Tag Archives: calf breach

Humpback Changes Her Mind

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Aloha,

We took out two boats for Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruises. On Seasmoke, we got to watch a humpback change her mind about us. In the beginning of the cruise, we saw a couple of spouts and headed out towards a Cow/Calf pod. When we got in the vicinity and stopped the boat, baby came right over to us…followed by Mom. They stayed with us for 20 minutes, mugging us. Mom finally had enough of it, and did a peduncle throw towards the boat, pushing baby away with her head. We stayed in the area, and about 20 minutes later, they both surfaced right next to us (apparently she thought we were ok again) and then swam quietly past. On the way back to the bay we got to see a couple of breaches from other whales. Guests joining us on Manu Iwa got to see spouts from 7 different whales. We spend a good 15 minutes watching a Mom and her calf resting quietly on the surface. We also had a relatively close encounter when a BIG lone whale surfaced about 50 yards off our bow. The ocean was really calm, allowing us to deploy our hydrophone and listen to quite a few singers fairly close by. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae we got to watch a very active calf. This little guy breached so many times right near the boat that we lost count. Mom let him come right over to us (we almost could have touched him he was so close).
Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be sending out the weekend recap on Monday.
Mahalo,
Claire

Hum pback Breach

This image is courtesy of guest Stephanie Collier from her March 29th Whale Watch Cruise with us

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: You probably already know this, but Humpback Whales don’t have teeth – they have baleen. What you might not already know is that Humpbacks have approximately 270 – 400 pairs of baleen plates hanging from the top palate of their mouths ranging in length from a foot to about 3 feet long. Where the baleen is attached to the palate, it feels like a horse’s hoof — but it fringes out to form dense mats allowing the whale to “strain the soup of the ocean” when feeding. Humpback baleen is black.

Watching Baby Learn

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Aloha,

We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods on our Wake up With the Whales Cruises on Monday. Guests on Manu Iwa got to watch baby whale breach repeatedly. Guests on Seasmoke also got to watch an active calf breach a bunch of times. They also saw a couple of Manta Rays at the surface…and watched these rays breach too! When we began our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae, there wasn’t much going on at the surface. We saw some spouts and dorsal fins but not much else, so we decided to put the boat in idle and drop the hydrophone. What a treat! We got to hear some very loud and clear singing. We could tell by the volume that at least one of the singers was within a mile or so from us, and the others were a bit further away.. On the way back to the harbor, we found a cow/calf pod. Baby seemed to be intent on practicing her surface behaviors. We were delighted to see lots of little tail lobs, pirouettes, and a couple of breaches. All of our “oohs” and “ahhs” must have peaked her interest too, as she approached us to take a good look at what was making all that noise!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpbacks can maintain a consistent body temperature even when swimming in cold Alaskan waters. How do they do that? Besides their protective layer of blubber, they actually have something called a “counter current” circulatory system. Some arteries in their flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin are surrounded by veins, allowing some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries to be transferred to the venous blood returning to their hearts, instead of being lost to the environment.

Baby Whale Plays with Mom

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Aloha,

Monday brought us some winter weather — well “winter” for Hawaii that is. We were still able to run our Wake up With the Whales cruise on Seasmoke though, and guests who joined us saw some pretty cute stuff. We found 2 different Mom/Baby pods. The first pod came right up to us to check us out while we enjoyed checking them out. The second pod consisted of an active calf who decided to not only breach right near us, but then to roll over on his back, lay on Mom’s rostrum, and slap his little pec fins on the water. Mom didn’t seem bothered at all by his antics.On the way back to the bay, we found a pod of three adults lazily swimming along the surface together. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also got to watch two different Mom/Baby pods. This time we didn’t see any escorts, but both pods came over to look at us. The second pod surfaced just 10 yards from us!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though no one is really sure how Humpback Whales are able to navigate so accurately through the open ocean to find Hawaii, research conducted on the migratory paths of a few South Atlantic and a few South Pacific Humpbacks between 2003 and 2007 did show that regardless of currents on the surface, storms and obstacles, the humpbacks never deviated more than about 5 degrees from their straight-line migratory paths. Researchers don’t think the whales are relying solely on the earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, since magnetism varies too widely to explain the straight paths the whales swim, and they also don’t think the whales are just using the sun (like many birds do) because the ocean wouldn’t provide an adequate frame of reference. It’s possible the whales rely on both those methods, combined with celestial markers. Or maybe the whales navigate by following the sounds of each other’s voices. Researchers are still working to solve the mystery.

Baby Breaches and Double Breaches

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Aloha,
Our last weekend of the whale watch season started off well. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, our onboard naturalist Mike reports seeing 10 or 12 different Humpbacks throughout the morning. We saw 2 different pods of Mom/Baby, and one of these pods also had an escort with them. It’s possible the other pod did too, but since the escorts don’t surface nearly as often as baby and Mom, we weren’t sure. We also dropped the hydrophone and heard a lot of singing…so there are definitely quite a few whales still around Hawaii. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we spent most of our time watching two very calm whales swimming and spouting. But on the Whales and Cocktails we got to see a little competition. We found a pod of Mom, Baby and two escorts. It was easy to tell the two escorts apart, because when they showed their flukes, one was almost all black, and the other all white. All the chasing around they were doing got the baby excited, and we got to see him breach right next to the boat!  We also saw a double breach from two adults a bit further out. Sunday’s Whale Watches were pretty quiet – but we did see some spouts and a few tails. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, most of the action was pretty far away, so even though a few whales were spotted, Captain Paul decided to invite our guests to come out with us again for our last day of whale watching this season.
Mahalo…and I’ll send out my final whale report for the 2012/2013 season tomorrow!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: New research results released just his year (conducted by Dr. Adam Pack and his associates) documents that the largest female Humpbacks will associate almost exclusively with the largest males.  The largest males however were much less discriminating — they were seen associating with females of all sizes. And the smaller males have been seen only associating with smaller females. who may not have even reached sexual maturity. So yes…. size does matter (at least for the female humpbacks)!

Baby Rides Along

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Aloha,
The whale action is still going strong! On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw more than a dozen whales. We had a few close encounters with different Mom/Calf/Escort pods, and saw some breaches a little ways from the boat. Of course our favorite sight is watching a calf watch us, and we did get to see that during the trip. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw a Mom and her Calf just as we left the bay. Mom was being chased by an escort, and she put her baby out in front (so baby could “ride along” on the pressure wave she created as she swam away from the escort). After that, we found another Mom/Calf pod…and this time, we got to see the baby breach. We also saw a few peduncle throws and some tail lobs from various other adult Humpbacks throughout the trip.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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. 

Little Eddie Steals the Show

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Aloha,
The wind just hasn’t quit in Waikoloa, so we ran our Tuesday trips out of Honokohau Harbor (which is just south of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary waters). On our 10:00 trip we saw two whales, mostly spouting and sounding. But the Whales and Cocktails cruise started with a bang. Just as we left the harbor, we found a very excited calf who must have breached about 30 times (who can keep count when there’s that much to see??!!). We stayed with this little guy (who we named “Eddie”) and his mom (who we named “Cindy Lou”) and their escort for the entire trip — well, actually, they stayed with us. Mom didn’t seem to mind at all that we were there, and in fact, at one point she brought Little Eddie right over to check out the boat. We all couldn’t believe how active this little guy was..After doing multiple somersaults and waving his little pectoral fins in the air, Little Eddie seemed to decide that laying on his side and watching us watch him was an interesting way to spend his Tuesday afternoon.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  All these new calves we’ve seen this season bode well for the future of the Humpback population in the North Pacific. According to research results released in 2008 by SPLASH (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpback Whales in the North Pacific – a research project involving more than 400 researchers in 10 countries) there are approximately 18,000 – 20,000 Humpbacks living in the North Pacific, with the population wintering in Hawaii seeing a 5.5% – 6% annual rate of increase since the early 1990′s.

A Day Full of Breaching

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Aloha
If you read the Whale Report I sent out on Thursday morning, it may have been a little confusing since I somehow got a day ahead of myself, and I was really reporting on Wednesday’s Whale Watches…sorry about that, and here’s the recap for the real Thursday.
Thursday’s Whale Watches started out with pretty much “every activity you could see from Humpbacks” according to our naturalist Mike. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, pec slaps, head lunges and even a few breaches. We also had two close encounters with different pods of Mom/Baby who swam by to check us out. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw over 30 different Humpbacks, but the highlights were definitely the competitive pods we found  – especially the second one. The whale in front of this group (which according to researchers, is almost always the female) did 6 full breaches expressing her excitement (or anxiety, or irritation, or health…not sure which). We also saw multiple peduncle throws, tail lobs and pec slaps from the other whales in this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw lots of breaches and pec slaps in the distance, but towards the end of the cruise we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod with a very active calf. Baby breached repetitively, and the escort performed several peduncle throws right near the boat.
Mahalo, and enjoy your weekend! I really will send out the next report on Monday,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale 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 partners…or 2). Female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.

Competition Intensifies

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Aloha,
The Whale Watching is spectacular right now! Highlights from Monday include sightings of 20 different Humpbacks on our 10:00 Whale Watch, including 3 different Mom/Baby pods. One of these calves was really active, head lunging 4 times and tail lobbing 3 times.But the best part was watching him breach 5 different times. This little guy was really getting good at it – one of the times he actually got a half turn in mid-air! We also saw a competitive pod of 4 whales, and heard some nice clear songs through the hydrophone. The action continued on to the Whales and Cocktails Cruise where we saw 25 different Humpbacks including two competitive pods. The competition was fierce, and we got to witness pretty much every surface display you can see from a Humpback – tail lobs, peduncle throws, pec slaps, breaches, head lunges – you name it and we were there! We also found a Mom with her baby and watched baby breach (very cute when compared with our sightings of the big guys doing it in the throws of competition).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: All mammals have hair. Humpback Whales are mammals… so where is their hair? Humpbacks have rows of bumps on their chins that we call “tubercles”. Out of each one, sticks a hair that’s about 1/2 inch long that we call a “vibrissa”. Because there’s a nerve ending underneath each hair, and blood flow to the nerve, we know the whales use these hairs to sense something…but we’re not sure what they’re sensing. Quite likely, they use their hairs like cats use their whiskers– to feel some sort of proprioception