Tag Archives: breach

Accompanied by Whales

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Aloha,
We only got to operate 2 Whale Watches on Christmas Day, but they both were great trips! Our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise started off with a bang. We were about a mile or so offshore of the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort when we all got to see a very big whale breach about 100 yards off our bow! This whale was accompanying a pod of two other whales – Mom and Baby, The trio stayed with us for more than a half hour, and at one point, the escort surfaced very close to us. We also saw lots of good fluke dives from him. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we were accompanied by two whales who seemed pretty interested in what we were doing out there, since they stayed with us for over an hour. Our onboard naturalist, Adam, reports that one of these whales had a “mangled fluke” – the left side of his fluke had what appeared to be a healed-up injury from an entanglement at one point in his life. The old injury didn’t appear to be impairing his swimming – and we’ll definitely be on the look out to see if we can find him again.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:One of the best ways whale watchers have to identify individual Humpbacks is by the unique markings on the ventral (underside) of their flukes (tails). Currently, the National Marine Mammal Laboratory based in Seattle maintains a data base containing more than 30,000 photos of the North Pacific Humpbacks flukes dating back to 1966, but other researchers, including those involved in the 3 season SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks) Project have also used these patterns to identify who’s who in the whale world, and estimate  Humpback population levels.

Escorted Pod

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Aloha,
Guests aboard our Whale Watches on Tuesday so the whole gamut of whale behaviors. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we watched two whales on the move for pretty much the entire trip. These two would surface simultaneously, spout two or three times, and then do a shallow dive (we didn’t see their flukes) and stay underwater for 20 minutes, only to surface again further down the coast. They were in a real pattern…staying underwater the same length of time between breaths…and travelling about the same distance before surfacing each time. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, a pod of three whales found us – Mom, Baby, and Escort (the whale we call the “Escort” is almost certainly not the father of the calf – but he is a male who is hanging around Mom for as long as she’ll let him – I’ll tell you more about this in today’s fact of the day and in future emails).. They were very active – we saw multiple breaches, pec slaps, shark finning (that’s when the whale turns sideways just below the surface showing only half of his fluke and it looks a lot like a shark fin) and head lunges. Mom was a big whale, but her baby was really small. Captain Ryan said it was “the best trip [he’s] had so far all season”!
 
Mahalo and Mele Kalikimaka!
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:We frequently see Mom and Baby whale accompanied by a third whale. We used to think it was a female helping mom take care of her baby, but now that we can identify gender more easily, we know it isn’t. It’s a male. Though a new mom rarely ovulates, researchers believe that perhaps the male whale is “hoping to make a good impression” so when she is receptive, he may be the first to mate with her.

Competition and Migration Order

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Aloha,
Well after a long weekend of high surf, we were finally able to go Whale Watching again. On Monday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we really didn’t see anything till the very end of the trip. Just as we were pulling into the bay, guests saw a breach and some splashing on the horizon. We really didn’t think that this qualified as a Whale Watch, so even though we shared lots of information with our guests, Captain Ryan called the trip a “Fluke” and everyone aboard has been invited back again on another Whale Watch with us for no charge. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 2 Humpbacks…and on our Snorkel Cruise from Anaeho’omalu guests also saw 2 Humpbacks (always a treat, since we really aren’t searching for them…but when the whales find us, we’ll definitely stop to watch them)! We ended the day with a great show on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise. Our onboard naturalist Angelica reports that we found two Humpbacks together. There seemed to be a bit of a competition going on (maybe they were trying to determine who was dominant) – we saw a pectoral slap and a couple of head lunges from one of these whales. And then a third whale showed up in the area…and perhaps announcing his presence (or maybe expressing aggression or excitement) did a full breach!.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to researchers, the first whales to arrive in Hawaii each year from Alaska are females with a yearling, followed by sub-adults (the teenagers of the whale world). The next to arrive are mature resting females (ovaries and mammary glands show no signs of recent activity) followed by mature males, and finally late pregnancy stage females.

Humpbacks Hawaiian Style

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Aloha,
Our Wednesday Whale Watches began with Breakfast with the Whales from Anaeho’omalu Bay. On this cruise, guests saw a total of 6 different Humpbacks, in 3 different pods of 2. We saw a breach in the distance, and did have a close encounter when one of the whales decided to surface next to our boat. On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we did see a spout and a breach in the distance, but that wasn’t good enough for us, so we invited all our guests to come back with us another time for FREE! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also saw a Humpback spouting and diving…but on our Champagne Sunset Cruise, guests were delighted to spend 45 minutes with a very curious Humpback who just kept approaching us, and surfacing on all sides of the boat. At one point we were looking at a whale off our port side, and a double rainbow off our starboard side! Lucky we live Hawaii!
Mahalo,
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!

Wild Wednesday

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Aloha,
We had a busy day on the water on Wednesday, and so did the whales. All day long we watched pods of Mom/Baby/Escort, and competitive pods. In fact, seeing a Humpback by him or her self was a rare sighting. Over the course of the day, we saw 12 breaches, 27 (we counted) tail lobs, 16 pec slaps, multiple peduncle throws and lots of “unidentifiable splashes”. We were mugged a few times by curious Mom/Baby pods, who always seemed to be accompanied by escorts. We did get to hear some trumpeting from “out-of-breath” participants in competitive pods. When we dropped our hydrophones, we still were hearing very loud and clear songs. This has been a very interesting season so far. The last count of the Humpbacks sponsored by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary takes place this coming Saturday, March 30th…but anecdotally, it appears to us that there has been a higher population density of Humpbacks off the Kohala Coast this year than in previous years. After the count results are released, we’ll let you know if our unscientific observations are correct.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  In August 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed the status of the Humpback Whale from “Vulnerable” to “Least Concern” reflecting the general upward trend of population levels. According to IUCN standards, animal populations in the “Least Concern” category are at a low risk for extinction. The IUCN classifies the status of Humans in the same category.

Mugged for 40 minutes!

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Aloha,
Though it’s getting to the end of our Whale Watch Season, we had some incredible cruises and experiences this weekend. On Saturday’s10:00 Whale Watch, we saw about 18 whales all together, including three different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We had close encounters with two of the Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and also saw a competitive pod doing their usual aggressive posturing. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we motored around till we saw a breach. And while we were investigating the breacher, two different Mom/Baby/Escort pods found us! It was strange seeing them so close together, especially when each of these groups decided to spend time with us. We were mugged by these two pods for 40 minutes, and got to see a spy hop about 5 feet from the boat, and watch one of the calves breach 3 times about 20 feet from the boat. On the 10:00 Whale Watch on Sunday, we saw lots of different whales…lots of spouting and fluke dives too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:In 2004, a company called Whale Power was founded by Dr.Frank Fish, Dr. Phil Watts and Stephen Dewar. The company builds fan blades shaped like a Humpback’s Pectoral Fins with tubercles on the leading edge. The ironically named Dr.Fish was inspired to develop the prototype after looking at a sculpture of a Humpback, and pondering how (or if) the bumps on the front of the whale’s fins would help him move efficiently through the water. He and his partners enlisted the help of the Navy and used their wind tunnel to discover that tubercles break up air (or water flow)…and now with the whale-inspired design, Whale Power’s turbine blades are not only more efficient than smooth blades, but they never stall out violently like smooth blades do, and thus don’t damage the turbine engines. The company’s motto… “A Million Years of Field Tests”.

Right Under Us!

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Aloha,
We started our Wednesday off on a nice, calm ocean, but the whales were anything but calm! On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw 2 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We stayed with each of them for quite awhile…and the calf from the second pod delighted us when she breached 3 times right next to the boat! We also saw pec slaps and tail lobs from different adults, and when we dropped the hydrophone, we heard some very clear songs. For a grand finale on this cruise, another pod of whales swam right under the boat. Captain Scotty turned off the motors, and was able to see the whales on our depth sounder…and to top it off, the whales then decided it would be a good idea to pop up  5 feet from the boat…we couldn’t believe our luck (or their curiosity). As the wind came up through the day, we saw lots more surface activities. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw multiple breaches, pec slaps and tail lobs. We also saw several peduncle throws and some other splashes (not sure which behaviors caused those…but whatever was going on was HUGE).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1919, R.G. Meyers, who was working towards his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, conducted a chemical analysis of Humpback whale blood collected from the thoracic cavity of a whale killed in Monterey Bay. He found that the Humpback’s total cholesterol level was similar to a healthy human’s, but the glucose level was 4 times what’s considered a “healthy” level for a human. Since there’s not a lot of carbohydrates in a Humpback’s diet, he theorized that a Humpback’s liver and pancreas work differently than ours.

What…No Song???

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Aloha,

We had a nice day of Whale Watching on Monday. We ran 3 different cruises but on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had 3 close encounters with curious Humpbacks, and saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods, some breaches and tail lobs fairly close by, and lots of surface activities creating big splashes within a mile or so of us. On this cruise, we deployed the hydrophone and heard something weird…no song! The reason we think this is strange is that generally, this time of year, the male Humpbacks in Hawaii are in a highly competitive state battling for access to the remaining receptive females. Since recent research on the meaning of the song in the Humpback culture seems to support the idea that it singing is a way for the males to sort out social status and relationships, the fact that we didn’t hear it during this crucial part of mating season really is odd. Of course, it could have just been a coincidence that the one time we had the hydrophone in the water, the males in the vicinity were too busy charging around on the surface to sing. We’ll drop the hydrophone again today and see if this was just a fluke!

Mahalo, Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The smooth round flat spot we see on the water after a whale dives is called the “footprint”. Whalers thought it was caused by oil from the whale’s skin calming the surface of the water, but water samples have proven that theory to be false. When a whale dives (or kicks just below the surface) his flukes break the surface tension of the water and create a vertical wake, forming the footprint.