Tag Archives: whale song

Mystery of Meaning of Humpback Song Solved!

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Aloha,
The ocean calmed down for us on Thursday, and we were able to run 5 great Whale Watch Cruises. When there are that many cruises, there are way too many details to list in an email update so here are a few of the highlights.
On Manu Iwa’s 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we had a moment between sightings, so we dropped the hydrophone into the water. The vocalizations we heard were really loud and clear. And we may have had a break-through in animal-human communication when Captain Will put the telephone next to the hydrophone. We use a Google Voice Mail transcription service to log our reports…and when the song the whale was singing got transcribed, here is what Google said we were listening to…
Yeah, hey hello, hello hey hello a hello. Hey, hey. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hmm. Hey, this is why I will report for tonight and January will call our number is. Play message
Apparently the mystery of the whale song has been solved…the whales are just saying  “hello” to each other!
The highlight of our 10:00 Whale Watch on Seasmoke had to have been all the surface activity. Mike reports multiple breaches, tail lobs, pectoral slaps and peduncle throws. There was activity on the surface in every direction! And on our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we encountered a competitive pod that was just breaking up…the two rejected males swam off separately, and the whales we are assuming to be the victorious male and the female swam away together in a different direction. That was fun to watch, but while we were floating motionless, we got a huge surprise when a BIG whale surfaced 30 feet behind our stern! S/he must have thought we were interesting because s/he stayed at the surface looking at us for a long time. Finally, after several spouts s/he arched her back and lifted her flukes to begin a long deep dive. We all got a great look at her tail (which is about 15 feet wide) as she dived.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When we say we heard LOUD singing, 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 through 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.

Who’s Watching Whom?

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Aloha,
The first Whale Watch Cruises of 2014 were really pretty incredible. Guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw more than 20 whales, but we focused our attention on a pod of two sub-adults. At first these two whales were acting kind of aggressively towards each other, blowing bubbles and shoving each other around a bit. When Captain Ryan turned off tour boat’s engines though, the whales seemed to get very curious about us. They spent 45 minutes diving and surfacing right next to the boat. At one point, one of the whales spy-hopped (that’s what we call it when the whale surfaces vertically, holding his head above the water and looking around). The spy-hop was so close to the bow of the boat that we could have reached out and touched him! We could clearly see his eyeball looking at us!  On our 10:00 Whale Watch saw at least a dozen different Humpbacks. We saw the Humpbacks doing lots of fluke dives (that’s the posture the whales use before beginning longer, deeper dives). We also got to see the outlines of a few whales just under the surface of the water..and when we dropped our hydrophone today, we heard a lot of loud, close-by singing and vocalizations.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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!

Baby Breaches and Double Breaches

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Aloha,
Our last weekend of the whale watch season started off well. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, our onboard naturalist Mike reports seeing 10 or 12 different Humpbacks throughout the morning. We saw 2 different pods of Mom/Baby, and one of these pods also had an escort with them. It’s possible the other pod did too, but since the escorts don’t surface nearly as often as baby and Mom, we weren’t sure. We also dropped the hydrophone and heard a lot of singing…so there are definitely quite a few whales still around Hawaii. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we spent most of our time watching two very calm whales swimming and spouting. But on the Whales and Cocktails we got to see a little competition. We found a pod of Mom, Baby and two escorts. It was easy to tell the two escorts apart, because when they showed their flukes, one was almost all black, and the other all white. All the chasing around they were doing got the baby excited, and we got to see him breach right next to the boat!  We also saw a double breach from two adults a bit further out. Sunday’s Whale Watches were pretty quiet – but we did see some spouts and a few tails. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, most of the action was pretty far away, so even though a few whales were spotted, Captain Paul decided to invite our guests to come out with us again for our last day of whale watching this season.
Mahalo…and I’ll send out my final whale report for the 2012/2013 season tomorrow!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: New research results released just his year (conducted by Dr. Adam Pack and his associates) documents that the largest female Humpbacks will associate almost exclusively with the largest males.  The largest males however were much less discriminating — they were seen associating with females of all sizes. And the smaller males have been seen only associating with smaller females. who may not have even reached sexual maturity. So yes…. size does matter (at least for the female humpbacks)!

Calves and their Moms

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Aloha,
We saw lots of whale calves on our Thursday Whale Watches. On the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, guests spotted 15 whales within a 3 mile radius of the boat, but we spent most of our time with a pod of 3 – Mom/Baby/Escort. This pod circled our boat a whole bunch of times, so close that we could see the tubercles on their faces (but not so close that we could see the whiskers on their tubercles)! Baby spy-hopped a few times, clearly looking at us too. We also saw 2 breaches within 50 feet of the boat, and when we dropped the hydrophone we heard some great song snippets. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we had a similar experience and spent most of our time with a different Mom/Baby/Escort pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a pretty calm pod of Mom/Baby/Escort. They were just slowly swimming and spouting, until all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the escort did a full breach about 100 yards from the boat! It was one of those rare times that everyone was looking in that direction, so everyone on board got to see it!
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll send the next report out on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpback Whales nurse their calves with a very rich milk. Supposedly this milk tastes like sweet cod liver oil (though I haven’t tried it myself)!

Mugged Again

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Aloha,
Thursday’s Breakfast with the Whales was a LOT of fun. We’re still seeing lots of blows in all directions, and we’re still seeing lots of calves. On this trip we found 3 different Mom/Calf pods including one pod with a very, very small calf. This pod spent a good 15 minutes right next to our boat. We all got to watch baby rolling around and off of mom’s head (which must be a pretty fun game if you’re a baby whale). We also saw quite a bit of Mom, until she decided to dive under her baby…and then surprise all of us with 2 complete breaches about 15 yards from the boat! When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some very clear and loud singing. We also saw a lot of other breaches somewhat further away from the boat. The rest of the day was equally great, with lots of blows, fluke dives, Mom/Calf/Escort pods and competitive pods. We did see some pec slaps and head lunges from one very active calf, and some breaches from a couple of adults. We also saw peduncle throws and tail lobs from some competitive adults.
Mahalo and have a great weekend! I’ll send out a weekend recap on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpbacks have belly buttons – in case you’re wondering….they’re “innies”.

Right Under Us!

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Aloha,
We started our Wednesday off on a nice, calm ocean, but the whales were anything but calm! On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw 2 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We stayed with each of them for quite awhile…and the calf from the second pod delighted us when she breached 3 times right next to the boat! We also saw pec slaps and tail lobs from different adults, and when we dropped the hydrophone, we heard some very clear songs. For a grand finale on this cruise, another pod of whales swam right under the boat. Captain Scotty turned off the motors, and was able to see the whales on our depth sounder…and to top it off, the whales then decided it would be a good idea to pop up  5 feet from the boat…we couldn’t believe our luck (or their curiosity). As the wind came up through the day, we saw lots more surface activities. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw multiple breaches, pec slaps and tail lobs. We also saw several peduncle throws and some other splashes (not sure which behaviors caused those…but whatever was going on was HUGE).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1919, R.G. Meyers, who was working towards his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, conducted a chemical analysis of Humpback whale blood collected from the thoracic cavity of a whale killed in Monterey Bay. He found that the Humpback’s total cholesterol level was similar to a healthy human’s, but the glucose level was 4 times what’s considered a “healthy” level for a human. Since there’s not a lot of carbohydrates in a Humpback’s diet, he theorized that a Humpback’s liver and pancreas work differently than ours.

Calves Galore

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Aloha,
We saw lots of whales on all three Whale Watch Cruises on Tuesday so instead of giving you a cruise by cruise run down, I’ll just share some of the highlights. Several times throughout the day we were approached by curious whales who spent time cruising under our boats and alongside. We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods (typical for this time of year), and a few competitive pods. No matter which way we looked throughout the day, we saw splashes from breaches, head lunges, and tail lobs. Our favorite encounter all day though was with a very small but very energetic calf. Sometimes it appears to us that a Humpback Calf is just the embodiment of joy! And when we dropped our hydrophone throughout the day, we did pick up some clear and loud singing (which is much more what we expected than the silence we heard on Monday).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though we don’t get to witness it here (at least not very often), Humpbacks have devised a very creative way to feed called “Bubble Net” feeding. A cooperative pod will dive under schools of krill, herring or other small fish. One whale will begin swimming in circles, and blowing bubbles out of his (or her) blowholes. Bubbles, as they rise, expand, which creates a “net” entrapping the prey. Once the prey are balled together inside the circle of bubbles, the whales will take turns lunging through the middle of the circle to gulp their lunch. The whole process is accompanied by lots of vocalizations, culminating in a loud “shriek” right as the bubble net reaches the surface and right before the whales surface…we’re pretty sure the loud noises help to scare the fish upward and further compact the “bait ball”.

What…No Song???

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Aloha,

We had a nice day of Whale Watching on Monday. We ran 3 different cruises but on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had 3 close encounters with curious Humpbacks, and saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods, some breaches and tail lobs fairly close by, and lots of surface activities creating big splashes within a mile or so of us. On this cruise, we deployed the hydrophone and heard something weird…no song! The reason we think this is strange is that generally, this time of year, the male Humpbacks in Hawaii are in a highly competitive state battling for access to the remaining receptive females. Since recent research on the meaning of the song in the Humpback culture seems to support the idea that it singing is a way for the males to sort out social status and relationships, the fact that we didn’t hear it during this crucial part of mating season really is odd. Of course, it could have just been a coincidence that the one time we had the hydrophone in the water, the males in the vicinity were too busy charging around on the surface to sing. We’ll drop the hydrophone again today and see if this was just a fluke!

Mahalo, Claire

Captain Claire’s 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.

Young Calves and Lots of Escorts

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Aloha,

We started our weekend with some strange stormy weather on Friday. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we spent most of our time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby led Mom right up to the boat a few times, and though the baby seemed pretty big and had a fairly straight dorsal fin (indicating he was not a new-born) both Mom and the Escort were fairly small (by Humpback standards), suggesting to us that they were both fairly young. We did see some head lunging about 800 yards from us too. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 15 different Humpbacks, and 4 different Mom/Baby pods.
On Saturday’s Breakfast With the Whales we saw every behavior we could hope for on a whale watch including multiple breaches from a very energetic calf, adult tail lobs and peduncle throws, pec slaps, and even some adult breaches!
And on Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we found 3 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods, including one with a very, very small calf. Each of these pods decided to swing by the boat, so we had some great close encounters. We also saw a double breach from two adult whales (always exciting) and towards the end of the cruise we found a competitive pod who were doing a lot of trumpeting, head lunges and bubble blowing beneath the surface. At one point we were downwind from a spout and it really smelled kind of horrible. We finished the weekend of Whale Watching with a Whales and Cocktail Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay. We got to see several Mom/Calf pods, and they got to see us too (we had lots of close encounters). We also saw a lot of tail lobbing, breaching, and peduncle throws. And when we dropped our hydrophone into the water, we were surprised by the clarity of the songs we heard. Oh…and at the end of the day, the sun came out again, making for a beautiful end to the weekend.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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.

Singing a New Tune

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Aloha,
With the risk of sounding like a broken record, Thursday was another windy day. But guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay did see whales. According to our onboard naturalist Mike, there were lots of “blows and goes” — whales just surfacing, spouting, and diving. We did see some breaching and splashing on the horizon though, and when we deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were loud and clear. On our 12:30 Whale Watch, most of us (except for our on board naturalist, Angelica who was looking the wrong way) saw a whale breach RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BOW! After that, we saw whales everywhere we looked, including two cow/calf/escort pods.We also found a competitive pod and watched as one whale breached, landing on another in the pod…and then the same whale (we think) head lunged on top of another whale…lots of charging and trumpeting from this pod. At the end of the trip, just as we were returning to the bay, a Mom and her Baby decided to acquaint themselves with us, circling the boat and looking at all of us. And on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw lots of whales and lots of very close-by surface activities including head lunges, pectoral slaps, peduncle throws, breaches, and tail lobs. We found 3 Mom/Baby/Escort pods and a couple of different competitive pods. We were able to deploy the hydrophone on this trip and the sounds we heard were so loud that we actually had to turn the volume down by half so we didn’t blast everyone right off the boat.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend.
I’ll send out the next report on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  To our untrained ears, the sounds we hear from our Hydrophones sound pretty random, though we have noticed the lack of certain phrases this year that we heard fairly often last year (most notably, a phrase that sounded like “whoop,Whoop, WHOOP, WHOOP WHOOP“).  And this year we’re hearing a very distinctive laughing-type sound (HEH – HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH).  According to a paper published in the journal Current Biology, it turns out that our ears aren’t so untrained after all. Researchers have documented that the Humpback songs in the South Pacific are actually changing really quickly. Over the last decade, completely new song themes are appearing within a season. The researchers compared the radical evolution of the Humpbacks’ songs to human musical composition, suggesting that the themes are so novel, it’s as if whole new human musical genres were appearing that no one had ever heard just a few years ago