Tag Archives: whale breach

Lots of Humpbacks and Lots of Surface Activity

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Aloha,
We all had a lot of fun on Thursday’s Whale Watches. On the 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip on Seasmoke, we saw 35 Humpbacks, 2 competitive pods, 12 breaches from a sub-adult whale, pec slaps, head lunges, tail lobs and peduncle throws. Our hydrophone allowed us to listen in to some very close-by and very loud songs. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 18 whales, 6 breaches, 6 spy hops, 3 body lunges, 4 head lunges and 4 Cow/Calf pairs, one of whom was accompanied by an escort. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise we saw 16 whales, 4 breaches, 7 tail lobs, 2 pec slaps and we also got to hear some really loud songs.
Join the friendly crew of 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: Being mammals, Humpback Moms feed their calves milk. But Humpback milk isn’t just any old milk — it’s extremely rich with a fat content of approximately 50%! Human milk is only about  4.5% fat.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend!
Captain Claire

Laughing Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Wednesday brought us some great whale action. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 15 different whales and got to watch a competitive pod form before our eyes. It began with 2 whales (and we watched as a third joined in). About 10 minutes later, we were MUGGED by a whale who on his way to join our trio, seemed interested enough in us to swim back and forth right under the boat twice giving all of us a great view — if whales could laugh, this whale probably would have been giggling as he watched 49 people run from side to side on the boat to see him). Shortly after that, we had a close encounter with 2 more whales who surfaced about 50 feet from us and joined the rest of the gang. We also got to see 7 breaches, 12 pec slaps, 2 peduncle throws — and when we deployed the hydrophone, the singing was loud! At 10:00, guests on our Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 22 different Humpbacks, 3 breaches, 3 tail slaps and 2 cow/calf pods. They also got to hear a whale symphony — and had one close encounter.
Want to be part of the action? Join Ocean Sports on any of our daily whale watches. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com and reserve a spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is between 10 and 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

The Prints of Whales

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Aloha,
Both of Tuesday’s Whale Watches were really pretty incredible. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 20 different Humpbacks, 5 breaches, 2 tail lobs and 3 pec slaps. But the highlight had to be when we encountered a pod of 7 whales (we’re guessing 6 males and a female) in a competitive pod (a.k.a. “heat run”). These whales showed us 4 complete body lunges and 6 head lunges as they jockied for position amongst each other. At 3:00, our Whales & Cocktails cruise reports 25 different whales — and many of them were in pods of 3. We saw 6 full breaches about 150 yards from the boat! And when our breacher started to tire, he (or she) started head lunging. Meanwhile, another whale close by rolled over on his back and performed 8 double pec slaps and a few more single pec slaps. We also saw 2 Cow/Calf pods — and when the first baby tried to approach the boat, we watched as a HUGE footprint appeared less than 25 feet from the boat. When the whales surfaced again, Mom had taken her baby away from us.
Join Ocean Sports on 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: The smooth round flat spot we see on the water after a whale dives is called the “footprint”. Whalers thought it was caused by oil from the whale’s skin calming the surface of the water, but water samples have proven that theory to be false. When a whale dives (or kicks just below the surface) his flukes break the surface tension of the water and create a vertical wake, forming the footprint.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

More Humpback Babies

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Aloha,
What a fun day we had on the water on Monday! Our 8:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise reports seeing 20 different whales. Guests watched a competitive pod of 6 whales (most probably 5 males and one female) chasing each other down the coast. They saw too many pec slaps, tail lobs and lunges to even count. Angelica, our naturalist aboard that trip also reports a close encounter with two whales who came right up to our boat to check us out! On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, our guests also had a close encounter with 2 whales who swam about 75 yards from the boat. And they got to see a couple of breaches, some tail lobs and some peduncle throws but their favorite sighting was of a Mom and her very, very young baby. Like all baby animals, whale calves are really pretty active and very cute — our baby made a few attempts at breaching,
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure you’ll never forget! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Humpback whales can’t cry — they don’t have tear ducts (they don’t need them — their eyes are always bathed in salt water) but they do have glands on their outer corneas which secrete an oily substance that helps to protect their eyes from debris in the ocean.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Mamas and Babies

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Aloha,
It was another great weekend for whale watching! Beginning with Friday’s trips…our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales reports seeing 13 whales mostly concentrated just offshore of the Hilton Waikoloa Village. Guests saw 9 breaches, 4 head lunges, 3 tail lobs, 4 pectoral slaps and had 2 close encounters with our Humpback friends. At 10:00, guests on our Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 17 different whales, 3 breaches, 4 tail lobs and interestingly, of the 17 sightings, they report 4 different Cow/Calf pods. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, Captain Will reports that the highlight of the trip was when the boat was circled by a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. Guests also saw several breaches just about 400 yards from the boat, and too many tail lobs to count! On Saturday, we saw more action, with the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails trip reporting an astounding 35 different Humpbacks in sight! Besides seeing about 12 breaches in the distance, Angelica, our naturalist aboard that trip, reports a couple of close encounters from two different pods of 3 adult whales, and lots of great fluke I.D.ing opportunities as the whales sounded nearby. On Sunday, we ran a different schedule, so though we don’t have numbers to report, we can say that a LOT of guests saw a LOT of Humpbacks!
Join us on a Whale Watch and see the action for yourself. Ocean Sports offers 3 trips daily just to see 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: A Humpback Whale doesn’t reach sexual maturity till it’s about 35 feet long (age 5 or 6 for females, and a little bit later for males).  Researchers believe that most Humpbacks don’t begin calving successfully till they’re at least 10 years old.
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

Surprised by a Curious Humpback

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Aloha,
All 3 Whale Watch Cruises on Wednesday reported seeing a lot of whales and a lot of surface activity! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, guests saw 14 different whales, but the favorite sighting was of a Mom/Baby who came over to the boat to investigate. The also saw a head lunge and a breach from different whales. Our 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 17 different Humpbacks. The count was confirmed by our Junior Whale Naturalist, Sloan, who helped us keep track of what we were seeing (Mahalo, Sloan — we hope you consider a career in Marine Sciences — we think you’d be very good at it). Guests at 10:00 also report seeing 4 breaches, 3 tail lobs, and 2 peduncle throws. On the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, guests were gazing off to the starboard side of the boat to look for whales when EVERYONE was surprised by a whale who spouted right off the port side. The whale then dove under the boat, hovered there, apparently looking at all of us looking at him (or her) before surfacing right next to us on the starboard side. Another dive, another hover right beneath us, and another surface on the port side seemed to satisfy that whale’s curiosity, because s/he then swam away. Later in the trip, guests had another close encounter with 2 whales who spouted about 100 feet away and then swam right along side the boat! Our naturalist aboard that trip reports a total of 15 whales sighted, 1 head lunge and one breach.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises departing from 2 different locations within the Hawaii Islands National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com and reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback Babies and a whale of a fight!

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Aloha,
Guests aboard both our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala and our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise report seeing a Cow and Calf (which is what we call mother and baby whale, though from now on I’ll stick with the unofficial “mom and baby” labels). At 10:00, our Mom let her baby actually come close by the boat to investigate us! We saw a total of 15 whales on that trip, and had one breach within a couple hundred yards of the boat — and saw 5 other breaches off on the horizon. At 3:00, our Mom and Baby were accompanied by 2 other whales. The closer whale (the primary escort) spent more than 30 minutes fighting with the other whale — at one point we could see them banging into each other and one actually lifting the other (think “WWF Wrestling). Eventually the 4th whale gave up and swam away…we also saw 2 breaches within 300 yards of the boat and a couple of peduncle throws.
See the action for yourself! Ocean Sports operates whale watches daily from 2 different locations within the Hawaii islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to get in on the fun.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We frequently see Mom and Baby whale accompanied by a third whale. We used to think it was a female helping mom take care of her baby, but now that we can identify gender more easily, we know it isn’t. It’s a male — not Dad — but a “wanna-be” Dad. Mom is capable of getting pregnant right after she gives birth (though she usually waits a year between pregnancies).
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Close Encounters, Breaches, and Surface Activity

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Aloha,
Monday’s whale watches can be characterized by one of our favorite behaviors: Close Encounters of the Humpback Kind! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw a variety of behaviors from 7 different whales – 5 tail lobs, 2 body lunges, 2 pec slaps and 2 peduncle throws, but for more than 20 minutes, they got to watch a Humpback apparently enamored with one of our dive-site mooring balls. As the boat hovered nearby, the whale swam around and around that mooring ball! At 3:00, our Whales & Cocktails cruise reports seeing somewhere around 20 different whales (sometimes it’s difficult to count) and a couple of pec slaps, but they had a close enounter with 3 whales. Captain Will said they saw the whales in the beginning of the cruise so he shut down the boat engines when he was about 150 yards from the whales, but the whales disappeared. He decided to go look for other whales. After he left, the guests looking behind the boat saw the whales surface again, so Captain Will turned the boat around and motored to 150 yards of them, but this time he left the engines on (in neutral, so the props weren’t turning). Apparently the whales liked the boat noise because they came over to investigate, giving us another close encounter! Oh — and our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise didn’t have a close encounter, but they did see 13 different whales, with 2 close-by breaches from the same whale! They also saw 3 pec slaps and got in the right place to see some beautiful fluke dives.
Join Ocean Sports and see the Whales. We offer 2 cruises daily just for whale watching, but this time of year, you’ll see whales from our Black Sand Snorkel Sails and our Sunset Sails!  Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We know Humpbacks are big animals, but it’s not until we have a CLOSE ENCOUNTER that we really appreciate how big they are. But Humpbacks are only the 5th largest of the great whales — Blue whales, Finbacks, Grays, and Right Whales (including Bowheads) are all longer (on average)– and if you want to count the toothed whales in the list, Sperm Whales are longer too.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback Breaches, Tail Lobs and Peduncle Throws

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Aloha,
Guests aboard Thursday’s boats report good sightings, but the highlight of the day happened during the 10:00 Whale Watch cruise on Alala out of Kawaihae Harbor. Not only did guests see 7 different Humpbacks multiple times, but our naturalist for that trip, Jonathan, reports seeing 7 breaches, 3 tail lobs, and 2 peduncle throws! For those of you wondering, the difference between a tail lob and a peduncle throw is really one of degree. A “tail lob” describes the behavior of the whale slamming his or her 15 foot wide flukes against the surface of the ocean with a resounding splash. A “peduncle throw” describes the whale throwing the entire back half of his or her body out of the water and landing with an even bigger splash! When Captain Shane deployed the hydrophone on the 10:00 Whale Watch, guests heard singing — they said it wasn’t extremely loud, but it was described as being quite “clear”.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watching Adventure on any of our  daily Whale Watch cruises, Black Sand Snorkel Sails of Sunset Sails. For more information, and to reserve your adventure, call 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Just how difficult is it for a 40 ton, 45 foot long animal to “fly” from the sea in a total breach? Observers have reported seeing Humpbacks breach after only two kick strokes for propulsion. Based on the formula for calculating horsepower, measurements of laminar flow around cetacean skin (how water flows past the skin of the animal), girth and drag in the water, the breaching whale is producing between 1500 and 1700 horsepower in order to “catch air”. We used to think it was closer to 5000 horsepower, but with the aid of a calculator and more accurate measurements, we’ve been able to recalculate more accurately…still, try this yourself next time you’re in the water. We’re betting you won’t get very far!
Mahalo, and have a Great Weekend!
Captain Claire