Tag Archives: humpback belly button

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”.

Humpback navels, Cow/Calf Vocalizations

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Aloha,
We had a great start to our Whale Watching week with our 8:00 Breakfast with Whales cruise. we saw 15 different whales and spent a good deal of time watching a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. Baby breached three times, did one peduncle throw (well — it was sort of an attempt at a peduncle throw, but mostly just a big splash) and tried to approach us, but Mom  kept him from getting too close. We also saw an adult whale pectoral slapping 4 times. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some pretty clear singing from a couple of whales nearby. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 12 whales, but the highlight of the trip was being mugged for 20 minutes. The whale kept swimming right underneath us and we could see those long white pec fins of his clearly through the water. When we deployed the hydrophone, we actually got to hear a Mom and her baby vocalizing! Our naturalist, Jonathan, reports that the patterns of those vocalizations were very different from the Humpback Song we typically hear the male whales singing. He also noted that the Cow/calf pair were so close to us that when the sounds stopped, we could look over and watch them surface– a dead give away that this was the pair we were listening to!. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 whales, and spent most of our time watching two sub-adults. At one point they swam close enough to us that we could hear them breathing. One of these sub-adults was right on the tail of the other, and they whale in front didn’t seem to be enjoying the attention from his buddy — we watched him express his displeasure with a few small tail lobs.
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Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpbacks have belly buttons —  in case you’re wondering….they’re “innies”.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire