Tag Archives: close encounters

Chicken Skin

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Aloha,

Tuesday started off very nicely for us and our guests. We saw 6 different humpbacks during our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise. 4 of them were hanging out together. We didn’t see any wild surface activity from any of these whales, so maybe they were enjoying the calm winds and sea conditions as much as we were. On our 10:00 Whale Watch out of Kawaihae, we got to see 5 different pods of two whales. We paralleled one pod for awhile keeping a respectable 200 yards away for most of the cruise, and then the pod decided to swim over to check us out. There’s something so incredible about getting to hear a whale spout — still gives us chicken skin! Finally, on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw 8 different whales, all in pods of two. One pod found us interesting enough to swing by for a closer look. We also saw a few tail lobs from some other Humpbacks, and when we lowered the hydrophone we got to hear some clear, but not real loud, singing.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1966, the International Whaling Commission placed humpbacks under protection in the North Pacific. In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service enforces regulations designed to protect humpbacks as designated by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Basically, vessels, swimmers and divers cannot approach a humpback within 100 yards, herd or drive them from any distance, separate a cow from her calf, or “substantially disrupt the normal activities of a humpback”. Aircraft must stay more than 1000 feet above the whales.

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?!).

Close Encounter Already

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Aloha,
We’re all very excited that Whale Watch Season has begun!
On our Wednesday 10:00 Whale Watch, guests aboard Alala were fortunate enough to spend 30 minutes with a juvenile Humpback who was cruising along side the boat as we headed up the Kohala Coast. Humpbacks are a protected species in the United States, so we can’t approach them in any way closer than 100 yards or do anything to alter their behavior… but the conditions yesterday were perfect for Captain Will to stop the boat and turn off the engines after the whale did a dive. Now we can’t say for sure that this whale was curious about us,  but we can say that the whale wasn’t afraid  –  since he surprised us all by surfacing RIGHT NEXT TO US,  giving us our first close encounter of the season.
We not only got to see several spouts from this whale, but we got to hear them as well! And if you’ve ever heard that WHOOOOOSH from a Humpback exhalation, you’ll know why we were so thrilled!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales received protected status from the International Whaling Commission in 1966, banning most nations from hunting them. In the U.S., the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 provide additional protection to the whales. In fact, unless operating under a federal research permit, approaching humpback whales within 100 yards (300 feet) or within 1,000 feet from aircraft is prohibited by federal regulations

Baleen…what it really is…and lots of Close Encounters

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Aloha,
Our weekend of whale watching was wonderful (sorry for the alliteration). Highlights included Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, where we saw 7 whales and one breach in the distance. We also found a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins travelling south towards Keawaiki. That evening, guests aboard our Champagne Sunset Sail were delighted to see two Humpbacks just as the sun was setting…and they even breached for us. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 4 whales…two of them appeared to be juveniles (based on their sizes), and like kids of every species, they were pretty curious about their surroundings. Luckily for us, they approached us twice! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae we saw 5 Humpbacks and lots of Spinner Dolphins. On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, Ryan, our on board naturalist reports 2 whales just south of Anaeho’omalu, chasing each other around. At one point they swam right under the boat and then stayed near us for about 15 minutes. They swam away…but turned back and gave us another close encounter. Guests had a similar experience on our 10:00 Whale Watch when 3 whales swam right under our boat. They were close enough to the surface that we could see their outlines perfectly. We ended the weekend with 4 whales on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise. These 4 did swim by closely enough that we could see the barnacles on their flukes!
 
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises. Call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com to reserve your adventure today.
 
Aloha,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t have teeth —they 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.

Humpbacks show Interest

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Please disregard the previous email — I’m having a problem with my internet connection. Here’s the complete report!
Aloha,

It sure was a windy day on Tuesday — so windy in fact that the only cruise we were able to run was our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales. Guests who woke up early enough to join us were well rewarded though, since the Humpback sightings began as soon as we exited the Bay! We began our cruise watching 2 big adults who decided they wanted to watch us too, and swam pretty close to our boat. After seeing them, we encountered a Cow/Calf pod, who also seemed pretty interested in us. Throughout the cruise we saw 7 breaches within about 400 yards, and all told we saw 15 different Humpbacks.

 

Even if you can’t wake up early enough to join us on the Breakfast with the Whales, we run Whale Watches at 10:00 and 3:00 — call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com for details and reservations.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I mentioned that researchers taking DNA samples from the whales take dime-size plugs of skin. Researcher Chris Gabriele was quick to point out that the skin and blubber plug is actually the size of a pencil eraser and is obtained by using a dart tip on the end of an arrow propelled by an air-rifle or crossbow. Tissue samples are used to ascertain a wide variety of information including sex, age, hormone levels, dietary composition, stress levels, contaminant levels, and the presence of viral or bacterial diseases among other things. Mahalo for the information Chris! We rely on researchers like her to keep us up-to-date!

Mahalo,
Captain Claire