Life Cycle of Humpbacks

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Aloha,

Researchers think that the gestation period for a Humpback is around 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last year…and on Tuesday, we got to see both aspects of the life cycle, Our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales Cruise began with Mom and calf right outside of the bay. They stayed with us for about 15 Baby breachesminutes, and then we saw a competitive pod starting up, so we left our Mom and calf and headed out to see what was going on. There were some really aggressive whales in this pod, banging into each other, head lunging and pec slapping. It was difficult to see if there was a female being chased, or if this was just a group of males fighting amongst each other. We were fortunate enough to watch this pod for over an hour before we had to leave them and return to the bay.On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, a Mom/Calf pod spent some time with us, followed by a different Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby breached repeatedly (and adorably). And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also got to watch two different Mom/Calf pods. The first was accompanied by 2 escorts, and the second pod was accompanied by 3 escorts. There was a lot of competition going on between the males in the second group, which got baby excited. That little guy kept breaching and breaching and breaching just about 50 yards from our idling boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Not all whaling activity occurred during the “golden age of whaling” at the beginning of the 19th century. Based on catch records corrected for illegal Soviet whaling, a total of more than 200,000 Humpback Whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1980. Also, Illegal Soviet takes of 25,000 Humpback Whales in two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) precipitated a population crash and the closure of land stations in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Friday the 13th brings Good Luck to Whale Watchers

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Aloha,

Friday the 13th didn’t live up to its reputation for guests aboard our first cruise of the day. On Friday’s Wake up with the Whales on Manu Iwa, guests enjoyed smooth waters and a couple of surprise visits from two different curious sub-adult Humpbacks. The first time we were idling with the hydrophone in the water listening to a symphony of songs when a whale popped up about 50 feet from us and swam right alongside the hull. The second time, we were idling again, waiting for some whales we had seen dive to resurface. This whale also popped up next to us to take a look at a bunch of very excited whale watchers who were taking a look at him too!
We were able to run our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae on Friday too before the wind picked up. Guests aboard Alala got to see two different calves…we found the first one in in the beginning of the cruise accompanied by a very large mom and escort. This little guy was really young — we could clearly see his bent over dorsal fin. At the end of the cruise we got to watch a very active calf breach over and over again. But we had plenty to watch in between these sightings…lots of tail lobs and breaches from various adults who were hanging out in the wind line.
We weren’t able to run cruises on Saturday due to the stormy conditions, but Sunday’s cruises provided some great sightings. Lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods…lots of competitive pods…and lots of surface activity. When the weather cooperates, you just can’t beat February for whale watching off the Kohala Coast!
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either: 1). female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partner; or; 2). female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.

Mugged and Loving It!

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Aloha,
We had an outstanding time on our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise on Thursday. We were barely outside of the bay when we found a very active competitive pod of 5 whales. These humpbacks stayed with us for over an hour, pec slapping, head lunging and peduncle throwing all around us. That was really fun to watch, but then the pod decided to dive underneath us. We couldn’t believe our luck when we got our first glimpse of them below the boat…but it got better. These whales must have found us a good diversion (or maybe they were using us in ways we don’t quite understand) because they mugged us for more than 20 minutes. Eventually they surfaced far enough away that we could maneuver away and head back to the bay. On the way back, a Mom/Baby pod surfaced just over 100 yards from us. Classic.By the afternoon, the action had calmed down quite a bit but we saw more than 20 humpbacks on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise including 3 Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We got some good fluke sightings too.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send a recap of the weBreach 2-12ekend’s events on Monday.
Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day…just in time for Valentine’s Day! A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to measurements made by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 times per minute.

Scrimshaw

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Aloha,

We faced some challenging weather conditions on Wednesday, and were only able to run one cruise — Wake Up with the Whales. The Humpbacks were definitely out and about, and guests saw some interesting behaviors — lots of flukes, lots of spouts, and lots of splashes from about a dozen different humpbacks including one Mom/Baby pod.
But since we don’t have a lot to report, we can talk about one of the things the whalers used to do to wile away the time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid-18th century, It’s called “scrimshawing”  and it is the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen. Traditional scrimshawing survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect in the mid 1960’s. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs.
If you’ve never seen the artistry, take a look at this image of Scrimshaw from marinearts.com

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Mahalo,
Claire

Babies find us Interesting

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Aloha,

We took two boats out for our Tuesday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise.  On Seasmoke, we saw lots of humpbacks surfacing and fluke diving, but spent most of our time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby surfaced much more frequently than the adults, and at one point, much to our delight, circled our idling boat. On Manu Iwa, we found at least 10 different pods of whales. Most of them were adults, but we did get to see two different Mom/baby pods (both accompanied by escorts). One of these little calves was pretty curious about us and we watched as he kept surfacing closer and closer till Mom finally had enough of it and pushed him away from us. For a grand finale at the end of our charter, a fully grown adult humpback breached just 50 yards from us. We knew he was there, but we sure didn’t know he was going to breach…and that’s why whale watching is so addictive. You just never know what you’re going to see, and even while you’re seeing it, it’s often difficult to believe your eyes.
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Traditionally, the Hawaiian people did not hunt whales. It may be because they didn’t like the taste of the meat, or it may be because the spirit of the whale was so powerful…But if a toothed whale did end up on a beach (whether it died at sea and was blown ashore, or actually beached itself), only the ali’i (royalty) were allowed to possess any part of the whale. Carvings made from a whale’s tooth called “Niho Palaoa” brought mana (roughly defined as a spiritual force”) to the both the carver and the wearer of the pendant.

Close Up Action

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Aloha,

Our Monday Wake up with the Whales Cruise started out with sightings of lots of whales in the distance, but as the saying goes, “it’s not over till it’s over”. Towards the end of our cruise we got to see two tail lobbers, some pectoral slapping and 5 breaches all within a couple hundred yards of the boat. Guests on the 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae got to watch a competitive pod of 5 whales for most of the cruise. Though there were whales breaching and splashing everywhere, this group kept our attention. They were quiet at first, and then something spurred them to action and we got to see lots of peduncle throws from them. At one point, they dove under us, and surfaced within 100 feet. We got to see several spy hops within 50 feet of us. When we deployed the hydrophone we heard a symphony of singing too.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see the spout from a whale, you’re actually looking at an interesting combination of things. Some of what you’re looking at is condensation from the whales’ lungs (the same thing you’re looking at when you see your own breath after exhaling in a cold environment); some is atomized ocean water (Humpbacks live in a wet world, and there’s always some of the ocean pooled on top of their blow holes when they surface); and…since Humpbacks don’t have cilia in their respiratory tracks (little hairs)…a lot of what you see (and occasionally feel) is actually mucus! Yuck!

Whale Fight Enthralls

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Aloha,

We had a fun weekend despite some periods with less than calm seas. As usual, I won’t recap every cruise we ran since it would make this email too long…but there were Humpbacks everywhere we looked during Friday’s Wake Up with the Whales on Seasmoke. Captain Baker reports seeing 5 breaches, and LOTS of peduncle throws, tail lobs and pec slaps. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we found ourselves surrounded by a competitive pod. The water was pretty rough, but we were enthralled by all the action. We got to see these whales bang into each other, hit each other with their flukes, peduncle throw right on top of each other, and even pec slap each other. We’re normally not violent people, but watching all of this was so exciting.
On Sunday’s 12;30 Cruise from Kawaihae,we saw Humpbacks in all directions, including a very active competitive pod, and a younger whale who breached and then head lunged 5 times in a row On our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, Mom and baby were waiting for us at the mouth of the bay. And later in the cruise, we were mugged for more than 20 minutes by two adult Humpbacks who hung out right underneath the stern!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Those lines we see under the Humpback’s mouth are actually pleats that allow for the expansion of her mouth when she feeds. This expansion, combined with her ability to flex her jaws, allows her to hold up to 15,000 gallons of sea water in her mouth at one time — that’s the equivalent of 160,000 cans of Diet Pepsi (or Budweiser) in every gulp — of course, she doesn’t swallow the water she gulps…just the unlucky fish that had been swimming in it.

Peduncles Perplex

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Aloha,

We woke up to rain and blustery winds on Thursday, which meant we weren’t able to take our guests on any morning whale watch cruises. We did get to go out for the Whales and Cocktails Cruise though, and it seemed like the humpbacks were happy to see us. We saw spouts in every direction we looked. For awhile, it seemed like all the action must be taking place below the surface because all we saw were whales surfacing, taking a few breaths, and then diving again. But it’s February now — height of the season for whale watching off our coast — so it wasn’t long before we got to see some breaching from a few adult humpbacks. We also saw tail lobs and peduncle throws. We found a couple of different Mom/Baby pods — both accompanied by escorts. And lots of pods of two and three adult Humpbacks charging around on the surface.
Have a great weekend — I’ll send out a recap on Monday!
Claire
Peduncle

​Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: I was at the airport Thursday afternoon, when a guest from one of last week’s Whale Watch cruises who apparently recognized me even though I wasn’t dressed in my Ocean Sports uniform walked over and said, “I just can’t remember…what was that word you used to describe the back of the whale”?  I answered that we call the region between the whales’ flukes and his main body, a “peduncle”…but why? So I looked it up. The word “peduncle” comes from the Latin word “ped” which means foot. It was first used to describe the stalk of a flower, fruit, or tumor. I guess that makes sense…the back part of the whale does sort of look like a stalk, bearing the whale’s wide flukes.

Windy Weather But Great Sightings

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It was a windy day on the water on Wednesday, so we weren’t able to run most of our cruises, but guests joining us on our 8:00 Wake Up with the Whales had a great time watching a baby breach. Those calves always look so cute and uncoordinated to us. We also saw another Mom/Baby pod, and 8 or 9 other adult HumpbacksHumpback Blowholes

On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae we got to witness a wide variety of behaviors. Just out of the harbor we encountered a sub-adult humpback who was kind of curious about us. This whale spent some time checking us out as we all got a good view of him (or her — we couldn’t tell). This whale was joined by another whale and they must have felt a little bit of animosity towards each other because one of them started peduncle throwing. Later in the cruise we got to see 6 consecutive breaches —  some by Mom, and some by her calf. We also saw lots of spouts and flukes of whales close to the shoreline…and lots more breaching by whales out to sea in the wind.

Aloha
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter (I just measured my own, and they’re only about 7/16ths of an inch wide — the things we do for science…).