Tag Archives: whale song

Fussy Baby Humpback

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Aloha,

On Tuesday’s Wake Up With the Whales Cruise, guests saw 8 different humpbacks. We spent most of our time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby was kind of fussy…doing a couple of tail lobs and then rolling on his back and doing a couple of pec slaps every now and then. We saw one breach about 1000 yards from us by a different adult humpback. When we stopped to deploy our hydrophone, not only did we get to listen to some very loud and clear sounds, but while we were sitting there, baby decided to surface – followed by Mom and the escort — and all three of them cruised by us just about 100 feet away. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we also saw about 8 different whales — all adults. We saw one breach about a mile away, a peduncle throw and a single tail lob — all from different whales. We also had a close encounter when two big humpbacks surfaced just 50 feet from us.
Mahalo
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According the website of the International Whaling Commission (the international agency overseeing whaling) the only countries with people allowed to hunt Humpbacks under the Aboriginal Sustenance Hunting program are a tribe in Greenland (who were allowed 9 West Greenland Humpbacks annually for the years 2010-2012, and 10 Humpbacks annually in 2013 and 2014), and the Bequian people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who were allowed a total of 20 Humpbacks between the years 2008 and 2012 and  a total of 24 Humpbacks between the years 2013 and 2018. The IWC specifically bans the killing of calves..

Competition Heats Up

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Aloha,

Saturday’s morning Whale Watches were full of competiton. On our 8:00 Wake up with the Whales  Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay we paralleled a competitive pod of 5 or 6 humpbacks including Mom and her baby for an hour and 20 minutes. We saw them as we left the bay, and were able to stay with them till we got to Puako. These whales were so active we never were really sure exactly how many were in the pod. We saw lots of head lunges, peduncle throws and tail lobs from all the adult whales. Unfortunately, we had to turn back before we could see the resolution of the competition. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we also got to watch a competitive pod including Mom and her baby. In this case, we were able to see the pod dissolve, as one of the males gave up, leaving Mom and baby with just a single escort. Before they broke up, we saw lots of shoving and pushing between the two males, and got to see a some lunging and head lifts too. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had a repeat of the action we saw on Thursday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise…LOTS of breaching from Mom, an Escort and baby. Baby seemed to be reacting to the adults around him, because he didn’t start breaching till after they finished, but once he started, he just didn’t want to stop!
On Sunday, we operated back to back to back cruises on Alala from Kawaihae Harbor. All day long we were seeing competitive pods, and pods of Mom/Baby usually accompanied by multiple escorts, but occasionally accompanied by just one escort. Highlights included head lunges and peduncle throws from competing males, lots of breaching (from the calves too), and both tail lobs and pec slaps. Whenever we dropped our hydrophone, we heard lots of singing over a range of distances (some loud, clear voices, and a lot of faint voices joining the choir too).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Recently, researchers studying singing male Humpbacks were able to determine that immature males do join mature humpbacks in singing. These researchers theorize that every voice is important as a means to attract females to the “arena” where the males have congregated. Since we know that the females don’t respond to an individual male’s song – it’s not like a songbird’s song, designed to attract a female and repel other males – the researchers theorize that the humpbacks’ songs are meant to attract females to the” arena.” And though the immature males don’t get to mate, they may benefit too by indirectly learning the songs and the social rules of mating.

Great Weather to Whale Watch

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Aloha,

We had a lot of fun on our Tuesday Whale Watch Cruises. The weather was great, and we ran too many cruises to tell you what we saw on each…but suffice it to say, there was a lot of action. Pods of Mom and baby seemed to gravitate towards our idling boats all day. We all saw competitive pods charging around on the surface. As usual with a competitive pod, there was lots of head lunging and throat inflation to see, and lots of trumpeting to hear. When we deployed our hydrophone throughout the day, we got to enjoy a veritable symphony of whale songs. Most of the whales we were listening to were not extremely close, but once in awhile we were able to pick out a singer nearby. We did see breaching, tail lobbing, and peduncle throws throughout the day from both adult humpbacks and calves.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers studying the totally geographically isolated Arabian Sea Humpbacks have recently noted that these Humpbacks sing songs that are a whole level less complex than the songs Humpbacks in every other ocean of the world sing. Arabian Humpback songs are comprised of notes, making phrases, which are repeated in the same order, while other Humpbacks group the phrases into themes and the repeated themes comprise the song. If I’m interpreting this correctly, the Arabian Humpbacks’ version of say “Old McDonald Had a Farm” would feature only one farm animal, and they’d be singing about that one animal over and over and over. Humpbacks elsewhere would be able to use the structured verse to sing about lots of different animals on the farm…If there are any music theorists out there please help me out.

Watching Baby Learn

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Aloha,

We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods on our Wake up With the Whales Cruises on Monday. Guests on Manu Iwa got to watch baby whale breach repeatedly. Guests on Seasmoke also got to watch an active calf breach a bunch of times. They also saw a couple of Manta Rays at the surface…and watched these rays breach too! When we began our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae, there wasn’t much going on at the surface. We saw some spouts and dorsal fins but not much else, so we decided to put the boat in idle and drop the hydrophone. What a treat! We got to hear some very loud and clear singing. We could tell by the volume that at least one of the singers was within a mile or so from us, and the others were a bit further away.. On the way back to the harbor, we found a cow/calf pod. Baby seemed to be intent on practicing her surface behaviors. We were delighted to see lots of little tail lobs, pirouettes, and a couple of breaches. All of our “oohs” and “ahhs” must have peaked her interest too, as she approached us to take a good look at what was making all that noise!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpbacks can maintain a consistent 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.

Humpbacks Celebrate All Day

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Aloha,

Tuesday morning brought us some excellent Whale Watching conditions. On the Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Manu Iwa,Captain Will reports seeing 30 to 40 different whales. We couldn’t decide if the highlight of the cruise was being mugged by two adult whales for more than 30 minutes — the water was so clear that everyone could see the whales under the boat even when they were 30 feet deep —  or watching active calves breaching. Guests also saw 12 breaches within about 1/2 mile of the boat, and lots of peduncle throws too. I guess it’s no surprise that guests joining us on Seasmoke departing from the same location at the same time saw just as many whales. We also had a couple of close encounters with Humpbacks coming up to our idling boat to check us out. We saw about 12 different breaches, and 3 mom/baby/escort pods. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some really loud singers so we know there were a lot of submerged humpbacks close by too.
On-board naturalist Brooke reports that the 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae was “fantastic” — with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod staying with the boat for virtually the entire cruise. There was lots of other action going on a bit further away, but when whales are right next to the boat, it’s difficult to concentrate on anything else. And on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we also saw more than 30 different whales. There was a lot of aerial action going on — nothing super close, but we all got to see multiple breaches, tail lobs and peduncle throws, and three different Mom/Baby/Escort pods.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: 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 approximately 18,000 – 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.

Wild Weekend!

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Aloha,

It’s kind of difficult to sum up this past weekend of Whale Watching Cruises. We ran a lot of trips, and we saw a wide variety of behaviors and lots and lots of whales on every cruise. Highlights included seeing 5 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods – including one pod that swam right under us in just 25 feet of water as we were returning to the bay on Friday’s Wake up with the Whales. We also got mugged by a baby, his mom and their escort on the 10:00 Whale Watch. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we got to watch a chase ensue with 5 males and Mom and Baby. We weren’t sure if it was one of the males doing all the peduncle throwing and tail lobbing 100 yards from us, or if it was Mom expressing her displeasure at all the attention.At one point she turned towards the boat and led the whole pod right in front of our bow.
Though we went from two different locations and two different times on Saturday’s morning trips, guests saw very similar activities. Both Seasmoke and Alala were approached by very active calves. Seasmoke’s calf brought Mom and the Escort right over for a close encounter with our idling boat…and Alala’s calf decided multiple breaches were in order. Guests on both boats also saw multiple spouts, tail lobs and peduncle throws a bit further away.
On Sunday’s first Alala Cruise, we were so focused on watching a competitive pod of 5 Humpbacks chase each other around that we barely noticed any other whales (though I’m sure there were a lot in the area). We got to see breaches, head lunges and tail lobs from this group. We also had an extremely close encounter when two of the pod popped up right next to our idling boat, surprising us all. On the way back to the harbor, a very active calf breached and peduncle threw multiple times just about 100 yards from us. Driving away from that action was one of the hardest things we ever have to do…but right after we dropped the folks off from that whale watch, we turned around to take out a bunch of great people who were using the cruise as a fundraiser for the West Hawaii Clinic. We found our active baby again…and this time got to see Mom and an Escort. We also saw lots of other spouts, a couple of pec slaps, and even a few breaches. When we deployed the hydrophone, it sounded as if one whale was singing directly into our microphone.
Hope your weekend was as great as ours!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though we’ve mentioned before that only male Humpback Whales “sing”, all Humpbacks make noises and 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!

Singing and Breaching

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Aloha,

We started out the week with a double boat Wake Up with the Whales. Both Manu Iwa and Seasmoke departed from Anaeho’omalu Bay at around the same time, so you’d think all of us would have had the same experience. But of course, we didn’t…guests aboard both boats saw spouts from more than 2 dozen whales, but Captain Jeff chose to take Seasmoke out to a competitive pod about a mile outside of the Hilton. We got to see some great peduncle throws and a couple of pec slaps and tail lobs from this pod of 3. We then found two different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Captain Will took Manu Iwa to the south, and guests also got to spend some quality time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Lots of whales around the boat were breaching — they weren’t super close, but we definitely got to see more than just the splash. And when each boat deployed our hydrophone, we got to hear some very clear and loud singing.
By the time we departed for the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, the wind had come up. We only were able to stay out for an hour, but we got to see 13 different whales (or splashes from the whales). As is usual on a very windy ocean there was lots of breaching, peduncle throwing and tail lobbing going on. Even though we saw a lot and it was really pretty exciting, since we did have to come in early we invited our guests to come back again for no charge.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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.

 

Spy Hops!

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whalewatchoceansports1-1-14 - Diane Zander

Aloha,
We had a great day on the water on Thursday. With five different cruises just for Whale Watching, plus a couple of Snorkel Cruises thrown in, there’s way too much to report for one email, so I’ll just give you a few highlights. Though the surf was up today, the wind was very, very calm, allowing us to see for miles. There were lots of Humpbacks visible all day long — on our Wake up With the Whales Cruises (we took both Seasmoke and Manu Iwa out), we all saw a few breaches and lots of great fluke dives. On our Kid’s Educational Whale Watch Cruise, the kids (and parents and teachers from Wai’aha International Family School) got to see 3 spy hops about 100 yards from the boat. We also saw a pretty big peduncle throw. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise we had several close encounters with adult Humpbacks, and when we stopped the boat we could actually hear the whales singing through the hulls. After we were serenaded for several minutes, we decided to deploy the hydrophone and our close-by singer was certainly the star of the show. He was making some groaning, clicking, and squealing sounds that were new to us (along with the “whooop, whoop, whoooooop” sounds we were familiar with from last year. The best part was when the singing stopped briefly. We knew he was on the way up, and he surfaced just 50 yards from us!
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send out a recap on Monday.
Claire
 

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I mentioned that researchers estimated a Humpback’s daily fish consumption during the summer season to be on the order of 2000 pounds per day. And if you do a quick Google search you’ll find that “fact” cited all over the place. Turns out that this may be just another example of how inaccurate information gets spread. Once a “fact” is listed in a book, it’s picked up on the internet and its spread can be exponential.

According to researcher Briana H. Witteveen and her colleagues who conducted a study to determine the effect of Humpback predation on fish abundance near Kodiak Alaska, based on the documented stomach contents of Humpbacks “processed” through whaling stations back in 1937, combined with estimates of actual suitable prey availability, an average size Humpback whale is eating more on the order of 800 pounds (or about 576,000 calories) of food each day.Does that seem like a lot of food to you?

 

Baby Breaches Too

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Aloha,

On Wednesday’s Wake up With the Whales, we got to see a competitive pod of 5 whales charging around on the surface. We saw a few head lunges from this pod and heard lots of heavy breathing. We also saw some breaches from different Humpbacks a bit further out. On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae we got to see two different cow/calf pods. We haven’t seen very many calves yet this year, so these whales were a welcome site. And what was even more welcome was when baby did a full breach right next to our idling boat…followed by a full breach from Mom! You should have heard the yells of excitement coming from the boat…incredible. We also got a chance to deploy the hyrdophone and were able to hear lots of singing, but one whale’s voice really stood out – this guy must have been really close by. And finally, on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had to have seen more than 20 different whales, and boy were they active. We watched whales breaching in all directions, and some of them were just 200 yards from the boat. We also saw some pec slapping…but it was the breaches that had us yelling for more! A lot of these whales were really big adults, but we did see a Mom/Baby pod, and even baby got in on all the excitement doing a breach of his own.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is about 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter. We can only estimate the gestation period because oddly, researchers have never observed the same female mating and then giving birth (in fact, there has never been documented observation of any humpback copulation or calving at all)!