Tag Archives: barnacles

Competition Heats Up

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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.

Babies!

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Aloha,

On Monday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise out of Anaeho’omalu Bay, guests saw more than 20 different Humpbacks. A lot of the activity was between 1/2 of a mile to 1 mile away. We did find a Mom/Baby/Escort pod who chose to stay about 120 yards from us for quite awhile.. Baby was mostly hanging out on the surface, spouting and then diving down to mom. And as usual, both adults were surfacing much less frequently than the calf. Mom didn’t seem to be bothered by the presence of the escort — at least she didn’t do anything aggressive on the surface to indicate displeasure. Oh, and our onboard naturalist Jason reports that the boat was followed by a shark for awhile just outside of Anaeho’omalu Bay. Jason didn’t report the shark’s species though. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, upon leaving the bay, we spotted a small spout off the Hilton Waikoloa Village so headed that way. When we got there, we could see that baby was accompanied by Mom and an Escort but noticed a few other big whales around. These others must have spotted Mom too, because they began to give chase. Mom and baby both tail lobbed a few times and after diving, surfaced fairly close to us. The two newcomers to the pod must have gotten the message because they disappeared, and Mom, baby and the original escort headed off together.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales play host to all kinds of other animals. Besides the barnacles we often see on the Humpbacks’ flukes and other skin surfaces, the whales can also carry tape worms, lung worms, sinus flukes, and whale lice (which are related to skeleton shrimp) among others. Not all of these parasites actually harm the whale (which means that technically, they can’t really all be considered “parasites”). In fact, the barnacles might actually benefit the male Humpbacks who appear to use the sharp edges of the shells (perhaps inadvertently) as weapons during competitive battles.

60 Breaches

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Aloha,
Tuesday’s 10:00 Whale Watch started out with a BANG, and then just kept getting better. As soon as we left the bay we saw a big splash, and then watched as the whale who created it breached about 10 more times. This whale was part of a competitive pod of 3 whales, and as we paralleled the pod south, they started really getting active on the surface. Our onboard naturalist Angelica estimates that we saw at least 50 tail lobs, and lots of peduncle throws and head lunges from this group. For those of us who could tear our eyes away from all that action, there were other whales from different pods breaching to our starboard side and behind us. All told, if any of us could have gotten over our excitement enough to keep track, we probably saw more than 60 breaches on that trip. At one point we could see 3 different surface-active pods of 3 whales each, and we thought that if we could have stayed out a little longer, they all might have joined up (they appeared to be on that path), but all good things must come to an end…and we had to head back to the Bay.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales play host to all kinds of other animals. Besides the barnacles we often see on the Humpbacks’ flukes and other skin surfaces, the whales can also carry tape worms, lung worms, sinus flukes, and whale lice (which are related to skeleton shrimp) among others. Not all of these parasites actually harm the whale (which means that technically, they can’t really all be considered “parasites”). In fact, the barnacles might actually benefit the male Humpbacks who appear to use the sharp edges of the shells (perhaps inadvertently) as weapons during competitive battles.

Lots of Muggings, Dolphins, and Barnacles

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Aloha,
There’s a lot to report from our weekend’s worth of whale watching. Beginning with Friday, both our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales and 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruises report seeing 6 whales with a few breaches — we think the whales had moved up towards Kawaihae that day, since our 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 17 whales, 3 breaches, 4 cow/calf pods (1 accompanied by an escort), 3 breaches and a HUGE pod of Spinner Dolphins. Jonathan, our naturalist estimates there were more than 200 animals in that pod. On Saturday, the whales seemed to be moving back down the coastline again. The 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, and the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise both report seeing close to 25 different whales. The highlight of the first trip was watching a very small calf attempting to check out our boat, and the highlight of the last trip of the day was watching a very active competitive pod on the surface right near the boat for more than 30 minutes. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, our naturalist Nick reports that guests saw 20 different whales, mostly in pods of 2’s or 3’s. We also had a close encounter with a very small baby whale…but the most interesting part of the trip had to be when we encountered a pod of about 15 Rough Tooth Dolphins interacting with a couple of adult whales. Nick reports that the whales appeared to be irritated by the dolphins, because it looked like the whales were trying to slap their smaller cousins away! On Sunday, patience paid off for guests on our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, as towards the end of the trip, we encountered a very active pod of two whales who slapped the water with their pectoral fins, made several peduncle throws, and lots of tail lobs all about 100 yards from the boat! And on our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, we saw 18 whales, and were mugged by a curious baby (who was accompanied by his fairly permissive Mom and an escort). We saw breaches (7), peduncle throws (4), pectoral slaps (4), tail lobs (2) and 8 peduncle throws.
Don’t miss out on all the Humpback Action. Call Ocean Sports at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Humpback Whales play host to all kinds of other animals. Besides the barnacles we often see on the Humpbacks’ flukes and other skin surfaces, the whales can also carry tape worms, lung worms, sinus flukes, and whale lice (which are related to skeleton shrimp) among others. Not all of these parasites actually harm the whale (which means that technically, they can’t really all be considered “parasites”). In fact, the barnacles might actually benefit the male Humpbacks who appear to use the sharp edges of the shells (perhaps inadvertently) as weapons during competitive battles.
Aloha,
Captain Claire