Tag Archives: hawaii’s dolphins

Spinner Dolphins perform Arcuate Leaps

Posted on by
Aloha,
With all the Black Sand Picnic Snorkel Adventures we’ve been running lately, we’ve only been able to operate two Dolphin Watch Adventures in the past week. They each departed from Anaeho’omalu Bay on Manu Iwa. This past Thursday (6/7) we found a pod of Spinner Dolphins just north of the bay. It was a fairly large pod (we estimate about 80 animals) and they enjoyed having the boat around to play with. In fact, as we ran parallel to the pod, many of them decided to come over to us to play in our bow wake and investigate the boat. We really enjoyed watching them watch us as they swam along side. We saw some cool spins and flips from some of the pod off to our port side, and lots of “arcuate” leaps. On Sunday, 6/10 we didn’t see any dolphins but we did have a great time snorkeling.
Our next Dolphin Watch Adventures are scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday, 6/12) and Thursday, 6/14. Both trips will depart from Anaeho’omalu Bay at 8:00 on Manu Iwa.
Dolphin Fact of the Week:  The arc-shaped leaps dolphins make through the air while swim quickly are called “arcuate leaps”. Researchers suggest the dolphins choose to leap through the air as a way to increase efficiency and speed. When leaping, the dolphin is able to beat her tail once or twice in the water while the front part of her body is in the less dense air, allowing her to take advantage of the reduced drag on the parts of her body not in the water. When a dolphin wants to move quickly, it may actually be easier for her to swim through the air than through the water!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Harbingers — the final report of the season

Posted on by
Aloha,
We ran our final Whale Watch of the 2011/2012 season on Sunday. Guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise were fortunate to see the harbinger for our 20012/2013 Whale Season…a female Humpback with her small calf. According to our onboard naturalist Angelica, Captain Scotty had to cruise all the way up to Kawaihae to find the whales (the trip departed from Anaeho’omalu) but seeing that little calf travelling quietly with Mom was a sweet experience for all aboard the trip.
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 approximately18,000 – 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.
We feel really lucky that we’ve been able to get a glimpse of the lives of these Humpbacks this winter, and we appreciate everything you’ve done to help Big Island visitors and residents experience these special moments too.
We want to send a Mahalo out to each of you who have made this season possible, a Mahalo to those of you who sent emails with questions and words of encouragement about these reports, and a special Mahalo to researcher Chris Gabriele who read each of my Humpback Whale Facts of the Day, and shared her knowledge of updated research results and techniques.
As we left our Humpback pod this morning, we were escorted by a big pod of Spinner Dolphins…another harbinger. But this time, it was a harbinger of our Summer Season Dolphin Watch Adventures (beginning this Tuesday).
Once again, Mahalo!
Captain Claire

Lots of Spinners

Posted on by
Aloha,
We only ran one Whale Watch on Tuesday — the 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala out of Kawaihae harbor. We didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see whales….we found a HUGE pod of Spinner Dolphins. According to our onboard naturalist, Jonathan, this pod probably numbered more than 200 animals. Spinner Dolphins are Odontocetes (toothed whales)…they feed out in the open ocean at night on “the deep scattering layer” — which is a vertical migration of squid and weird-looking fish like lantern fish. The Spinners spend most of their daylight hours in shallower waters, resting and playing. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, since we guarantee that you’ll see Humpbacks on our Whale Watches; not just “whales”, the guests who joined us this morning are invited to ride again with us for FREE.
There’s only a few days left for our 2011/2012 Humpback Whale Season. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your guaranteed Whale Watch today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Though the Humpbacks we see average between 40 and perhaps 50 feet long, there is anecdotal evidence that the largest Humpback killed by whalers was 88 feet long. This Humpback was taken in the Caribbean.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpbacks, Melon Heads, Spinners and Sharks!

Posted on by

Aloha,

Our weekend of Whale Watching was a lot of fun. On Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw a pod of 3 whales. Two of them definitely were Mom and Baby, and the third was maybe an escort, but we couldn’t be sure. At one point each of the whales breached, so we saw 3 breaches in total. When we deployed our hydrophone, we were able to pick up one very faint song. We also saw a HUGE pod of spinner dolphins — maybe 200 or 300 of them (it’s hard to count when the pod is so big). On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Saturday we headed North until we encountered a pod of 4 Humpbacks, surrounded by a pod of Melon Head Whales. They, in turn, were accompanied by 3 Pelagic White Tip Sharks. The Humpbacks, Melon Heads and Sharks all hung around us for almost 30 minutes — just about 15 feet away. It was really fun (especially since those deep water sharks didn’t need to be near the surface to breathe…we hardly ever get to see them). And to top it off, we were escorted back to the harbor by a pod of Spinner Dolphins. On our Sunday 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we did find a Humpback, but all we saw was a spout and a quick dive, so we called it a “fluke” and invited our guests to come back with us another trip for free. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see that huge pod of Spinner Dolphins again. They put on quite the show for us, leaping, spinning, and bow riding, but since we were out looking for Humpbacks, we called that trip a fluke too, and offered our guests another chance to see the Humpbacks for free.

 

Don’t miss out on the last week of Whale Watching during our 2011/2012 season. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today!

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: In August 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed the status of the Humpback Whale from “Vulnerable” to “Least Concern” reflecting the general upward trend of population levels. According to IUCN standards, animal populations in the “Least Concern” category are at a low risk for extinction. The IUCN classifies the status of Humans in the same category.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Humpbacks, Spinners, and Melon Heads!

Posted on by
Aloha,
It was yet another windy weekend here in Waikoloa, but we did manage to have some good times on our whale watches. On Friday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip saw 5 Humpbacks. We saw 3 breaches in the distance, but watched 2 whales lob their tails about 50 or 60 times (there was way more action than we could keep track of)! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we braved the gusty conditions and headed out to sea where we saw 4 whales, 2 breaches and 2 head lunges. But our favorite part of the trip was watching a Mom and her Baby accompanied by a pod of Melon Head Whales (these are smaller, toothed whales identified by, you guessed it — their melon-shaped foreheads). On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise, we saw just one whale, but s/he spent considerable time with us. The whale was on a 5 minute dive pattern, so we saw lots of surfacing, spouting and flukes, and lots of beautiful footprints. According to our onboard naturalist Angelica, this was a big Humpback with flukes measuring a good 15 feet across. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see a super-pod of more than 200 Spinner Dolphins North of the Harbor. The dolphins stayed with us for about 15 minutes as we headed North, and then as we headed back to the harbor, we got to see them again! And on our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we found 4 whales, including an unescorted Mom and Baby. They spent some time near our boat, giving us 3 close encounters.
Join Ocean Sports on a whale watch before the season ends! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Those lines we see under the Humpback’s mouth are actually pleats that allow for the expansion of her mouth when she feeds. This expansion, combined with her ability to flex her jaws, allows her to hold up to 15,000 gallons of sea water in her mouth at one time — that’s the equivalent of 160,000 cans of Diet Pepsi (or Budweiser) in every gulp — of course, she doesn’t swallow the water she gulps…just the unlucky fish that had been swimming in it.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire
P.S. Keep those Humpback questions coming…there’s only two weeks left of the season!

Windy Weather doesn’t stop the Sightings

Posted on by
Aloha,
We sure had some wild winds this past weekend…which means we didn’t run all our Whale Watch cruises. But when we were running, we saw some great activity. On Friday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 11 Humpbacks. We  watched a very energetic calf breach 10 times. We also saw 8 tail lobs, 4 body lunges, 2 head lunges, 3 pec slaps and heard some great vocalizations when we deployed our hydrophone. Oh, and we did see a pod of Spinner Dolphins when we first left the harbor. On Saturday, the winds starting coming up early, but guests aboard our 8:00 Whale Watch saw 6 Humpbacks pretty far from the coastline. We did see splashes (but we weren’t close enough to determine how the whales were making them). On our Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 Humpbacks, and had 3 close encounters. We all got very excited when a whale decided to breach 105 yards from our boat. We also saw a couple of pec slaps and some tail raises. And we ran a special trip on Saturday afternoon for the Rotary Club out of Kawaihae. The Rotarians saw 3 whales — a Mom and her calf, and later a lone whale. But when we deployed the hydrophone, we heard quite a bit of vocalization…which means the whales are still close by. And on Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise battled the windy conditions but saw 4 Humpbacks and  2 full breaches about 100 yards from the boat. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw 8 Humpbacks and 7 peduncle throws.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watching Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers note that female Humpbacks in the North Pacific population are seen with their first calf when they’re between 8 and 16 years old (the mean age is 11.8). In the North Atlantic, female Humpbacks give birth for the first time when they’re between 5 and 7 years old.

Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Triple Breach and Spinner Dolphins

Posted on by
Aloha,
Our crazy weather on Thursday meant we only got to run one Whale Watch. But what a Whale Watch it was! Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae Harbor saw 10 Humpbacks, and an astonishing 9 breaches. What’s even more astonishing was that 2 of those breaches were double breaches and one was a triple breach — Mom, her baby, and the escort breached all at the same time. It took a long time for our blood pressure to return to normal after that one. We also saw 2 spy hops, 10 tail lobs (from the calf) and some pec slapping. And when we deployed the hydrophone we could hear some very loud singing happening close by. And even though we weren’t on an official Whale Watch, we did run a Private Snorkel Sail from Anaeho’omalu where we saw 6 Humpbacks and a pod of about 100 Spinner Dolphins. We saw the dolphins at the beginning of our trip, and as soon as they heard us, they made a b-line for the boat. Guests loved watching the dolphins bow surf, and we got to see some great end-over-end spins.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks don’t associate with each other at all while they’re in Hawaii. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that the females do associate with each other in Alaska — they’ll even feed cooperatively there. Since the females come here just to mate (and calve), we can postulate that female-female interaction must somehow get in the way of successful mating. Maybe groups of females would attract too many competitive males for safe mating to occur….what do you think?
Have a wonder weekend. I’ll send out the next report on Monday.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpbacks watch us, Spinner Dolphins and lots of breaching!

Posted on by
Aloha,
I hope you had as good a weekend as we did with our Humpback friends! Beginning with Friday, our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise reports seeing 20 different whales, but our naturalist Adam had to tell me how amazed everyone was with the mugging they experienced! When ever a whale chooses to swim under one of our boats and watch us, none of us can believe our luck — and that’s exactly what happened during this cruise. There were some great photos taken, and some great memories made…guests also got to see a competitive pod and a few breaches. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, despite the somewhat blustery conditions, our naturalist Jonathan reports seeing 15 whales, 3 breaches, a competitive pod of 4 whales, 4 head lunges, 3 full-on body lunges, and, to top it all off…Spinner Dolphins! On Saturday, our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise reports seeing just 5 whales, but they did witness a breach and some beautiful fluke sitings from sounding dives. On Sunday, our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise reports seeing 10 whales, though they spent most of their time watching a Mom and her calf who chose to swim along side the boat for a lot of the cruise. They also saw 4 breaches. And the weekend ended with guests aboard our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise seeing what Captain Baker can only describe as a “great show”! Sometimes there are so many whales around, and they’re displaying so much activity that we just can’t keep count of everything we see.
Join Ocean Sports and make some Whale Watching memories of your own. Call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Do you know the easiest way to distinguish whether that big creature swimming rapidly towards you is a whale or a shark? Watch the way it swims…whales propel themselves through the water by moving their tails up and down vertically. Sharks and other fish move their tails from side to side. Aristotle was the first person to document this difference around 350 B.C. Hopefully you’ll never need to use this information for anything other than winning a trivia contest!
Mahalo and Aloha,
Captain Claire

Lots of Muggings, Dolphins, and Barnacles

Posted on by
Aloha,
There’s a lot to report from our weekend’s worth of whale watching. Beginning with Friday, both our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales and 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruises report seeing 6 whales with a few breaches — we think the whales had moved up towards Kawaihae that day, since our 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 17 whales, 3 breaches, 4 cow/calf pods (1 accompanied by an escort), 3 breaches and a HUGE pod of Spinner Dolphins. Jonathan, our naturalist estimates there were more than 200 animals in that pod. On Saturday, the whales seemed to be moving back down the coastline again. The 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, and the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise both report seeing close to 25 different whales. The highlight of the first trip was watching a very small calf attempting to check out our boat, and the highlight of the last trip of the day was watching a very active competitive pod on the surface right near the boat for more than 30 minutes. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, our naturalist Nick reports that guests saw 20 different whales, mostly in pods of 2’s or 3’s. We also had a close encounter with a very small baby whale…but the most interesting part of the trip had to be when we encountered a pod of about 15 Rough Tooth Dolphins interacting with a couple of adult whales. Nick reports that the whales appeared to be irritated by the dolphins, because it looked like the whales were trying to slap their smaller cousins away! On Sunday, patience paid off for guests on our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, as towards the end of the trip, we encountered a very active pod of two whales who slapped the water with their pectoral fins, made several peduncle throws, and lots of tail lobs all about 100 yards from the boat! And on our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, we saw 18 whales, and were mugged by a curious baby (who was accompanied by his fairly permissive Mom and an escort). We saw breaches (7), peduncle throws (4), pectoral slaps (4), tail lobs (2) and 8 peduncle throws.
Don’t miss out on all the Humpback Action. Call Ocean Sports at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Humpback Whales play host to all kinds of other animals. Besides the barnacles we often see on the Humpbacks’ flukes and other skin surfaces, the whales can also carry tape worms, lung worms, sinus flukes, and whale lice (which are related to skeleton shrimp) among others. Not all of these parasites actually harm the whale (which means that technically, they can’t really all be considered “parasites”). In fact, the barnacles might actually benefit the male Humpbacks who appear to use the sharp edges of the shells (perhaps inadvertently) as weapons during competitive battles.
Aloha,
Captain Claire