Tag Archives: humpback heart rate

Muggings, Close Encounters, and Lots of Surface Action

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Aloha,
Thursday was an incredible day for whale watching. Between our 3 boats, we ran a total of 11 Whale Watch Cruises, so reporting details for each would be pretty difficult. Highlights included several muggings (the first on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, where we were approached by two different Mom/Baby pods at different times). On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we also were approached several times by different whales checking us out. We got to see a whale calf attempting multiple breaches (sometimes he just couldn’t quite get the timing right and did more of a back-flop). We also watched a competitive pod of 6 whales charging along the surface of the ocean. Our afternoon trips allowed our guests to see pretty much every surface behavior of the Humpbacks in Hawaii including tail lobs, pec slaps, head lunges, peduncle throws, throat inflations (from whales in competitive pods), and multiple breaches.
Mahalo… have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Valentines Day!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Valentines Day Humpback Fact of the Day:  A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to measurements made by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 times per minute.

Spy Hopping!

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Aloha and Happy Valentines Day!
The Humpbacks showed us their love (or at the very least, their curiosity) on Thursday. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw lots of flukes, tail lobs and pecs slaps, but our on-board naturalist Angelica couldn’t get over the fact that a whale came right up to the boat and spy-hopped, clearly looking at us! This whale was accompanied by two others, who swam up too…and pec slapped. And if that weren’t enough…we saw two more close-up spy hops too, giving all onboard a trip to remember for the rest of our lives.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send out the next update on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  In honor of Valentines Day, here’s a fact about the Humpbacks’ hearts. A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to research reported by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 beats per minute