Tag Archives: breach

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.

Who’s Watching Whom?

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Aloha,
We had multiple breaches right off the bat as we left A’bay on our Breakfast with the Whale Cruise on Monday. There seemed to be a whale on the surface no matter which direction we looked, and we saw some great fluke shots throughout the trip. On the 10:00 Whale Watch we had a lot of activity pretty close to the boat. We focused on 3 whales who pretty much swarmed us. We saw lots of breaches and lots of other surface activities from this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails, we got mugged for about 15 minutes by three HUGE whales! Everyone on board was just blown away by the whales’ attention to us. We’re not the kind of people who like to say we’re the most interesting thing in the ocean, but for these 3 whales, for at least 15 minutes, we were!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The Whales “mugging” us are definitely taking a look at us. Though Humpbacks rely on their sense of hearing far more than any other sense, we do know that vision is also important to them. Based on the shape of the Humpbacks’ corneas, they can certainly see us…but, they’re probably a bit farsighted when looking through water and a bit nearsighted when looking through the air. And in case anyone asks you, Humpbacks have beautiful brown eyes. Their eyeballs weigh, on average, 2.16 pounds. Human eyeballs weigh about a quarter of an ounce.

So Many Muggings

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Aloha,
Lots to report from our Whale Watch Cruises this weekend, so as usual, I’ll just touch on the highlights. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we started out with a breach right in front of the boat (that’s the sight everyone wants to see). But what really made our day was a whale who was acting slightly unusually, This whale swam right below the ocean’s surface – never diving – for more than 20 minutes. After 20 minutes of paralleling him 100 yards or so away, we stopped the boat, and the whale turned and came right toward us, still on the surface. We’re thinking this guy might have been curious about what was making all the noise on the boat, (we were encouraging him to keep approaching)! Our encouragement worked, because he surfaced near us and after that close encounter to check us out, he turned away again and resumed his swim north.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, a whale approached us again. This whale was apparently interested in us as he spy-hopped just 20 feet away from the boat. After that, he did a peduncle throw…and then breached just 50 feet away from us! Unfortunately we had to head back to the bay, but it wasn’t all bad, because we found several more whales right at the mouth of A’bay! On the 10:00 trip, most of the activity seemed to be to the south of the Bay. We found one whale who spy-hopped about 100 yards from us multiple times. We also encountered a pod of three who were swimming so hard they were trumpeting as they were spouting.
And on Sunday’s Whales & Cocktails, we were visited by a whale who wouldn’t leave us alone. Our guests named her “Pele” and she lived up to her volcanic moniker. She spent more than an hour RIGHT NEXT to the boat, swimming next to us, and underneath…and contorting her body. She spy-hopped to look at us…and after she finally moved off a bit to begin a sequence of deeper dives (showing us her beautiful flukes), each time she’d surface, she  would breach. It was absolutely incredible. All of us aboard were cheering for her like 3rd graders – a trip we’ll remember for a lifetime!
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?!).

Mystery of Meaning of Humpback Song Solved!

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Aloha,
The ocean calmed down for us on Thursday, and we were able to run 5 great Whale Watch Cruises. When there are that many cruises, there are way too many details to list in an email update so here are a few of the highlights.
On Manu Iwa’s 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we had a moment between sightings, so we dropped the hydrophone into the water. The vocalizations we heard were really loud and clear. And we may have had a break-through in animal-human communication when Captain Will put the telephone next to the hydrophone. We use a Google Voice Mail transcription service to log our reports…and when the song the whale was singing got transcribed, here is what Google said we were listening to…
Yeah, hey hello, hello hey hello a hello. Hey, hey. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hmm. Hey, this is why I will report for tonight and January will call our number is. Play message
Apparently the mystery of the whale song has been solved…the whales are just saying  “hello” to each other!
The highlight of our 10:00 Whale Watch on Seasmoke had to have been all the surface activity. Mike reports multiple breaches, tail lobs, pectoral slaps and peduncle throws. There was activity on the surface in every direction! And on our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we encountered a competitive pod that was just breaking up…the two rejected males swam off separately, and the whales we are assuming to be the victorious male and the female swam away together in a different direction. That was fun to watch, but while we were floating motionless, we got a huge surprise when a BIG whale surfaced 30 feet behind our stern! S/he must have thought we were interesting because s/he stayed at the surface looking at us for a long time. Finally, after several spouts s/he arched her back and lifted her flukes to begin a long deep dive. We all got a great look at her tail (which is about 15 feet wide) as she dived.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When we say we heard LOUD singing, just how loud do we mean? Well, Humpback whales have been recorded producing sounds at around 185 decibels. Because the decibel scales use different references for sounds underwater than through the air, that’s the equivalent of about 123 decibels for us on the surface…which is as loud as the amplified music at a rock concert when you’re standing directly in front of a tower of speakers.

Tail Lobbing from Excitement

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Aloha,
Patience paid off for guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch on Wednesday. First of all, there were so many whales to watch that we had to choose where to go…and then when we chose a direction, the whales seemed to choose our boat as an object of interest. A pod of 5 humpbacks approached us, and we watched as one of them breached and then, as our onboard naturalist Brooke put it, “tail lobbed like CRAZY”. That must have prompted some excitement in the other whales (it sure got us excited), because one started pec slapping, and then two other whales surfaced right next to us multiple times – there came up so close that we could recognize them. We also watched multiple breaches in the near-by distance (not from our competitive pod) and then got to see a coalition of 5 other whales form. We thought this might turn into another competition, but we had to return to the bay before anything materialized.
For the best Whale Watch Cruises in Hawaii, Call Ocean Sports – (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com!
Mahalo,
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.

Lots of Competition

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Aloha,
With the challenging weather conditions on Tuesday, we were only able to run one Whale Watch Cruise – but it was a good one! Guests on Tuesday’s Breakfast with the Whales were fortunate enough to watch a competitive pod of 6 whales. As usual, with a competitive pod, there was a lot of surface activity going on – pectoral slaps, peduncle throws, and even a couple of tail lobs. We also saw a couple of breaches, but they were from whales that were further away.
Mahalo,
Claire
Looking for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Cruise? Call Ocean Sports at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:The Humpbacks we see off Hawaii’s coastlines travel quite a bit between the islands, but researchers have yet to observe a directional trend. In other words, some whales travel North to South, some South to North, and some travel back and forth…a lot like our human visitors.

Female Humpback Uses the Boat for Protection

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Aloha,
Guests on board Monday’s 10:00 Whale Watch from Anaeho’omalu Bay got to see a competitive pod of 6 whales about 3 miles offshore of Keawa’iki (south of the Bay). A very big female (with her calf) appeared to be using our boat to shield herself from those 4 male humpbacks (we didn’t mind – we were happy to be of service). The whole pod actually stayed with us for awhile – and we saw a lot of head lunges from the group. We also saw about 15 other whales spouting and fluke diving throughout the trip. Over the years we’ve noticed a pattern of Humpback arrivals that seems to be playing out this season as well,. Every year we notice an abrupt increase in population density at the end of the first week of January (we’re not sure if the Humpbacks are timing their arrival with the departure of all our holiday visitors….).
On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw 6 whales, but the one that stole the show was a very active sub-adult. This whale must have breached 10 times right in front of us. He also did multiple pectoral slaps and tail lobs, and surfaced more than once right next to the boat – and this activity went on for close to 40 minutes, making for a really exciting trip!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”, you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Aerial behaviors often result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface).

Suprised by Spouts

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Aloha,
Guests on both of our Whale Watch Cruises on Thursday got to experience the best that Whale Watching in Hawaii has to offer! On the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we found Humpbacks just outside of the bay – we watched them for awhile, but were distracted by all the splashing going on about a 1/2 mile further. So went to check it out and found some whales that wanted to look at us. They came right by the boat more than once. We also saw pretty much every surface display you ever read about in the whale watching books – pec slaps, peduncle throws, head lunges and breaches! Guests on our 10:00 Whale Watch also had some great viewing. We watched a pod of three Humpbacks (most likely one female and two males – based on their behavior). The two we were assuming to be males got into a competition – shoving each other around – until one of them must have had enough and swam away, leaving the other two to swim off together out to sea. As we were all enjoying that sight, two whales that we didn’t even know were there surfaced right next to us, startling all of us with their loud spouts (if you’ve ever heard the powerful sound of a whale spout close by, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about) And if that wasn’t enough…for our grand finale, as we were coming back into the bay, we all got to see a big Humpback breach completely out of the water!
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Experience the excitement for yourself – join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Tours – call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to book your adventure today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  When we watch a surface active competitive pod of whales, we assume it is comprised of one female either leading or being chased by a group of males. It often appears that every male is competing with every other male for access to the female. Recently researchers have observed that male humpbacks may form coalitions, working together to corral the female so that one may have easier access to her. 

Spouts and Splashes

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Aloha,
On Monday, we ran two different Breakfast with the Whales Cruises. Guests aboard Seasmoke watched 6 different Humpbacks. All of them were in pods of two. At one point, these three pods joined up, and according to Captain Baker, it was fun watching them all play around each other. Guests aboard our Manu Iwa Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw 7 different Humpbacks. Some of them were in the distance, so we concentrated on watching a very active juvenile who breached multiple times. The conditions were finally calm enough for us to drop our hydrophone…but when we did, we weren’t able to pick up any voices. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we spent most of our time watching 2 Humpbacks. This pod was slowly cruising together down the coast, just surfacing for a couple of breaths before diving down and continuing their swim.
Mahalo,
Claire
Looking for the best Whale Watch Cruise in Hawaii? Join Ocean Sports – call us at (808)886-6666 or visit hawaiioceansports.com
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.

Reverse Sexual Size Dimorphism

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Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started out with a lot of surface activity. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw 4 different Humpbacks. Two were in the distance, but the two closest to us were excited about something – we got to see tail lobs, pectoral slaps and even a breach! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we saw 7 different whales but spent most of our time with a competitive pod of 4 that chose to come pretty close to us. We saw multiple tail lobs and peduncle throws, and at one point, one of the whales surfaced just 50 feet from us. Saturday and Sunday brought us more of the same great action. Highlights included seeing breaches, tail lobs, and pec slaps all from what our onboard naturalist Gary reports as a yearling (based on her size) just out of Anaeho’omalu Bay on Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch guests saw 5 different whales and lots of surface activity including multiple breaches, pec slaps and tail lobs.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales (and, in fact, all Baleen Whales) demonstrate something called “reverse sexual size dimorphism”. This means that an adult female Humpback is larger than an adult male (by about 5%). Though researchers are not sure of the exact reason for the difference in size, they theorize that the increased size allows the female to store more reserves to feed and care for her calf, and also to give birth to a bigger calf who might have a better chance of survival than a smaller one. Average length for a fully grown female Humpback is around 45 feet. At her heaviest, she weighs 35 – 40 tons.