Tag Archives: whale breach

Cavorting Calves All Weekend Long

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Aloha,
We saw way too much this past weekend to recap all of it…so here’s a few highlights. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 23 different whales, but really enjoyed watching a pod of 3 who seemed to be rolling around on top of each other. These whales came up vertically out of the water belly-to-belly a couple of times and though we didn’t see their eyes, the posture was very much like a spy hop. They also twisted and turned on the surface, and one of them pec slapped 13 times (we know that because one of our second-grade age guests kept the count for all of us). This whale also did a few complete roll-overs at the surface slapping each of his pec fins as he twisted. On the Alala on Friday, we ran two trips and saw 15 whales the first time, and 20 the second. The highlight of each of those trips was the close encounters with pods of Mom/Baby/Escort who decided to swim under our boat to check us out!
Saturday’s Whale Watches were much the same, with lots of energetic calves playing all around us. One of our favorite moments was watching a calf literally rolling around on top of Mom’s rostrum, slapping his pectoral fins (in delight?). We also loved watching a very young calf (with a completely bent over dorsal fin) attempting a couple of breaches and head lunges. We also had a couple of very close encounters with Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Each time, the baby seemed to lead the way over to us, and each time Mom actually kept herself between the baby and the escort, allowing baby to surface nearer to us. And on the Whales and Cocktails, we saw 25 different whales – no competitive pods, but plenty of Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We saw 20 adult breaches on this trip and 16 calf breaches along with lots of head lunges and tail lobs.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 18 different Humpbacks and had an extremely close encounter with  a curious Humpback who swam around the boat a few times to take a look at us. And we ended the weekend with an adult Humpback breach about 70 yards from the boat. We also got to watch a baby breach over, and over, and over again…and to top it all off…we got mugged by another curious calf and her Mom.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to research reported by the Keiki Kohola project, very young calves (identified by the extent to which their fins are still furled from their time in utero) are much more active than older calves, swimming and twirling and kicking. These researchers theorize that all that exercise leads to the production of a necessary oxygen storing protein called “myoglobin”  in the whales’ muscles. One of the reasons adult humpbacks can hold their breath for 45 minutes is that they can store oxygen in their muscles (not just their lungs), and baby is training to be able to do that too.

Humpback Calves Play in the Sun

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Aloha,
Wednesday brought us a perfect day for sailing and whale watching. The only Whale Watch we ran was our Whales and Cocktails Cruise at 3:00 pm from Anaeho’omalu Bay on Seasmoke. We were treated to a whole bunch of really excited calves. We saw 6 different Mom/Baby pods – all within a mile of the bay. 4 of those pods were accompanied by at least one escort. The calves seemed to be enjoying the weather too as we saw one calf breach 14 times! Another calf breached 5 times, and head lunged twice. We also saw multiple tail lobs and pec slaps from an adult whale, and a couple of breaches and peduncle throws from one of the moms who was accompanied by (or more likely, bothered by) an escort. When we dropped the hydrophone in the water, we heard a whale “symphony”. Lots of whales were singing, though none was really very close to us. If you have access to facebook and want to see some photos from last night’s cruise, visit the Hawaii Ocean Sports fan page (type”Hawaii Ocean Sports” into the search box) – Captain Jeff shared some great shots with us.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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.

Motorboating and Piggy Backing

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Aloha,
Tuesday’s Whale Watches brought us all kinds of activities. On the Breakfast with the Whales, as we left the bay we found a competitive pod of 5 whales. They were really battling it out, with lots of tail lobs, motorboating (this term describes exactly what it sounds like it describes…whales moving through the water with their heads angled up so they look like boats), and even some piggy backing. And right after we saw this pod of 5, another competitive pod of 4 popped up right near us. This pod was clearly out of breath as we heard lots of trumpeting from them. We also ran a special 10:00 Whale Watch for the kids from Laupahoehoe. On this cruise, we saw 16 different whales, but the highlight definitely was watching baby and mom take turns breaching (4 times), head lunging (twice) and pec slapping (3 times).  And on our Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 16 whales. We saw LOTS of pec slapping, 9 peduncle throws (from different whales) and several different competitive pods. The last pod we watched was a a pod of 4, and though we all wished we could see what was going on below the surface, based on what we could see from above, it must have been a big shoving match. From our vantage point we got to see lots of twisting fluke dives, and lots of whales on top of other whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers are not sure how Humpbacks find their way from Alaska to Hawaii each winter…after all, Hawaii is the most isolated land mass in the world. Since small particles of a form of iron called “magnetite” have been found in Humpback’s brains, some researchers theorize that the magnetite acts like a magnet, helping the Humpbacks to feel the magnetic pull of the earth and keeping them on track. Other researchers disagree, claiming that the Humpbacks swim in such straight lines  when they migrate that they must be orienting themselves with a combination of methods, including some celestial markers like the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night.

Slow Motion Breaches

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Aloha,
Monday brought us some really blustery conditions, and it was challenging finding the whales, but when we did…oh boy, was it worth it! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw a total of 15 whales and saw 6 breaches. One of those breaches was only about 25 yards away. When it’s that close, you really get an idea of how big a Humpback actually is, and it looks like slow motion as the whale launches herself completely out of the water.We also saw 4 tail lobs, a peduncle throw and 4 pec slaps. It was too windy for us to deploy our hydrophone, but our onboard naturalist Jonathan played some tapes of the whales, so everyone got to hear the differences between the singing that goes on in Hawaii and the vocalizing in Alaska.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though we’ve mentioned before that only male Humpback Whales “sing”, all Humpbacks make noises and apparently use these sounds to communicate with each other. Researchers have witnessed cooperative feeding behaviors among the Humpbacks apparently“triggered” by sound, and have also witnessed Humpback Cows (moms) apparently ignoring some sounds made by their calves (researchers called these sounds“goo-goo, ga-ga” noises), but responding immediately when the calves made particular squealing noises. So it appears that Mom recognizes her baby’s voice!

Competition Intensifies

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Aloha,
The Whale Watching is spectacular right now! Highlights from Monday include sightings of 20 different Humpbacks on our 10:00 Whale Watch, including 3 different Mom/Baby pods. One of these calves was really active, head lunging 4 times and tail lobbing 3 times.But the best part was watching him breach 5 different times. This little guy was really getting good at it – one of the times he actually got a half turn in mid-air! We also saw a competitive pod of 4 whales, and heard some nice clear songs through the hydrophone. The action continued on to the Whales and Cocktails Cruise where we saw 25 different Humpbacks including two competitive pods. The competition was fierce, and we got to witness pretty much every surface display you can see from a Humpback – tail lobs, peduncle throws, pec slaps, breaches, head lunges – you name it and we were there! We also found a Mom with her baby and watched baby breach (very cute when compared with our sightings of the big guys doing it in the throws of competition).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: All mammals have hair. Humpback Whales are mammals… so where is their hair? Humpbacks have rows of bumps on their chins that we call “tubercles”. Out of each one, sticks a hair that’s about 1/2 inch long that we call a “vibrissa”. Because there’s a nerve ending underneath each hair, and blood flow to the nerve, we know the whales use these hairs to sense something…but we’re not sure what they’re sensing. Quite likely, they use their hairs like cats use their whiskers– to feel some sort of proprioception

Opportunistic Feeding!

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Aloha
On Thursday’s Breakfast with the Whales, our Captain and Crew reported seeing something very unusual. They said that they were watching 3 whales who were very close to the boat, come to the surface repeatedly with their mouths open. The fish finder on the boat showed that the area was packed with fish…so it’s very possible that guests got to see the whales feeding! This is definitely an unusual behavior for whales in lower latitudes (since generally they fast all winter long here), but it’s not unheard of. Researchers do say that the whales will feed opportunistically wherever they are, but that generally during mating and calving season the opportunity doesn’t come up very often. Besides these close-by whales, we saw lots of other whales spouting, and lots of splashes in the distance. At 10:00, no matter which direction we looked, we saw whales (about 30 over the course of the cruise). We saw pec slaps, head lunges, tail lobs, lots of sounding dives where we could see some great details on their flukes, and had a great close encounter with a whale who decided to swim right under the boat.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send the next report out on Monday!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:   Researchers report that Humpbacks in Alaska can consume a ton of food in a day. Their diet consists mainly of very small fish like herring — based on the calorie count of herring, a Humpback in Alaska is consuming 1,500,000 calories each day!

Spy Hops, Breaches, and Lots of Singing

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Aloha,
Wednesday’s Whale Watches started out with a bang! On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw somewhere around 35 different whales. We saw 20 breaches (mostly out on the horizon – we can’t always see the animal but we can see the SPLASH). We also saw 3 spy hops, and lots of pec slaps and tail lobs. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we counted 20 different Humpbacks. We did see a competitive pod of 4 whales (our on-board naturalist Jonathan thinks they are the same individuals that we’ve been seeing for the last 3 days). We saw 2 breaches way on the horizon and a couple of head lunges closer in. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise on Manu Iwa, we saw about 20 whales, and enjoyed watching a mom with her little calf. The baby was pretty active, tail lobbing right next to Mom. We saw a bunch of breaches in the distance, but we couldn’t believe it when a whale breached 40 yards from the boat.  Seasmoke was also out on a Whales and Cocktails Cruise last night and guests aboard that boat saw about 15 different whales. Everyone was really excited when a mature Humpback surfaced right behind the boat and then swam along side. Guests also saw a lot of breaching about 400 yards away from the boat. When we deployed the hydrophone on this trip, the sounds we heard were loud and clear.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Spy hopping is one of the ways a Humpback can see what’s going on above the surface of the water. Because Humpbacks have really big heads proportionally, their eyes are about a third of the way down their bodies. When the whale spy hops, she rises slowly and vertically from the water, head first. If she’s a fully grown whale, her rostrum may be 15 feet above the surface before her eyes get there!

Humpbacks Swim Circles Around Us

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Aloha,
Aloha, Tuesday brought our whale watchers some great sightings! As we were leaving the harbor at 10:00, a whale surfaced about 20 feet from our bow! This whale spouted once, checked us out, and then went on his or her way. We saw a few breaches in the distance, and all in all, about 20 whales. We deployed the hydrophone on this trip, and just like yesterday, we heard some great singing. Everyone on the boat was pretty happy, and we were heading in when we encountered a pod of 5 whales who decided to swim circles around the boat! Lots of close encounters from these whales…lots of spouting…lots of excitement. It was a great end to a great charter! In the afternoon, we once again encountered whales right out of the harbor, but since we saw breaching a little bit further out, we went out to investigate. Turns out this was a pod of 5 pretty active whales. They stayed with us for about 20 minutes on the surface…and since the water was crystal clear, we could really see some great details. We saw 10 whales on this trip all together.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: When we say we heard LOUD singing yesterday, just how loud do we mean? Well, Humpback Whales have been recorded producing sounds at around 185 decibels. Because the decibel scales use different references for sounds underwater than thru the air, that’s the equivalent of about 123 decibels for us on the surface…which is as loud as the amplified music at a rock concert when you’re standing directly in front of a tower of speakers.

A Beautiful Voice

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Aloha,
It’s definitely winter on the Kohala Coast with gusty winds and swells…but we think the whales are enjoying the conditions because our Whale Watch Cruises have been reporting some great sightings.HIghlights from Monday include the Breakfast with the Whales, during which guests saw lots of whales including two different calves. We also saw 4 breaches, and when we deployed our hydrophone, we heard what our on board naturalist Mike called “the most beautiful voices ever heard on the planet earth” (and Mike is also a very talented musician, so he knows a beautiful voice when he hears it)! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw a total of 20 different whales. We watched a competitive pod of 4 whales for quite a while, and saw 4 head lunges, two pec slaps and a peduncle throw from them. This pod swam directly underneath the boat…first we saw them on the surface at the bow, and then they disappeared briefly, only to surface again at our 7:00 position. We saw two cow/calf pairs without escorts and when we deployed our hydrophone, we heard some great singing on this cruise too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:   All whales, regardless of species, age, or gender make noises. Only Humpback Whales sing an organized song…and only male Humpbacks sing. We used to believe that the males only “sing” when they are in the warmer waters where they mate, though now that we’re listening more closely, we have heard the males singing a bit in their colder feeding waters (mostly at the end of feeding season prior to the beginning of the migration). So, is the male Humpback singing a mating song? Researchers have observed that female whales will not approach a singing male, so if this is a mating song, it seems to be a pretty ineffective one. I’ll share more theories about the purpose of the Humpback Song in future emails.