Tag Archives: Hawaii Dolphins

Entertained by Hawaii’s Dolphins + Breaches and Babies

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Aloha,
All of our Whale Watches on Thursday had one thing in common — very loud singing! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 8 different whales, 3 Cow/Calf pairs and 4 close encounters. Our naturalist aboard that trip, Jonathan, said that the water was so clear that when the whales swam right by the side of the boat, everyone could make out all the details on the whales’ bodies. And of course, when the hydrophone was deployed, we were amazed by the sounds we were hearing. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, we saw 15 whales and two breaches. Our hydrophone was a hit on that trip too, broadcasting a wide variety of sounds. And though we weren’t on an “official” whale watch from 9:30-12:30, guests aboard Seasmoke saw 12 different whales, 9 breaches, 4 peduncle throws, one very small calf accompanied by his mother and an escort…and a pod of approximately 200 Spinner Dolphins! The dolphins put on quite a show as they cruised north past Anaeho’omalu Bay. We saw lots of end-over-end spins, and lots of vertical spins. The dolphins even came right up to our bow, and rode our bow wake for a few minutes.
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch, a Snorkel Sail or a Sunset Sail. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t sleep as soundly as we do — if they did, researchers believe that they’d drown. Humans breathe in response to carbon dioxide build-up in our blood, but Humpbacks and other marine mammals have to keep part of their brain awake at all times so they remember to breathe. When a Humpback sleeps, he floats just under the surface of the ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. We call this behavior “logging’ as the whale looks a lot like a floating log.
Have a Wonderful Weekend,
Captain Claire

Competitive Pods, and Dolphins

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Aloha,
If you didn’t get the chance to join us on any of our Whale Watch trips on Tuesday, you missed some incredible sightings! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 22 different Humpbacks, including two different Cow/Calf pairs, one accompanied by an escort. We also saw 2 different competitive pods, 5 breaches 3 spy hops, 4 tail lobs, 3 body lunges and 3 head lunges. If that wasn’t enough, we were mugged 3 times and we even saw Spinner Dolphins! When we deployed the hydrophone, the songs were really loud and clear. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also saw 22 Humpbacks. We spent the beginning of the trip watching a Cow/Calf/Escort. Mom kept herself between the baby and the escort (which isn’t that unusual — it’s highly unlikely that he’s the father of the calf). Baby did approach us after breaching a few times, and showing us a couple of baby head lunges. We also watched a competitive pod of 5 whales swim right by us, and saw them breach twice, tail lob 5 times, and peduncle throw a couple more times.  And we heard the whale songs loud and clear when we deployed our hydrophone. As our naturalist Jonathan put it, “It was a GREAT day on the water”!
Share a GREAT day on the water with Ocean Sports. We offer Whale Watches, Snorkel Sails and Sunset Sails every day. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your great adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpback Whales nurse their calves with a very rich milk. Supposedly this milk tastes like sweet cod liver oil (though I haven’t tried it myself)!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Lots of Baby Whales, and lots of Close-by Action

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Aloha,
Thursday was a great day for whale watching. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, guests saw 13 different whales and a lot of the sightings seemed to be concentrated in an area just off the Hilton Waikoloa Village. Our naturalist on the trip, Ryan, reports 9 breaches, 4 head lunges, 3 tail slap and 2 pec slaps. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 17 whales, 3 breaches, and 4 tail lobs. Jonathan, our naturalist aboard that trip said that they saw 4 pods of 2 whales consisting of Mom and her Baby. They also got to see the Humpbacks little cousins; the Spinner Dolphins.On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise, Captain Will reported an interesting phenomenon. He said that throughout the cruise, when ever he’d turn the boat engines off and drift, the whales surfaced very close by. The first time he did that, guests saw a Mom, her baby and an escort surface about 100 feet away. They swam right along the side of the boat towards the stern, and then circled back behind the boat, surfacing again close to the stern… and the same thing happened with another pod of whales later in the trip! Guests at 3:00 also saw two breaches about 400 yards away, and several tail lobs. When the hydrophone was deployed, everyone could hear the whales vocalizing and singing.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch during the height of the Whale Watch Season (which, based on the last few days of observations, has already begun)! Call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Humpback Whales and Spinner Dolphins are actually related — they’re both classified under the scientific order of “Cetacean”. But they’re in different sub-orders. Humpbacks are baleen whales, classified in the sub-order called “Mysticete”. Spinner Dolphins are classified as toothed whales, in the sub-order “Odontocete”.
Mahalo and Have a Great Weekend!
Captain Claire

Humpback Flukes, more dolphins, and muggings!

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Aloha,
According to our naturalist, Nate, “the whales are here in full force!”, and Tuesday’s Whale Watches are proof! Guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise started their morning with plenty of whale sightings — by the end of the trip, they had seen 8 whales multiple times, but spent most of their time watching a pod of 3 whales interacting with each other. The whales performed some tail lobs, and some head lunges, and lots of dives showing their flukes. Ryan, the naturalist aboard that trip said one of the Humpbacks had some very interesting “speckled” markings on the his or her tail. We’ll be looking for that whale again! At 10:00, guests saw 4 different Humpbacks, and a pod of Spinner Dolphins. When the captain deployed the hydrophone during the cruise, the singing was LOUD. And our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails trip began with a full breach about 60 yards from the boat. We were then accompanied for about 25 minutes by a competitive pod, who swam under the boat, “mugging” us several times. Guests saw 16 different whales during that trip and counted one whale performing 11 tail lobs a little ways in the distance.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises and see the action for yourself. Call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com for reservations. And if you want to keep an eye on the sightings trends, visit our Whale Watch Blog at www.bigislandwhalewatch.com.
Humpback Whale 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, 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 population levels.

Travelling Whales and Dolphins

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Aloha,
The ocean conditions on Monday were great for watching whales, and guests aboard all three cruises had lots to report. Our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise aboard Seasmoke reports seeing 12 different whales, 4 breaches and 3 head lunges. Captain Nick, our naturalist aboard that trip noticed that all the whales they saw appeared to be going somewhere, travelling down the coast (But where would they be going? Hawaii is their winter destination after all!!). At 10:00, on Alala departing from Kawaihae, our whale watchers report seeing 3 Humpbacks and a pod of over 200 Nai’a (Spinner Dolphins). But the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails Trip aboard Seasmoke reports seeing the greatest number of whales….13! 6 of those whales were in swimming in a pod, apparently excited (or irritated) about something, because between those 6 whales, they performed 2 breaches, 3 peduncle throws, 2 pectoral slaps and 2 tail lobs!
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch and see the action for yourself! We offer 3 trips daily just to see the whales! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We used to think that the whales that arrived on the coast of the Big Island spent their Hawaii-time here with us. Research and close observation of individuals has proved us wrong. While the Humpbacks seem to prefer to spend most of their time on the lee sides of islands and in water less than 600 feet deep, they will travel between the islands (not in any particular direction that we’re aware of)….females who have calves travel less frequently though.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire