Tag Archives: humpback breach

Close by Competition

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Aloha,
The whales were out in full force on Thursday! On our Whales and Cocktails cruise guests saw more than 20 different Humpbacks. On afternoons like this one, it’s difficult to decide which direction to head, but Captain Shane decided to leave the bay and head to the north. As we cruised along the coast, we saw lots of surface activity including several breaches, and too many tail lobs to count. We all were surprised when whales surfaced near us, not once, not twice, but 3 times! Of course all good things must come to an end, so eventually we had to turn around and head back to the bay. When we were about a mile and a half from the entrance to the bay, we encountered a competitive pod of 5 whales. When you get that many Humpbacks in close proximity, there is inevitably a lot of posturing going on, and lots of displays from the whales attempting to dominate. Once again we got to see some breaching, head lunging, and peduncle throws. We didn’t have enough time left in the cruise to parallel this pod and find out who eventually dominated, but in the midst of the fray, the whales used us (maybe to block the path of their competitors?), surfacing close by and all around us!
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Before whaling was banned internationally, Humpback whales’ livers were processed for their oil, which contained a lot of vitamin A. A fully grown Humpback has a liver that weighs between 800 and 1400 pounds.

Too many Humpbacks to Count

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Aloha and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!
The final day of 2013 was very good to guests aboard our Whale Watch Cruises. On our Breakfast with the Whales, there were so many Humpbacks that our onboard naturalist, Brooke lost count! She reports that everyone saw multiple tail lobs, breaches, and pec slaps, and she was so excited that she couldn’t finish her report!
Right after we dropped off the guests from our 8:00 trip, we picked up new guests for our 10:00 cruise and they got to see multiple Humpbacks as well. Most of our attention was focused on the whale who chose to focus his attention on us though, surfacing right next to us over and over and over again. We even got to see a breach right next to the boat! All in all, a great end to 2013!
Mahalo,
Claire
 For Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Cruises, join Ocean Sports. Visit www.hawaiioceansports.com or call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 to book your adventure today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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?
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Breach!

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Aloha,
We only operated two Whale Watch Cruises on Thursday due to the building wind and surf conditions. The ocean conditions in the early morning were really nice though, and guests on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw 6 different Humpbacks. They were all travelling in pods of two, and while Captain Baker reports there wasn’t a lot of surface activity to watch, everyone did see one full-on breach – always an exciting event! By 10:00, the wind had come up, making it very difficult to find the whales…so Captain Will called it a fluke and gave all the guests aboard the boat the opportunity to join us again on another Whale Watch for FREE. Hopefully ocean conditions will calm down again for Friday so we can go out again!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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!

Repeat Sightings

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Aloha,
Guests aboard the Ocean Sports Whale Watches had some great experiences this past weekend! Highlights include being surrounded by 3 whales on Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch. One whale breached right near us…and another was very curious about us and after breaching on his own for awhile, surfaced right near the boat. We also saw tail slaps and peduncle throws during that trip.
On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, a juvenile Humpback (about 30 feet long) must have decided that we were the most interesting thing in the ocean because he spent a good 90 minutes right next to the boat. He “mugged” us several times, and dove and surfaced on all sides of us. Our on-board naturalists Angelica and Gary are pretty sure this Humpback was a young male based on all the scarring near his dorsal fin (like many other male mammals, Humpbacks really shove each other around at times)! We also got to see the spout and flukes of another whale a bit further away from us during this cruise.
On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 3 Humpbacks – one of whom was the same one we saw on Saturday (we could tell by his size, but the real give-away was the scars on his dorsal fin). Today, he was accompanied by another juvenile about the same size. These two stayed with us for about 20 minutes and at one point, our whale from yesterday did approach us and surfaced fairly close by. We also saw a breach from another whale further down the coast, so we went to investigate. This whale turned out to be quite a bit bigger than our first two, and after surfacing, did a longer, deeper breath hold dive.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A fully grown Humpback Whale can hold his or her breath for around 45 minutes. Usually, that’s not what we observe in Hawaii though. We’re more likely to witness 10-20 minute breath hold dives, and if the whale is really active, s/he surfaces to breathe a lot more frequently.

Humpbacks, Melon Heads, Spinners and Sharks!

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Aloha,

Our weekend of Whale Watching was a lot of fun. On Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw a pod of 3 whales. Two of them definitely were Mom and Baby, and the third was maybe an escort, but we couldn’t be sure. At one point each of the whales breached, so we saw 3 breaches in total. When we deployed our hydrophone, we were able to pick up one very faint song. We also saw a HUGE pod of spinner dolphins — maybe 200 or 300 of them (it’s hard to count when the pod is so big). On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Saturday we headed North until we encountered a pod of 4 Humpbacks, surrounded by a pod of Melon Head Whales. They, in turn, were accompanied by 3 Pelagic White Tip Sharks. The Humpbacks, Melon Heads and Sharks all hung around us for almost 30 minutes — just about 15 feet away. It was really fun (especially since those deep water sharks didn’t need to be near the surface to breathe…we hardly ever get to see them). And to top it off, we were escorted back to the harbor by a pod of Spinner Dolphins. On our Sunday 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we did find a Humpback, but all we saw was a spout and a quick dive, so we called it a “fluke” and invited our guests to come back with us another trip for free. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see that huge pod of Spinner Dolphins again. They put on quite the show for us, leaping, spinning, and bow riding, but since we were out looking for Humpbacks, we called that trip a fluke too, and offered our guests another chance to see the Humpbacks for free.

 

Don’t miss out on the last week of Whale Watching during our 2011/2012 season. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today!

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: In August 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed the status of the Humpback Whale from “Vulnerable” to “Least Concern” reflecting the general upward trend of population levels. According to IUCN standards, animal populations in the “Least Concern” category are at a low risk for extinction. The IUCN classifies the status of Humans in the same category.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Muggings and Humpback Migration

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Aloha,
We had a fun weekend with the Humpbacks. On our Friday 10:00 am Whale Watch, we saw 5 whales, 6 tail lobs, 2 single pec slaps and one double pec slap. We watched a Mom and her baby for a long time, thinking we’d see an escort, but either he was able to wait us out, or they were unaccompanied. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip, we had a slow start…we were all looking in every direction to find the whales, but when we finally found them it was incredible! A pod of three (Cow/Calf/Escort) took a special interest in us, circling our boat and surfacing about 5 feet off the port side! On Saturday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales saw 12 different whales. Most of them were loners…surfacing just to breathe as they swam along the coastline, but we did see 3 breaches in the distance. We also encountered a Cow/Calf/Escort pod that were joined by two other “wanna-be” escorts, who put on quite the surface chase. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise we saw just 4 Humpbacks, but that was because we couldn’t move the boat for about 45 minutes as were being mugged by 2 whales! We got to look one of the whales in the eye, as he spy-hopped, looking at us. We saw some tail lobs and breaching in the distance on this trip too. On Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip saw 7 whales — 2 of whom swam right under us for more than 7 minutes (time seems to stop for us when that kind of stuff is going on). We also saw some tail lobbing in the distance and a couple of breaches.
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: Though no one is really sure how Humpback Whales are able to navigate so accurately through the open ocean to find Hawaii, research conducted on the migratory paths of a few South Atlantic and a few South Pacific Humpbacks between 2003 and 2007 did show that regardless of currents on the surface, storms and obstacles, the humpbacks never deviated more than about 5 degrees from their straight-line migratory paths. Researchers don’t think the whales are relying solely on the earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, since magnetism varies too widely to explain the straight paths the whales swim, and they also don’t think the whales are just using the sun (like many birds do) because the ocean wouldn’t provide an adequate frame of reference. It’s possible the whales rely on both those methods, combined with celestial markers. Or maybe the whales navigate by following the sounds of each other’s voices. Researchers are still working to solve the mystery.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Oh, those entertaining Humpback Calves!

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Aloha,
Monday brought us some very interesting sightings. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, our naturalist Angelica reported there were whales everywhere — as far as the eye could see! We began the Whale Watch with sightings of a Cow/Calf right outside of the Bay. We watched Mom hold her baby on her rostrum (her head) for awhile before we were distracted by a breaching whale a little further out. So we left Mom and Baby and approached the breacher — he (or she) performed 6 more breaches and about 5 tail lobs. In total we saw about 30 different whales on this trip and if we count the breaches in the distance, about 20 breaches! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw 8 whales and 1 breach. We also spent some time on this trip watching a Cow/Calf pod (it’s so fun and so interesting to watch the interaction between baby and Momma), and when we deployed our hydrophone we heard some nice clear singing.
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch during the height of the Whale Season in Hawaii. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales, and actually all Cetaceans, have a highly developed sense of touch. We know this because they have a lot of nerve endings right beneath their skin, and there’s a lot of blood flow to the nerve endings. Plus they touch each other a lot. Also, when researchers take dime-size plugs of skin from whales to study their DNA (and when you consider the size of the whale, it’s a pretty insignificant amount of skin), they report seeing the whales flinch..
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpbacks – Babies, Breaches, Lunges and Songs

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Aloha,
The best word to describe this past weekend of whale watching is “Wow”! We started the day off on Friday with our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales reporting 22 different whales. We spent a lot of time watching a very young calf playing with his mom on the surface. The baby made a couple attempts at breaching (which was really cute), but we also saw other whales breaching a total of 10 times! When we deployed the hydrophone, the songs we heard were really loud. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 17 different whales, with one whale breaching 18 times. Our naturalist Jonathan said that he’s been seeing that particular breaching whale off and on for the last 3 weeks (based on his fluke markings, he’s easy to identify) and has named the whale “Hana Ho”. The guests also saw 2 spy hops, pec slaps and peduncle throws (the whole gamut of whale behaviors). On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, the highlights of the trip included 5 breaches just 400 yards from the boat, and 4 close encounters. On Saturday, we saw 20 different Humpbacks on our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, and lots of breaching and lunging from a competitive pod of 5 whales. And on Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails, guests saw 14 different whales, but we spent most of our time with a competitive pod, watching peduncle throws and lunges. On Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, saw 25 whales, 4 breaches, 6 peduncle throws and one Cow/Calf pair that most likely was accompanied by an escort. We never saw the escort, but Mom was acting pretty excited …lots of peduncle throws from her! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 18 whales — and one of them slapped the water 26 times with his pectoral fin. By 3:00, the wind had filled in, but guests aboard our Whales and Cocktails trip saw 7 different whales and 8 peduncle throws. We also saw one fairly small calf.
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch during the height of whale season in Hawaii for an adventure you’ll never forget. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales have massive tongues. An 80,000 pound Humpback has a two-ton tongue!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire