Tag Archives: whale breach

A “People Watch” for the Humpbacks

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Aloha,
It was another very windy day out on the ocean yesterday, so I only have information to report from one whale watch…but it was quite the trip! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests enjoyed the gusty conditions seeing 11 Humpbacks. We saw 3 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods, and one Cow/Calf pod who decided it might be fun to take a look at us too. Mom allowed her baby to swim right underneath our stern (which is pretty unusual…most times she’ll put herself between her baby and anything bigger). The water was so clear, and they were so close to the surface that we actually got a great look at baby’s tubercles (the sensory nodules on his head). While this was going on, the sounds of  cameras taking sequential photos almost blotted out the sounds of all of us on board oohing and aahing! We also saw 3 body lunges, 4 head lunges, 2 tail lobs, and off on the horizon, 3 breaches. We did attempt to deploy the hydrophone, but in those windy conditions, all we could pick up was faint singing.
Experience the Humpback Excitement for yourself — join Ocean Sports for a whale watch. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  The intestines of a fully grown Humpback whale are about 200 feet long (approximately 5 times the length of her body).
Have a great weekend — I’ll send the next report out on Monday.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Lots of Cow/Calf/Escort pods for the first day of Spring

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Aloha,
Can you believe it’s Spring already? Our first official day of post-winter whale watching was a good one. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw 8 different Humpbacks including one pod of Cow/Calf/Escort. We saw 7 breaches in the distance, but got to see one close-up too. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 16 different Humpbacks including 4 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods. We had 2 close-by breaches, 2 head lunges, 3 tail lobs, 1 pectoral slap, and 4 peduncle throws. It was too windy for us to deploy the hydrophone on that trip, so we can’t report on underwater singing action. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip, we were able to deploy the hydrophone and we did hear lots of singing from lots of different whales. We saw 7 whales on that trip and one breach fairly close up. All-in-all, a great start to Spring in Hawaii!
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 spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to research conducted in Japan, the peak estrus period for Humpbacks (i.e. when females are in heat) overall,  is between the end of January and the end of February, but the peak estrus period for females with a calf appears to be several weeks later. Our frequent observations of pods of Mom and Baby who are accompanied by an escort this time of year seem to support the validity of these findings.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Very, very loud singing and some competition

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Aloha,
We had an incredible Whale Watch at 10:00 on Tuesday. We saw 14 different Humpbacks, but spent considerable time watching a Mom, her baby and an escort trying to keep another huge male at bay. We saw 3 body lunges from this group, and 5 head lunges, plus 2 pectoral slaps and 4 peduncle throws. We also got to see Mom and baby up close as they swam right under us about 30 feet deep. We got to see right up their blow holes! When we deployed the hydrophone later in the trip, the songs were incredibly loud. The bass notes literally shook the boat…we could actually feel (and see) the windows vibrating. Oh — and we also saw a couple of breaches during the trip. It was a great couple of hours! On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, guests saw a total of 6 whales. According to our naturalist Angelica, the first whales spotted were way South of the Bay, and a good ways out to sea. We did find a pod of two whales much closer though, and spent considerable time watching them travel along the coast. They were in a 3-4 minute dive pattern, surfacing, spouting a couple of times and then sounding for those shorter dives. We got to see lots of flukes from this pair.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch and see the action for yourself. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either 1). Female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partners…or 2). Female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Triple Breach among “Right Handed” Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Our Whale Watching Week began with an interesting 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise. We saw 3 Humpbacks and 2 breaches, but we actually got to hear the a Humpback song reverberating through the hulls of the boat! We never saw the singer, but he must have been within just a couple hundred yards of us for the song to be heard without our hydrophone. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 whales, but we got to see 2 triple breaches from a Cow/Calf/Escort pod about 200 yards away from us, preceded by a couple of breaches from just the calf. We also saw 15 tail lobs (10 from the baby) 4 pectoral slaps and 3 peduncle throws. But we can’t emphasize enough how cool those 2 triple breaches were, and how lucky we were to see them! When we deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were pretty faint. Since our 10:00 Whale Watch departs from Kawaihae, and the 8:00 departs from Anaeho’omalu, it’s interesting to note the difference in sound clarity between the two locations.On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 5 whales, but we got involved with a competitive pod of 3 off of Puako. We spotted them from fairly far away, and as we made our way North, they decided to come our way and at one point, one of them surfaced about 50 feet from the boat. We also saw some pec slapping from this group and some good tail shots.
Join Ocean Sports to see and hear the Humpbacks. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Breaches, Double Breaches and Monday Muggings

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Aloha,
We started our Whale Watching week off with a great show on our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise. guests saw 22 whales, including a competitive pod of very active whales throwing their peduncles and slapping their pec fins. The highlight of the trip though, was watching a baby whale breach more than 30 times! on our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 14 whales. We spent considerable time with a pod of 7 whales who kept surfacing all around the boat. According to our naturalist Mike, they didn’t seem to really be behaving aggressively — maybe they were just biding their time looking for a receptive female. And on our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise we saw 10 whales. The trip started off kind of slow, but then we saw a spout near the Hilton Waikoloa Village. When we got about 100 yards away from it, we saw two more spouts…and then one of the whales breached right in front of us, followed by a spectacular synchronized double breach! After we stopped cheering, we saw a tiny spout a little further away, so we drove over to see Mom, baby and their escort. The baby was very curious and spent a lot of time checking us out (Mom allowed it), so we stayed in neutral and enjoyed the mugging.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch you’ll never forget. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The Humpbacks we see off Hawaii’s coastlines travel quite a bit between the islands, but researchers have yet to observe a directional trend. In other words, some whales travel North to South, some South to North, and some travel back and forth…a lot like our human visitors.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Windy Weather doesn’t stop the Sightings

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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

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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

Muggings, Spy hops, Baby Breaches, and Escorts

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Aloha,
All 3 of our Wednesday Whale Watches had very interesting things to report. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we started the trip with a mugging by 3 whales for more than 25 minutes — the female in the pod (we’re guessing based on behavior) kept leading the two males in front of, underneath and behind the boat. We all got great sightings of the three whales as they swam just feet below the surface and then surfaced very close to us! We saw a total of 23 whales on this trip, 3 breaches, 5 pec slaps and 2 peduncle throws. We also heard great sounds when we deployed the hydrophone. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 20 whales, 4 head lunges, 2 pec slaps and three spy hops. Our hydrophone picked up some great sounds on that trip two. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise, we saw 8 whales, including a Cow/Calf. The calf breached 3 times about 100 yards from the boat, and then proceeded to make 4 body lunges before Mom gave one big peduncle throw. We weren’t sure if she was just getting tired of her little guy’s hyperactive activity, or if there was an escort who hadn’t surfaced and she was trying to shoo him away. We also saw 9 breaches in the distance and a lot of other big splashes (we couldn’t tell exactly how the whales were creating them).
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch you’ll never forget. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks with calves are accompanied by a male escort about 83% of the time during the winter season in Hawaii. Since nursing moms rarely get pregnant, we’re not sure why these males are hanging around ..one theory is that the escort is trying to make a good impression on the female so that when she is receptive, she’ll consider the possibility of mating with him. Other researchers theorize that she puts up with the company of one male, hoping that he’ll scare off other amorous suitors (maybe dealing with one male at a time is better than having to deal with 2, 3, 4 or more).
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Singing and Dancing

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Aloha,
We’ve always kind of assumed that Humpbacks don’t mind the rain — after all, they do live in a wet world… and our Tuesday Whale Watches confirmed that. We began the day with a 10:00 Whale Watch from Anaeho’omalu. Guests saw 7 Humpbacks, including 2 pods of Cow/Calf/Escort. One of the escorts breached really close to the boat. We also saw quite a bit of tail lobbing and heard some great singing when we deployed the hydrophone. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, our guests who braved the on-again, off-again drizzly conditions saw 11 different whales. We weren’t sure if the highlight of the trip was watching a whale breach 100 feet from the boat…TWICE, the 25 minutes we were mugged by a sub-adult male, the pectoral slaps we saw, the loud singing we heard from our hydrophone, or the weirdly beautiful vertical twisting diving “dance” our mugging-whale performed three times as he passed by the boat and decided to return to us. If the whales’ interest in our boats today was at all caused by the weather, we say “Bring on the rain”!
Join Ocean Sports for an exciting Whale Watch Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or vist www.hawaiioceansports.com for reservations today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback Whale Calf weighs betweeen 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies average 4%-5% of their Mom’s weight.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Spectacular breaches and Vibrant Songs

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Aloha,

Our Wednesday Whale Watches were Wonderful! We didn’t run our regular schedule, but guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch were treated to sightings of 20 whales, 15 of whom they saw in the first half hour of the charter. They saw 8 “spectacular” breaches about 250 yards from the boat, 2 spy hops, 6 tail lobs, head and body lunges, 4 Cow/Calf/Escort pods, had 5 close encounters, and 3 muggings. When the hydrophone was deployed our naturalist Jonathan reports the singing was loud, clear and vibrant. And on our morning Black Sand Picnic Snorkel Sail, guests report seeing “at least 20 whales” including a couple of calves with their Moms. As one guest put it, “how could there be anything cuter than a baby whale?”. They also saw breaches, lunges and lots of tails and spouting.

Join Ocean Sports for a whale watch you’ll never forget! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpbacks can maintain a consistant body temperature even when swimming in cold Alaskan waters. How do they do that? Besides their protective layer of blubber, they actually have something called a “counter current” circulatory system. Some arteries in their flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin are surrounded by veins, allowing some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries to be transferred to the venous blood returning to their hearts, instead of being lost to the environment. Tomorrow, I’ll explain how Humpbacks keep their cool in Hawaiian waters!

Mahalo,

Captain Claire