Tag Archives: breach

Still “Whale Soup” in Hawaiian Waters

Posted on by
Aloha,
The whales were out in force this weekend. On Friday’s afternoon Whale Watch on Seasmoke, guests saw 5 different Humpbacks. At first we just got to see some spouts, but when we got to the area where the spouts were, a lone adult surfaced about 50 yards from us turning out to sea. We thought that was kind of interesting — wondering what he was swimming away from and then a pod of two adult humpbacks surfaced right behind us. We saw dorsal fins, spouts, and flukes from all three of these whales. On our way back to the bay, we found another pod of two and just as I was explaining that we don’t always see a breach on every trip, one of the whales breached not once, but twice! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a pod of 3 – Mom, baby and escort. This pod surfaced several times near us, and while we were watching them, we saw spouts from two more adult whales closer to shore.
Guests on Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise used just one word to describe the trip: “AWESOME”. For almost the entire cruise, we were escorted by two big adult whales who decided to swim directly under us and along side. At one point one of them came between the hulls (we were adrift), and did a fluke dive right in front of the bow. Seasmoke is a pretty big catamaran – 58 feet long and 23 feet wide – but when that whale lifted his flukes right in front of us, we felt really, really small.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw a dozen different Humpbacks (which is a lot for this late in the season). We had one very close encounter, and several pretty close encounters with whales who were interested in us. We also got to see one head lunge. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise on Sunday, we saw 6 different Humpbacks, including one sub-adult who breached twice, and another bigger whale who tail lobbed a few times. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard a Humpback symphony! And actually, three guests on board heard whale sounds after we had already pulled the hydrophone out of the water
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  According to research conducted by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, a Humpback’s heart beats an average of 40bpm, but the whales do experience periods of tachycardia and bradycardia during dives.

Whale vs. Shark

Posted on by
Aloha,
Wow, was it ever windy in Waikoloa on Thursday, so  windy that we were only able to run our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay. Before the guests arrived, we did see a few splashes a couple miles off shore from the bay so we knew there were some breachers out there. Once we got everyone on board, Captain Shane decided to take the boat north. On the way up the coast, we saw several flukes from whales who had surfaced to breath and then dove down to calm water. We never did get to our breachers — and the spouts from all the diving whales we saw dissipated really quickly in the wind. But we know there are still plenty of whales around the island, and on Friday, we’ll go out looking again.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Do you know the easiest way to distinguish whether that big creature swimming rapidly towards you is a whale or a shark? Watch the way it swims…whales propel themselves through the water by moving their tails up and down vertically. Sharks and other fish move their tails from side to side. Aristotle was the first person to document this difference around 350 B.C. – hopefully you’ll never need to use this information for anything other than winning a trivia contest

Slow Motion Breaching

Posted on by
Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started off well, with sightings of a Mom/Calf pod on our Friday 10:00 Whale Watch. This pod not only held our interest, but they also held the interest of a small pod of Spinner Dolphins, who were accompanying the whales. We also a double breach off in the distance. At the same time, we were running a Kid’s Field Trip Whale Watch Cruise on Manu Iwa. The kids got to see lots and lots of spouts and flukes as the Humpbacks were surfacing, breathing and diving. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we got to watch a competitive pod of 6 Humpbacks charging across the surface of the ocean. We also saw a very close-by breach – and when the whale is as close as this one was, it looks like he’s going in slow motion!.
Mahalo, On Sunday, we saw Mom/Baby/Escort, and lots of spouts from single whales off in the distance.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According the website of the International Whaling Commission (the international agency overseeing whaling) the only countries with people allowed to hunt Humpbacks under the Aboriginal Sustenance Hunting program are a tribe in Greenland (who were allowed 9 West Greenland Humpbacks annually for the years 2010-2012, and 10 Humpbacks annually in 2013 and 2014), and the Bequian people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who were allowed a total of 20 Humpbacks between the years 2008 and 2012 and  a total of 24 Humpbacks between the years 2013 and 2018. The IWC specifically bans the killing of calves.

Humpbacks Can Sleep – But How?

Posted on by
Aloha,
Between our regularly scheduled cruises, our kid’s field trip cruises, and some private cruises, we ran 5 different Whale Watch Tours yesterday — with all those cruises, there are just too many details to send in an email. Suffice it to say, the majority of the pods we saw throughout the day were Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We did get to watch some pretty wild surface action on a couple of our trips, with competitive pods charging around the Mom/Baby duo. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, a couple of breaches and lots of spouts and dorsal fins too. We deployed our hydrophones several times throughout the day with mixed results. We were always able to hear the underwater chorus the whales listen to all day, but only a few times did we hear very loud singing (indicating close-by males). Based on what we were watching on the surface, the males close by to us were way too busy to stop and sing!
Have a great weekend,
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.

Competitive Pod Forms Before our Very Eyes

Posted on by
Aloha,
On our Wednesday 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 8 different whales. As we exited the harbor, we turned south and just cruised the coastline watching multiple spouts, dorsal fins and flukes as these whales surfaced and dived. Just before the trip ended, we saw what everyone hopes to see on a whale watch — a full breach. And then another full breach…and then a third full breach! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod just outside of the bay. We paralleled them, staying with them for almost the entire cruise. We actually got to watch a competitive pod form, as other males in the area located Mom. By the end of the cruise she had 4 males chasing after her and battling among each other for that prime escort position.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to the experts at NOAA, in 1966 when commercial whaling was finally banned, the Humpback population in the North Pacific was estimated to be fewer than 1400 individuals.

Mugged by a Baby

Posted on by
Aloha,
Our weekend started out, to quote Captain Will, as “CRAZY”. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we cruised out of the bay and just outside the Hilton we saw a Mom and calf surface about 150 yards from us so we shut down the motors and just drifted. We looked, and looked, and then all of a sudden they both popped up right next to the boat. They swam under us and around us for more than 40 minutes. Every once in awhile, the calf would stop looking at us to breach right next to us! A couple of kayakers paddled by, and the whales left us, and swam right under them (which must have been a pretty intense experience for those people in their little boats), only to return to us for some more viewing. After these whales got enough of us and headed off, we saw another pod of two adult whales tail slapping near Honoko’opae Bay. We also two breaches from some other adult Humpbacks about 800 yards from us.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we got to see a couple of different pods of whales, but the highlight of the trip was watching a full breach just 30 feet (not yards — FEET) off the boat. We also saw flukes and spouts from lots of other Humpbacks cruising the coastline.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.

Feeding Techniques of the Humpbacks

Posted on by
Aloha,
Thursday’s Whale Watch Cruises were pretty mellow. We’re still seeing lots of pods of Mom/Baby/Escort. These pods are interesting to watch as it’s often difficult to determine exactly who is leading the pod. Yesterday’s calves were rolling around a lot on the surface, and from our vantage point, it looked like their Moms were just trying to keep up with them. When we were lucky enough to see the escorts surface, they were usually in the rear, and the Moms most often were positioned between the escorts and their calves. We also saw a lot of spouts, dorsal fins, and flukes from lone whales. Since research has shown that females without calves leave the breeding grounds after mating (presumably successfully), we’re guessing that a lot of these loners are males trying to optimize mating opportunities. We did see some splashes more distant from us – some of these were caused by whales breaching, and some by peduncle throws. When we were able to deploy our hydrophones, we heard lots of loud clear songs, and lots of other background songs, so we know there are still plenty of whales around South Kohala.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers watching Humpbacks feeding in Stellwegan Bay (off the coast of Massachusetts) documented a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Humpbacks there weren’t just bubble-netting. They were spending a lot of their feeding time totally submerged. With the aid of “Critter Cams” the researchers were able to document three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping. Why does this matter? Now that we know how Humpbacks move when they’re underwater, we can take steps to reduce their vulnerability to entanglement to bottom set fishing gear.

Dolphins surround a Whale

Posted on by
Aloha,
Monday’s wintery weather caused us to cancel all our cruises except for Breakfast with the Whales. The 16 guests who braved the conditions with us were rewarded though, as we started the cruise with a pod of about 100 Spinner Dolphins — many of whom decided it would be fun to surf our bow wake. As we were watching all this activity, a Humpback surfaced right in the middle of the pod. Then we saw some breaching a way’s off, so Captain Baker decided to head out that way. We were surprised when 3 whales surfaced at our stern and made a dive right below us (we could see them as they cruised right under us). And we finished the cruise with even more breaching.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though we’ve mentioned before that only male Humpback Whales “sing”, all Humpbacks make noises and apparently use these sounds to communicate with each other. Researchers have witnessed cooperative feeding behaviors among the Humpbacks apparently “triggered” by sound, and have also witnessed Humpback Cows (moms) apparently ignoring some sounds made by their calves (researchers called these sounds “goo-goo, ga-ga” noises), but responding immediately when the calves made particular squealing noises. So it appears that Mom recognizes her baby’s voice!

New Born Humpback Calf

Posted on by

Aloha, Our weekend of Whale Watching started out with a bang! On Friday’s 10:00 Cruise, guests got to watch not 1…not 2… but 3 competitive pods of 5 whales each all at the same time! There was way more head lunging, peduncle throwing, pec slapping and breaching going on than we could keep track of…and we pretty much all lost our voices shouting out encouragement to all these whales in their battles for dominance. On the 12:30 Cruise, the waters quieted down. We watched several whales all in one small area just spouting…and then…all of a sudden, we saw the smallest calf we had ever seen. This little guy’s dorsal fin was completely bent over (indicating a VERY recent birth). Mom had the little whale resting on her rostrum and was gently pushing him around on the surface heading towards shore. As Captain Will put it, “Absolutely Incredible”! On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we were watching a couple of adult whales but were all surprised when a calf popped up right off the bow of the boat. We could see mom under the water, but she never did surface near us. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw 15 different whales including 3 Mom/Baby pods. One of the little calves was very energetic, breaching 3 times, pec slapping and tail lobbing. When we deployed the hydrophone, we did hear multiple voices, but none of the singers were very close. And on the 10:00 Cruise we watched Mom and Baby breaching (was she teaching him how or were they both communicating something important?). We also got to watch a small competitive pod doing pec slaps and tail lobs. By Sunday, the weather moved in so we only got to run the morning cruises – but at 10:00 am we were the object of curiosity for Mom and her Baby Humpback. They surfaced and dove next to us for 45 minutes…we even got spouted upon. We also saw some breaches in the distance, but we did get lucky when a different whale breached just a couple hundred yards from us. Mahalo, Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to research conducted in Japan, the peak estrus period for Humpbacks (i.e. when females are in heat) overall, is between the end of January and the end of February, but the peak estrus period for females with a calf appears to be several weeks later. Our frequent observations of pods of Mom and Baby who are accompanied by an escort at this time of year seem to support the validity of these findings. Although, since many mature females without calves have left Hawaii already, perhaps it’s not the fact that the females with calves are in estrus that’s attracting the escorts, but just that these males are accompanying any female they can find.

Breaching at Sunset

Posted on by
Aloha,
On Tuesday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw flukes and  spouts everywhere we looked. We finished the trip with a great close encounter with a Humpback who decided to swing by our boat and check us out. The word of the evening though was “BREACH”! On our Moku Nui Sunset Sail we saw multiple breaches right in front of the boat. We also got to watch a Mom/Baby pod cruise along side us, and we saw a competitive pod charging across the surface. This pod was really bullying each other with lots of peduncle throws, head lunges, and shoving.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: How do Humpbacks keep their cool when swimming through our warm Hawaiian waters?  During prolonged exercise in warm water, excess heat is shed by increasing circulation to a network of capillaries (in Latin they’re called “retia mirabiliia” which translates to “miracle network”) near the surface of the Humpbacks’ flippers, flukes and dorsal fin — the excess heat is shed to the external environment. In fact, many researchers believe that whales lifting their pectoral fins into the air, or resting with their flukes exposed vertically are actually trying to cool off.