in 2008 by SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpback Whales in the North Pacific – a research project involving more than 400 researchers in 10 countries) there are probably somewhere between 18,000 – 20,000 Humpbacks living in the North Pacific, with the population wintering in Hawaii seeing a 5.5% – 6% annual rate of increase since the early 1990′s.

We feel really lucky that we’ve been able to get a glimpse of the lives of these Humpbacks this winter, and we appreciate everything you’ve done to help Big Island visitors and residents experience these special moments too.

We want to send a Mahalo out to each of you who have made this season possible, a Mahalo to those of you who sent emails with questions and words of encouragement about these reports, and a Mahalo to those of you who’ve shared photos, anecdotes and videos with us this year.

Though our season is officially over, no one has told that to the Humpbacks yet! And based on what’s happened the past few years, we expect we’ll be seeing sporadic sightings from our Snorkel and Sunset Cruises well into May.

Till next season, a hui ho!

Claire (and the Ocean Sports ‘Ohana)

Humphrey’s Story

Aloha,

We didn’t see any Humpbacks on our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales, but we did have a nice morning on the water looking for them! So with no Humpbacks to report about in our waters, here’s an interesting story about a Humpback who went where he wasn’t supposed to be:
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.
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 couple of Facebook pages!
Mahalo,
Claire

 

Humpbacks Mug Us and We Wonder….

Aloha,

With another Whale Watch Season wrapping up here on the Big Island, we’re beginning to think the remaining whales are getting kind of lonely. At least that would explain what happened to us on our Wake Up With the Whales Cruise on Monday. As we were leaving the bay, Captain Mike saw a couple of spouts to the north, so we headed that way. As we approached the Mauna Lani Resort area, mom and baby humpback surfaced and then chose to come over to the boat to investigate. They must have liked what they were seeing as they spent the next hour or so hanging right around us. We call it a “mugging” when the whales take such interest in the boat, choosing not to leave us alone. All of us onboard got great views of mom and baby as they surfaced repeatedly right at our bow, and swam repeatedly right under us. And you gotta’ know that when the whales are that close we can’t help but make a lot of noise…which makes us wonder what the whales are thinking about the whole thing. Do they stay with us because they’re curious about the noise and wonder why it keeps occurring…or have they figured out that by coming up right alongside of us, they can they cause those “tiny colorful things floating on the surface” to make a lot of noise?? Are they playing with us? Wish we knew…
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: We now know that not every Humpback who survives the summer season in Alaska will choose to migrate back next winter. Based on information compiled by our favorite researcher Chris Gabriele and her cohorts for the National Park Service in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait, at least 10 Humpbacks have been documented spending one winter off the coast of Sitka, and at least one off the coast of Juneau. We really don’t know how common this behavior is because almost no photographic identification research takes place in SE Alaska over the winter (and really, who can blame the researchers when there are such great opportunities to conduct their studies in sunny Hawaii during this time period?!).

April Humpback Sightings Skewed

Aloha,

We spent our last full weekend of Whale Watching with lots of Moms and their calves. We also saw a few competitive pods of 3 and 4 animals doing their usual competitive behaviors — lunges, full body blocks and bubble blowing. Looking a bit further away, we saw lots of splashes from breaches, peduncle throws and tail lobs the past few days. And it wasn’t just on our official Whale Watch Cruises that we saw whales. For instance, on Saturday’s Snorkel Cruise guests saw two adult humpbacks cruise by. We can certainly tell it’s April though…sightings are much less frequent, and the population we’re observing is skewed towards Moms, their calves, and the competitive pods.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: What does a Humpback whale drink? We know the Humpback doesn’t sip on ocean water – he can’t because he’s a mammal and the salinity of his tissues is less than that of the ocean (so, like us, if he drank salt water, he’d dehydrate and die). We also know there’s no fresh water to drink from in the ocean. When the whale is feeding, we know he gets liquid from the tissues of the fish he’s digesting…and we know calves get liquid from their mother’s milk. But how does the Humpback survive through the breeding season when he’s not feeding? It turns out that one of the main by-products of fat metabolism is the production of water. Humpbacks burn a lot of fat during the breeding season and because they are much more efficient users of the water they produce, they can survive. They don’t have tear ducts, sweat glands or salivary glands…and they have incredibly efficient kidneys which concentrate salt in their urine.

 

Competition Heats Up

Aloha,

Guests joining us on Thursday’s Wake up With the Whales got to see the whole gamut of competitive activities. It was pretty windy out there, but Captain Baker found us a competitive pod of 4 adult humpbacks (no calf). While we were watching, two more males joined the fray. We saw at least a dozen breaches, and too many head lunges, pectoral slaps and tail lobs to count. We also saw a few peduncle throws from the competing males (either that, or the peduncle throws were from the female trying to express her excitement…or irritation….while all this was going on, it was difficult to keep track of who was being chased and who was doing the chasing). We were able to keep up with this group on a parallel path for more than 45 minutes before we finally had to turn and head back to the bay. With less than a week left for our Whale Watch Season, we’re really treasuring these moments. And we’re pretty sure that the Humpbacks still remaining around Hawaii are treasuring every encounter they’re having with each other too!
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send a recap of the weekend’s sightings on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The barnacles called “Coronula diadema” live only on Humpback Whales, and they seem to prefer to live on areas of the whale where the water flow is consistent (chin and fins). Though researchers aren’t completely sure how the barnacle can even find a whale to live on, there is some speculation that because the barnacles are spawning during the winter in Hawaii, the whales here are swimming in “barnacle larvae soup”. When a whale swims by, those “baby” barnacles chemically sense it, and hop on where ever they can. They use their antennae as “feet’ and walk around the whale till they find a suitable spot (which can take quite a while… if the barnacle were the size of a person, the whale would be 20 miles long). Once they find a spot they like, they flip over and produce tube-shaped cavities in their shells that actually draw in prongs of growing whale skin, holding their position on the whale for life.

Bubble Net Feeding

Aloha,

Wednesday’s whales were playing hide and seek with us for awhile for our one and only Whale Watch Cruise. On our Wake Up With the Whales Cruise, we departed from Kawaihae. Captain Keno saw some spouts to the south, so we headed that way. When he got to where he thought the whales might be, he stopped the boat and we waited. Lo and behold, two adult humpbacks surfaced almost right next to us (Captain Keno certainly stopped us at the right place)!. These big adults were spending a lot of time underwater, but we got good views of them 3 different times. Then we headed back north where we had seen a couple of other spouts. This time they were from Mom and baby. We watched them for a bit, and then an escort surfaced too. And what’s more…this may have been the same escort we saw on Monday, because we recognized those bright white pectoral fins as he swam past the boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though we don’t get to witness it here (at least not very often), Humpbacks have devised a very creative way to feed called “Bubble Net” feeding. A cooperative pod will dive under schools of krill, herring or other small fish. One whale will begin swimming in circles, and blowing bubbles out of his (or her) blowholes. Bubbles, as they rise, expand, which creates a “net” entrapping the prey. Once all the little fish or krill are balled together inside the circle of bubbles, the whales will take turns lunging through the middle of the circle to gulp their lunch. The whole process is accompanied by lots of vocalizations, culminating in a loud “shriek” right as the bubble net reaches the surface and right before the whales surface…we’re pretty sure the loud noises help to scare the fish upward and further compact the “bait ball”.

Late Season Humpback Fun

Aloha,

What are you likely to see when you go on a Whale Watch Cruise this late in the season?  Researchers have observed that the last whales to leave our protected coastlines each year are Moms with their late season calves, and male humpbacks still hanging around most likely as a means to optimize mating opportunities. And that’s pretty much what we’ve been seeing on our Whale Watch Cruises during the last several days. Almost every pod we’ve seen has been comprised of Mom and a small baby accompanied by at least one escort. When we’ve deployed our hydrophone we’ve been hearing lots of very clear and loud singing, indicating the presence of male humpbacks as well.
Though sightings this time of year are less frequent than they were just a few weeks ago, late season whale watching is still a lot of fun. Small calves can be uncoordinated and often just can’t get down the 20 feet or so to their resting moms, ending up flopping back up to the surface tail first. We also see lots of twirls and spins from these little guys…and the peduncle throws and breaches attempted by the young calves quite commonly end up as belly flops.The littlest calves are very curious, attempting to approach us at every opportunity.
On the other end of the spectrum, the males who are still around appear desperate to mate. We see a lot of very aggressive activities, including peduncle throws, breaches, body blocks and lunges from these guys. In previous years, April has been the month when we’ve encountered huge competitive pods of as many as a dozen humpbacks — which makes sense. If there aren’t very many females around, each of them will attract a LOT of attention from the remaining males. Sharing the ocean with a dozen charging humpbacks is an experience of a lifetime, and we look forward to sharing the adventure with you before the last Humpback leaves the islands.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Where do the Humpbacks go when they migrate away from Hawaii? Most of them appear to migrate directly north, to feeding grounds off of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska waters. But they can migrate to just about any location round the Pacific Rim — one humpback satellite-tagged in Hawaii spent the summer in Russian waters.

 

Spinners Spin but Humpbacks Glow

Aloha,

We had a beautiful day on the water on Monday…with the trade winds blowing, we were not only able to see all the mountains on our island but Haleakala too! Both of our morning cruises departed from Kawaihae on Alala, and though they were back to back, we had different experiences on each. Guests joining us on the Wake up With the Whales Cruise were greeted with a very active, curious, and playful pod of Spinner Dolphins, As soon as this pod heard our boat, they made a bee-line towards us and spend considerable time jumping, spinning, and riding our bow wake. After playing with them for awhile, we headed towards some spouts off in the distance. These turned out to be from a very quiet Mom and Baby humpback, who were just breathing and resting on the surface. Though we didn’t approach them closer than 100 yards, they spent considerable time on the surface, so we all got a good look at them.

On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch, we headed out towards where we had left our Mom and baby…but on the way there,  found a different Mom and calf. We sat and watched baby as he swam a complete circle on the surface…and then got to see Mom swim a complete circle around her baby. These two were accompanied by an escort – and all three of them had pure white pectoral fins that just glowed with that beautiful luminescent turquoise color whenever the whales were near the surface. After watching this trio for awhile, we saw some big Humpbacks breach a little further out, so we headed that way. By the time we got there they were done breaching, but they both surfaced giving us a good view of them. And finally, on our way back into the harbor, we found one more Mom/baby pod. The little guy was doing everything he could to breach, and as we watched, he almost was able to pull it off – more of a flop than a breach, but we though we couldn’t agree what to call what we we seeing, we all had to agree it was very cute!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback whales, and actually all Cetaceans, have a highly developed sense of touch. We know this because they have a lot of nerve endings right beneath their skin, and there’s a lot of blood flow to the nerve endings. Plus they touch each other a lot. Also, when researchers take pencil-eraser sized plugs of skin and blubber from whales to study their DNA (and when you consider the size of the whale, that’s a pretty insignificant amount of skin), they report seeing the whales flinch.

Humpback Moms are Good Moms

Aloha,

Guests on Friday’s Wake Up With the Whales saw 4 different pods of Humpbacks. 3 of them were kind of circling around us. After being surrounded for awhile, not knowing which way to look, we found a 4th pod. This one was comprised of Mom, her baby, and a “show-offy” escort. We saw lots of peduncle throws, some tail lobs and a few pectoral slaps from this guy. We guessed he was trying to make a point…but we weren’t sure to whom! And on Saturday’s Wake Up With the Whales, we were treated to a viewing of Mom and her baby. They were resting quietly, and we didn’t want to disturb them, so we just enjoyed the fact that we could share the same ocean with them. We also saw spouts from a couple of other bigger humpbacks, but they were a little too far off shore for us to get to.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The maternal instinct of the Humpback is so strong that she demonstrates allomaternal behavior. In other words, she’ll even take care of other small animals in danger! In 2009, 2 scientists sailing off the coast of South America watched as a pod of Orcas flipped a Weddell Seal off an ice flow. The seal began swimming towards a nearby Humpback. Just as the seal got close, the whale rolled onto her back, sweeping the 400 pound seal onto her chest. As the Orcas closed in, the Humpback arched her back, which lifted the seal out of the water…unfortunately for the seal, the water rushing off the whale started to wash the seal back into the sea. The scientists were astounded to see the Humpback use her flipper to gently nudge the floundering seal back onto her chest. Moments later, when the orcas had left, the seal slid back into the water and swam to the safety of a nearby ice flow.

Humpback Changes Her Mind

Aloha,

We took out two boats for Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruises. On Seasmoke, we got to watch a humpback change her mind about us. In the beginning of the cruise, we saw a couple of spouts and headed out towards a Cow/Calf pod. When we got in the vicinity and stopped the boat, baby came right over to us…followed by Mom. They stayed with us for 20 minutes, mugging us. Mom finally had enough of it, and did a peduncle throw towards the boat, pushing baby away with her head. We stayed in the area, and about 20 minutes later, they both surfaced right next to us (apparently she thought we were ok again) and then swam quietly past. On the way back to the bay we got to see a couple of breaches from other whales. Guests joining us on Manu Iwa got to see spouts from 7 different whales. We spend a good 15 minutes watching a Mom and her calf resting quietly on the surface. We also had a relatively close encounter when a BIG lone whale surfaced about 50 yards off our bow. The ocean was really calm, allowing us to deploy our hydrophone and listen to quite a few singers fairly close by. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae we got to watch a very active calf. This little guy breached so many times right near the boat that we lost count. Mom let him come right over to us (we almost could have touched him he was so close).
Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be sending out the weekend recap on Monday.
Mahalo,
Claire

Hum pback Breach

This image is courtesy of guest Stephanie Collier from her March 29th Whale Watch Cruise with us

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: You probably already know this, but Humpback Whales don’t have teeth – they have baleen. What you might not already know is that Humpbacks have approximately 270 – 400 pairs of baleen plates hanging from the top palate of their mouths ranging in length from a foot to about 3 feet long. Where the baleen is attached to the palate, it feels like a horse’s hoof — but it fringes out to form dense mats allowing the whale to “strain the soup of the ocean” when feeding. Humpback baleen is black.