Spinners Join the Fun

Aloha,

Lots to report from our weekend of whale watching. On Friday’s 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, a very active and aggressive competitive pod spent a lot of time with our boat. Guests got to see a lot of head lunges and shoving. At the at the end of the cruise, the whole pod took a turn towards us, cruising right along side the boat. Saturday, we found ourselves surrounded by Humpbacks all day. We saw lots of competitive pods — lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods — and lots of breaching, pec slapping and tail lobbing.And on our Sunset Cruise, we not only saw all of the above…but a pod of Spinner Dolphins found the boat and put on quite a show. During the late afternoon, the Spinners wake-up from their daytime resting period and begin the procces of getting ready for their cruise out to deeper water to feed on the vertical migration of small squid and weird fish like lantern fish…so getting to see them at this time of day is always a treat. Not only do they love to ride our bow wake, but we get to see lots of end-over-end flips, spins, arcuate leaps, and tail lobs. On Sunday, we operated private cruises all day from Kawaihae Harbor…and though most of them weren’t strictly for Whale Watching, the whales didn’t know that. As is usual for this late in the season, most of what we saw revolved around the female Humpbacks taking care of their calves, and the rest of the Humpbacks creating next year’s calves. We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and lots of competitive pods. It seems like it’s a much rarer occurrence for a Humpback to be alone this time of year than in the beginning of the season.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1918, in effort to stockpile more beef, mutton and pork to send to the American troops fighting the 1st World War, the US government sponsored a luncheon at the American Museum of National History in New York featuring Humpback Whale meat. Several dignitaries were invited (including Admiral Peary) to feast on the menu created by the Head Chef of Delmonico’s, and were quoted saying the meat tasted like pot roast or venison. During the luncheon, the museum’s “reliable sources” reported that if all of the 7 operational whaling stations on the Pacific Coast began processing whale for food (instead of for fertilizer), more than 20 million pounds of whale meat could be distributed to the American public during the summer months alone at a cost of 12.5 cents/pound. The idea never really caught on with the American public though

 

In the Humpback World, Who Chooses Who?

Aloha,

The Humpback calves were up early to greet us on Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales. We saw 4 different Mom/Baby pods, and as is often the case, the calves were curious about the boat. We got a couple of close encounters with different calves approaching our idling boat within about 50 yards. We also watched a very quiet competitive pod. This pod consisted of Mom and her baby and two other adult humpbacks of similar size following them. There wasn’t much of a chase, and we didn’t see any overt aggression between the males, but after watching for about 15 minutes, we saw one of the males swim away. Makes us wonder exactly what was going on…did the female somehow send a message about which male she preferred to accompany her? Was one of the males obviously stronger? Or did the male who left finally get a good look at the female and decide he wasn’t attracted to her after all?
On the 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod just outside the harbor. After watching them for awhile, we moved up the coast and saw another Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby came over to our idling boat, and while we were watching him watch us, another Mom/Baby/Escort pod surfaced on the other side of the boat! And if that weren’t enough…we also got to see a big breach off our bow. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw 5 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We got to see one of the moms breach 4 times, and the babies were just going off like popcorn popping in a pan.
Have a great weekend…I’ll send out a recap of the weekend’s highlights on Monday!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: We don’t always need to deploy our hydrophone to hear the whales singing. When singing whales are very close to the boat, their songs reverberate through the hulls. The uneducated sailors long ago thought that these sounds they were hearing through the holds of the ships were actually sung by sirens (or mermaids).

What do Warthogs have in Common with Humpbacks?

Aloha,
We experienced some pretty breezy conditions on Monday, so we only were able to operate our two morning Whale Watch Cruises. Our naturalists are still reporting lots of spouts, but we’ve been noticing that the migration back to Alaska is in full swing. Generally the whales we see later in the season are pods of Mom/Baby/Escort, and lots of lone whales (who researchers are now identifying as alpha males that are optimizing mating opportunities before migrating north). We’re also seeing lots of competitive pods associating and disassociating as they battle to establish dominance among themselves. When we are able to deploy our hydrophone, we’re hearing a lot of singers too. We’ve always maintained that though it’s sad to say Aloha to our Humpbacks, the last three weeks of every season does bring some exciting surface action. Combine cute curious calves with an uneven ratio of males to females, and add in some desperate-to-mate male Humpbacks, and we get the recipe for incredible whale watches!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Starting out as a way to pass time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid18th century, “scrimshawing” (or the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen) survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs.

Massive Humpback Tongues

Aloha,
There was lots of great activity to see this past weekend. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests were delighted to watch a Mom/Baby pair. Baby was busily breaching repetitively, while Mom stayed just below. We also saw some great tail lobs and pec slaps from a couple of nearby adults. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we got to see a VERY competitive pod chasing across the ocean. We saw lots of chin slaps and quick changes of direction and got quite the surprise when they all surfaced next to us, surrounding us. They spent almost 10 minutes using our boat, and all of us humans got quite the workout trying to follow them as they surfaced on opposite sides of the boat over and over again. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we loved watching a Humpback tail lob 30+ times right in front of the boat. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports watching 2 competitive pods, but the highlight of that cruise was the Mom/Baby/Escort pod that chose to stay with us for 45 minutes. On Sunday’s 10:00 Cruise, two whales spent considerable time right next to our boat. On our 12:30 Cruise we got to watch baby whale breach 36 times (we counted) right in front of the boat. Mom cruised right alongside her calf. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we paralleled a very active competitive pod as they headed south. We saw lots of whale aggression – head lunges, chin slaps, and lots of shoving around.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales have massive tongues. An 80,000 pound Humpback has a two-ton tongue!  Taste buds appear to be atrophied…and they are unable to protrude their tongues from their mouths.

Object of Attention

Aloha,
Our week got off to a great start! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, Captain Paul reports a very active competitive pod. There were 5 whales involved (at least while we were watching) and they were quite energetic. We all got to see countless pec slaps, tail lobs and peduncle throws, and these whales seemed to be most curious about our boat while it was making noise. When we turned the engines off to drift, the whales took the competition away from us, but as soon as we powered up, they turned back towards us. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we found a pod of 7 medium size to really large whales. These whales were really interested in the boat and spent a long time right next to us. We saw several spy hops, lots of pec slaps, and got great views of each of them as they swam underneath the boat from port to starboard and back again. Normally when we see a pod of that many animals, we see lots of competition, and lots of aggression…but this pod just seemed to want to look at our boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the DayStarting out as a way to pass time between whale sightings and hunts on the whaling ships in the mid18th century, “scrimshawing” (or the art of carving intricate designs on to whale teeth, bones and baleen) survived until the ban on commercial whaling went into effect. The etched designs were originally produced by sailors using sailing needles, and were colored with candle soot and tobacco juice to bring the designs into view. Today, hobbyists still create scrimshaw — but they use bones and tusks from non-endangered and non-protected animal species like camels, buffalo and even warthogs

Wild Times on the Water

Aloha,
We had a wild show on Tuesday’s 10:00 Whale Watch. We found a competitive pod of 8 whales right off of Puako. We’re guessing it was composed of one female and 7 males…but we suppose it could have been just 8 competitive males. Regardless, we watched this group for our entire whale watch. We saw lots of trumpeting, lots of whales shoving other whales around, bubble blowing, chin lifts, peduncle throws and well…the ocean was churning from all their surface activity. It’s exhausting just trying to recount this…we can only imagine how exhausted the whales must be feeling! And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, our onboard naturalist Angelica, reports that it was the best trip of her life! Leaving the bay, we saw what we thought was a competitive pod because we could see lots of splashing. As we approached, we realized it was a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. The adults were acting really aggressively towards each other…lots of chasing, lunging, and trumpeting, and it appeared to us that the poor little calf was just trying to stay out of the way. Apparently in the midst of all this chasing around, Mom saw our boat because she turned right towards us, leading the male to us too. All three of them spent the next hour swimming back and forth from side to side and bow to stern under the boat. At one point one of the adults did a tail lob so close to the stern that it splashed all of us! Baby seemed to like looking at the boat (very curious)…and as we watched this incredible show, the whole boat was rocking from the waves these whales were creating. The other interesting thing we noticed was as these whales spent more and more time using our boat for whatever purpose they were using it, they did seem to calm down a bit. We’re not sure if they were getting tired or just found us to be an interesting diversion.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the DayThe maternal instinct of the Humpback is so strong that she’ll even take care of other small animals in danger! In 2009, 2 scientists sailing off the coast of South America watched as a pod of Orcas flipped a Weddell Seal off an ice flow. The seal began swimming towards a nearby Humpback. Just as the seal got close, the whale rolled onto her back, sweeping the 400 pound seal onto her chest. As the Orcas closed in, the Humpback arched her back, which lifted the seal out of the water…unfortunately for the seal, the water rushing off the whale started to wash the seal back into the sea. The scientists were astounded to see the Humpback use her flipper to gently nudge the floundering seal back onto her chest…moments later, the seal slid back into the water and swam to the safety of a nearby ice flow.