Tag Archives: breach

Lots of Tri-Pods

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Aloha,
We can certainly tell by our weekend of whale watching that it’s the beginning of March! This is the part of the season for us when traditionally, we see the highest proportion of pods consisting of Mom/Baby/Escort, and also when we see lots of competitive pods. We ran a lot of whale watches these past few days, so I’ll just list some of the highlights.
On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw more than two dozen different whales, but we focused our attention on three different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We got to watch some pretty cute acrobatics from a couple of different babies who seemed to think that rolling around on Mom’s rostrum was a good way to spend the morning. We had 4 very close encounters on that trip with different pods…and to top it off, we got to watch a pod of Spinner Dolphins towards the end of our cruise, right outside of the Bay.
On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we started seeing whales before we even got on the boat! Two whales just outside of the bay were breaching and peduncle throwing multiple times while our guests boarded. And once aboard, we found 4 different competitive pods, and we saw breaching, tail lobs and peduncle throws from two of the pods. The other two pods seemed very intent on the chase. We also found two Mom/baby/escort pods.
And on Sunday, guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales started the cruise with a pod of Spinner Dolphins just outside of the bay. We also saw 4 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods, a couple of fantastic breaches, and some very energetic tail lobbing and peduncle throws.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Though measuring the length and weight of a Humpback’s internal organs is not really an exact science, it’s been estimated that the intestines of a fully grown Humpback whale are about 200 feet long (approximately 5 times the length of her body).

Spy Hops and Songs

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Aloha,
On Thursday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw lots of whales surfacing, breathing and diving. It seemed like no matter which direction we looked, a whale was up. We also saw 4 breaches close to the boat and had a couple of nice close encounters with curious Humpbacks. Our Whales and Cocktails Cruise started off kind of slow, with lots of “blows and goes”, but then we found a Mom and her baby who wanted to play with the boat. They came right up to us and both of them spy hopped twice, clearly taking a look at us. We then found a couple of other whales who seemed very interested in us whenever we had the boat in gear and were travelling parallel to them. As soon as we turned the engines off and went into stealth mode, these whales would dive…so we’d start up again, which would bring them to the surface. It might have been a coincidence…but it sure seemed like they wanted to travel along side a moving boat, and quickly got bored with a quiet one! We ended the evening seeing a couple of breaches a little further away, and some HUGE peduncle throws close by.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend. I’ll send the next report out on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Researchers studying the totally geographically isolated Arabian Sea Humpbacks have recently noted that these Humpbacks sing songs that are a whole level less complex than the songs Humpbacks in every other ocean of the world sing. Arabian Humpback songs are comprised of notes, making phrases, that are repeated in the same order, while other Humpbacks group the phrases into themes and the repeated themes comprise the song.
If I’m interpreting this correctly, the Arabian Humpbacks’ version of say “Old McDonald Had a Farm” would feature only one farm animal, and  they’d be singing about that one animal over and over and over. Humpbacks elsewhere would be able to use the structured verse to sing about lots of different animals on the farm…If there are any music theorists out there please help me out. Here’s a link to a story about the research….http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21592348.

Curious Calves All Weekend Long

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Aloha,
We had nice weekend of whale watching – too many trips to report everything, so I’ll just summarize the highlights, starting with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise where 3 adult humpbacks decided to surround our boat for close to 15 minutes. On Saturday’s 12:30 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we got to watch an interesting interaction between Mom and her baby. The calf breached about 10 times before mom did a big peduncle throw landing her tail just about on top of the calf…was Mom trying to tell her baby “enough! settle down!”?. We also saw some beautiful fluke dives from a different Cow/Calf/Escort pod – Mom’s flukes were all black, and the escort had some very distinct white patches on his flukes. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we saw 5 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods. We had two really, really close encounters when different escorts came right up along side the boat. We also saw some pretty vigorous tail lobbing and peduncle throws from a different pod. On Sunday, guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw lots of breaches in the wind, but were most excited by the Mom and calf who circled our boat for more than 20 minutes. We all got a very good look at these whales (and they got a very good look at us too)!. And a similar thing happened to us on the Sunday Whales and Cocktails Cruise when a Mom and her calf decided to spend a considerable amount of time right next to us. We also saw a series of tail lobs and a peduncle throw from a competitive pod, and lots of breaches but they were in the wind, and we decided it wasn’t worth it to travel out there to see those whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback Whale Calf weighs betweeen 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies average 4%-5% of their Mom’s weight.
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Humpbacks, False Killer Whales, and even a Hammerhead!

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Aloha,
Our weekend whale watching started out with “too many whales to count” on Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We spent about an hour with a pod of 3  – Mom, her calf and an escort. The calf was really active – lobbing his little tail over and over. We also had a couple of very close encounters with whales swimming just 10 feet away from the boat! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 30 whales! We had breaches close to the boat; we saw a spy hop, head lunges, tail lobs, pec slaps and double pec slaps – pretty much every behavior in the book! On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise. the highlight of the trip was either the competitive pod of 6 whales repetitively tail lobbing and peduncle throwing…or the VERY CLOSE BREACH. We couldn’t decide which was more exciting. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we encountered a pod of two whales just outside of the Bay. They stayed with us for awhile, but then we saw a pod of 5, so we headed out to see them. They were really active on the surface, breaching and tail lobbing, and at one point all 5 of them crossed our bow just 20 feet away. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 25 whales, including a fairly active competitive pod of 3. The two males were clearly jockeying for position to get closer to the female…lots of trumpeting and bubble blowing from them. We also saw two breaches on the horizon, tail lobs and peduncle throws. But the highlight of this trip is when our naturalist Jonathan saw something white floating on the water. As we got closer we were able to determine it was a Hammerhead Shark! This shark was probably 8-10 feet long, (which is normal for that species) and it stayed with the boat for almost 20 minutes! On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 7 whales including two pods of Mom/Baby without escorts. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard faint singing. And to top off the day, on our Whales and Cocktails trip, not only did we see a lots of Humpbacks, but we also saw a pod of false killer whales (they look like kind of like  big – really big – dolphins, and though they’re shaped a lot like orcas, they don’t have the white markings). False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) are not really that rare, although we don’t see them often in shallow water. They feed on large fish and squid, and average between 16-20 feet long.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Friday’s pectoral and double pectoral slaps showed our guests the most distinctive physical characteristic of the Humpback Whale…Humpback Whales have the longest Pectoral Fins (arms) of any of the great whales. They’re so distinctive that the Latin Genus name (Megaptera) for the Humpback actually describes those fins…The Genus and Species names are “Megaptera Novaengliae” meaning“Big-Winged New Englander” and pronounced “MAY-ga-terra No-vee-ANG-li-ee.

Competitive Pods and Close Encounters

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Aloha,
Our Wednesday Whale Watches started off a with a 8 whale sightings on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We found a competitive pod of 5 sort of lazy whales. They did some half-hearted breaches, and we did hear some trumpeting (they were breathing hard). Of course, we have no idea how long they had been competing amongst each other, so they may not have been lazy – just tired. On our 10:00 am Whale Watch from Kawaihae we started the trip with a pod of two, Mom and her calf, right outside the harbor. After we watched them for awhile, we travelled down south to watch a pretty active competitive pod of 6 whales. We went out again at 12:30 and the highlight of this trip was the close encounter, with whales swimming right under our bow! Guests on board got some great photos!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpback Moms feed their calves milk. But Humpback milk isn’t just any old milk — it’s extremely rich with a fat content of approximately 50%! Human milk is only about 4.5% fat .Supposedly, whale milk tastes like “sweetened cod liver oil” …but I don’t know that from experience!

A New Year and a New Calf

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Aloha,
Our 2013 Whale Watches began with sightings of 5 different Humpbacks on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We also saw a breach off in the distance on this cruise. On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala, we were delighted to see 2 whales…Mom and her baby. Our onboard naturalist Jonathan reports that the calf was very young – perhaps just a few days old, since it was still very grey and still had the natal folds indicative of a newborn (when the baby slides out of its mom’s birth canal, he’s really wrinkled from his time in the womb – it takes several days for the wrinkles to smooth out). This little calf was very active too…performing 3 tail lobs and 2 little pectoral slaps. Since Mom and baby were just over 100 yards from the boat, we also got to see the little guy’s head poke out of the water a few times as he tried to get a better look at us! We finished the day with our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, where everyone enjoyed seeing spouts and flukes from several different whales.
 
Join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Tours. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com for information and reservations.
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is between 10 and 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter.
 
 
 
 

Why Whales Do What They Do (maybe)

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Aloha,
Wednesday’s Whale Watches were sure a lot of fun! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, our onboard naturalist Kealohi was excited to report sighting 2 Humpbacks near the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. One of the whales breached once and did 3 head lunges! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests were treated to sightings of a Bottle-nose Dolphin (which is actually kind of rare for us…we usually see their smaller cousins, the Spinners). We also got the opportunity to watch a smaller Humpback (estimated to be about 25 feet long) just outside of the harbor. This little guy breached 3 times! And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports that guests watched a lone Humpback surfacing and sounding on 19 minutes dives.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Tours. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for information and reservations.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale 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). I’ll discuss other common theories for why the whales act the way they do in future emails.

Humpback Whale Season Begins December 1st, but don’t tell those early-to-get-here whales!

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As our Dolphin Watch season comes to a close, it’s time for us to welcome the Spinner’s bigger cousins…the HUMPBACK WHALES! Our first sighting this season happened on October 20th, off of the Mauna Lani Resort area. Our captain and crew were moving Alala down to Anaeho’omalu Bay for a charter, and the guests weren’t aboard yet, when Meggan spotted a spout. Of course, the other crew aboard didn’t believe her (no one ever believes a sighting till they see it with their own eyes), but when the whale breached – more than once- it was confirmed!

Since October, our guests have spotted whales 7 more times (some of these whales appeared to be pretty small – probably yearlings), and our logistics team, and our team at the Hilton Waikoloa Village have spotted Humpbacks from the shore 6 times!

This is certainly the greatest number of early season sightings we’ve had during the 31 years we’ve been in business!

Keep checking the blog for updates. During the Whale Season (12/1-April15), I’ll be listing our observations on the weekdays (with a weekend recap on Monday) – and just like last year, I’ll even include a Humpback Fact of the Day!

Feel free to add your comments and questions – I promise to respond to all of them (except for spam of course).

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Mugged by Whales

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Aloha,
All I can say about Thursday is “WOW”!  Our Thursday began with a triple boat Whale Watch Charter out of Kawaihae, so guests aboard Alala, Manu Iwa and Seasmoke saw practically the same activities. All three boats spent more than 70 minutes literally being mugged by whales! We all spotted competitive pods about a mile out of the harbor and began heading South to see them. The whales must have been looking forward to our arrival because when we all turned off our engines the whales took turns swimming RIGHT UNDERNEATH EACH BOAT! Seasmoke and Alala were watching a competitive pod of 4 adults, and the female kept rolling over onto her back (an evasive maneuver) just under the surface of the water. We actually got to look into a whale’s eye as he was looking at us while swimming under our stern. At one point, all of the guests on Seasmoke were so enthralled by the whales swimming right below our stern that all but two of us missed seeing a different whale breach 50 feet from our Port side. Guests on Manu Iwa saw a whale calf breach 3 times in a row close by, and all of us got to see a different pod of Cow/Calf and two escorts. When we deployed our hydrophones on the boats, the songs were so loud that we had to keep turning down the volume on the speakers! On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we saw 12 whales — lots of tail lobs and peduncle throws, and again, we heard some loud singing when we deployed the hydrophone.
Join Ocean Sports for a whale watch you’ll never forget! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I promised to explain how 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.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend — I’ll send the next report out on Monday,
Captain Claire