A Little Song, A Little Dance

Aloha,

The water conditions were “super smooth” for Wednesday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, allowing for some great sightings from Alala. Guests aboard the cruise got to watch 3 different Humpbacks. One of them breached 3 times just about 400 yards from us. We also got some good tail shots, as these whales dove right near us. And when we deployed our hydrophone, the sounds we heard were very clear…leading us to believe that those male Humpbacks have begun to make their arrivals already.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: There are Humpback Whale populations in all the oceans of the world. The whales we see here each winter are part of the North Pacific population. “Our” whales feed in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska during the summer months. They swim the 3000 miles to Hawaii each year to calve in warm waters (and to mate).

A Hui Ho Humpbacks!

Aloha,
On our last day of the 2013/2014 Whale Season, we were delighted to see our favorite pod — Mom and her calf — on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. Despite the wind, these two whales were curious about us and surfaced twice fairly close to us. The first time, they were about 100 yards away, and the second time, about 200 yards away. We got to see baby’s flukes, and Mom’s peduncle as they dived below. We wish them well on their journey back to Alaska and hope to see them again next season. A Hui Ho Humpbacks! It’s been great watching you and having you watch and play with us.
And I’d like to say Mahalo Nui Loa for reading these reports and sharing them with our guests. I appreciated all your comments this season, and look forward to sharing our 2014/2015 Humpback Whale Season with you!
Claire
Captain Claire’s End-of-the-Season Humpback Fact of the Day: Our North Pacific Humpback Whale population seems to be thriving. Before the whaling days in the early 19th century, researchers estimate the Humpback population to have been about 20,000 — they base this estimate on reports from whalers. In 1966, when humans finally stopped killing Humpbacks and began counting them, the population was estimated to be only around 1400. When I began working as a naturalist on whale watch tours a little more than 20 years ago, the population was estimated to be around 5000 (which was great news, because it meant the regulations put in place to protect the Humpbacks seemed to be working — the population had more than tripled). In 2008, when the SPLASH project released their initial population count results, these researchers estimated the North Pacific Humpback population to be around 20,000 — and they observed that the population was increasing by 5.5% to 6% every year!

Windy, but we are Still Seeing Whales

Aloha,
The winds were pretty crazy on Monday, but we did manage to find whales on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. As usual when it’s really windy, it was difficult to get anywhere near the whales, but Captain Will did an exceptional job maneuvering the boat, and onboard naturalists Mike and Logan were able to fill the guests in on all the information we’ve shared with you all season in these reports. Guests saw some spouts (though they dissipated really quickly in the wind) and some dorsal fins and flukes. We just have one more day for our Whale Watch season, so I’ll send my end of the year report to you tomorrow.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Not all whaling activity occurred during the “golden age of whaling” at the beginning of the 19th century. Based on catch records corrected for illegal Soviet whaling, a total of more than 200,000 Humpback Whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1980. Also, Illegal Soviet takes of 25,000 Humpback Whales in two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) precipitated a population crash and the closure of land stations in Australia and New Zealand.

Whale vs. Shark

Aloha,
Wow, was it ever windy in Waikoloa on Thursday, so  windy that we were only able to run our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay. Before the guests arrived, we did see a few splashes a couple miles off shore from the bay so we knew there were some breachers out there. Once we got everyone on board, Captain Shane decided to take the boat north. On the way up the coast, we saw several flukes from whales who had surfaced to breath and then dove down to calm water. We never did get to our breachers — and the spouts from all the diving whales we saw dissipated really quickly in the wind. But we know there are still plenty of whales around the island, and on Friday, we’ll go out looking again.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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

Baleen Revisited

Aloha,
I hope everyone had a good week!
As the winds diminished on Monday, we had some great Whale Watch Cruises. On our Breakfast with the Whales, we saw multiple Mom/Baby/Escort pods – lots of spouting and fluke diving too. On our 10:00 Cruise, we saw more than one competitive pod with the kinds of surface activity you’d expect from male whales in close proximity of each other. We also saw lots of HUGE splashes from surface activity occurring all around us. As more and more Humpbacks leave Hawaii in March, it seems like the whales that are left here are getting more and more desperate to find a mate (or several mates), so the battles between them get more intense. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we enjoyed some time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod, but saw lots of other flukes and spouts too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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. And in case you’re curious, Humpback baleen is black.

Curious Humpbacks and Dolphins

Aloha,
The rain on Tuesday held off just long enough that we could run a Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, and it was a lot of fun. As we headed out of the bay, Captain Baker decided to go with gut instincts and took a turn to the left. It paid off because we found a pair of pretty curious whales who wanted to spend some time with us. We got lots of good views of them (including some wonderful fluke shots when they decided to do a deep dive). Once they were underwater, we decided it might be interesting to drop our hydrophone, so we did. We picked up some great vocalizations – very clear, and very loud (but not loud enough to be from the whales we had just watched dive). Time was running short, so we headed back to the bay, and just before we got there, we ran into the Humpbacks’ smaller Cetacean cousins –  a pod of about 100 Spinner Dolphins.  Some of the dolphins came over to us to ride our bow wake, while others lived up the their common name by jumping and spinning all around us! It was a great finale for a fun Whale Watch.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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.

Whales watching us in the Wind

Aloha,,

Tuesday brought us some more windy conditions, but also some nice whale sightings. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, our naturalist Meagan reports seeing 4 whales, and a couple of peduncle throws. We watched two pretty small whales travelling together for quite awhile on that trip. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we again fought the wind and only saw one whale. Since Ocean Sports guarantees whale watching (not just “spottings”) on our morning whale watches, Captain Shane called the trip “a fluke” and invited everyone aboard to join us again on another whale watch for FREE. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise, we saw 4 different Humpbacks, but we spent an hour and 20 minutes accompanied by a lone whale. The whale was travelling North for the first hour, paralleling our boat until s/he decided to surface,and make a u-turn, swimming directly under us. We all thought that this was the last we’d see of this whale, but s/he decided to do it again, mugging us once more before continuing the journey North.

 

Join Ocean Sports for a Guaranteed Whale Watch. See Humpbacks on our morning Whale Watch Cruises, or you can ride again with us another whale watch for FREE! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  In 1985, a Humpback whale nicknamed “Humphrey” swam into San Francisco Bay and then up the Sacramento River towards Rio Vista, Ca. After a couple of weeks in fresh water, Humphrey started showing signs of physical stress, turning grey and listless. Researchers and scientists were at a loss on how to help him back to the Pacific Ocean, until an acoustician offered the recordings he had made of humpback whales feeding as a way to lure Humphrey down the river to the ocean. It worked — Humphrey followed a ship broadcasting the sounds down the river and as soon as he encountered salt water perked up and began doing longer deeper dives. On November 4th, 1985, at 4:36 pm, he swam past the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south. Humphrey showed up again in 1990…and I’ll tell you how researchers managed to redirect him again tomorrow.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Humpback Spouts and Soundings

Aloha,
Thursday brought us more windy conditions, so though we know the Humpbacks are going about their lives around us here in Hawaii, it was pretty difficult to get to them. Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala did spot and then parallel a whale for more than 40 minutes as he or she travelled along the coast. We saw lots of spouting, and a few sounding dives (that’s what we call it when the whale dives– often showing his or flukes– prior to a longer breath-hold submersion). And our hydrophone was able to pick up some faint singing. Luckily, for all of us whale watchers, the local meteorologists are calling for slowly diminishing trade winds this weekend, so that should provide for some spectacular end-of-the-year whale watching!
Ring out the old year or ring in the New Year with a cruise aboard any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Adventures. We depart from 2 different locations within the Hawaii islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit  www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: A fully grown Humpback Whale can hold his or her breath for around 45 minutes. Usually, that’s not what we observe in Hawaii though. We’re more likely to witness 10-20 minute breath hold dives, and if the whale is really active, s/he surfaces to breathe a lot more frequently!
Enjoy your weekend and Happy New Year!
Captain Claire

Melon Heads, Spinner Dolphins and of course, LOTS of Humpbacks

Aloha,
The past few days have been interesting ones for us on the water. Besides the winds we encountered off and on throughout the weekend, we did encounter lots of whales…and they weren’t all Humpbacks! On Friday, guests aboard Seasmoke were amazed to see a pod of Melon Head Whales. These small toothed whales look a lot like really big dolphins, growing to about 9 feet long and weighing in at around 200 pounds with huge foreheads (thus the name) adorned by a black mask. They travel in pods ranging from about 100 animals to almost 1000, feeding on squid and small fish and though they’re permanent residents around the islands, we hardly ever see them.
Guests on Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise got to see a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins. Known for their aerial behavior, these animals seem to enjoy interacting with our boats…surfing on the pressure waves the boat creates as we drive along the coast….and of course we did see lots of Humpbacks. On that same trip we saw at least 6 different whales, and twice had them approach our boat within about 40 yards (we stay 100 yards away from them, but they can choose to approach us if they want)! On the 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae, we saw 6 whales…and several tail slaps.  Sunday brought more Humpback sightings…lots of spouts and a few sounding dives complete with fluke shots.And on our Christmas Whales & Cocktails trip, we paralleled a competitive pod of 3 whales for most of the trip, even witnessing a couple of head lunges!  When we did get to deploy the hydrophone on Friday and Saturday, we heard faint singing….
Which brings us to our Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: On Friday, I mentioned that we believed Humpbacks didn’t sing their distinctive songs during the times they spend in higher latitudes while feeding.  Researcher Chris Gabriele was quick to send me a link to a paper he co-wrote, documenting the songs sung by a few male whales in Alaska. According to his research, the whales do sing sporadically in late summer and fall, corresponding with the beginning of seasonal hormonal activity in the males prior to their migration. Mahalo Chris, for helping to reveal another clue to explain this complex behavior!
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 Whale Watches departing daily from 2 different locations within the Hawaii Islands National Humpback Marine Sanctuary. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire