Tag Archives: humpback migration

Stormy Weather Leads to a Fluke

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Aloha,

A combination of open ocean swell and gusty winds prevented our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales cruisers to get to see much whale action. Yes, there were whales out there, and yes we did get to see some spouts and splashes…but Captain Baker couldn’t get us all comfortably out to where the whales were, so he decided to call the cruise a “fluke” and invite everyone to join us again on another cruise for FREE! The impending storm also caused us to cancel the rest of our Tuesday trips. Luckily, weather changes quickly in Hawaii, so we’re hoping we’ll have LOTS to report from our Wednesday Whale Watch Cruises!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: It is very possible that Humpback Whales did not migrate to Hawaii prior to the “golden age of whaling” in the 1820’s. Not only have we never discovered fossilized remains of Humpbacks on the islands from before that time, but we’ve never found petroglyphs of Humpbacks from before the 1820’s either. Also, there’s no word in the Hawaiian language for the Humpback whale (though there is a word for whale – Kohola). No commercial whaling occurred in Hawaii, though whalers did re-provision and spend the winters in Hawaii (especially in Lahaina). And…most interesting is the fact that no mention of humpback whales has been found in the log books of whaling ships anchored off Lahaina – and the whalers were definitely paying attention to the presence of whales, since any whale taken meant MONEY. Perhaps the whaling taking place in the North Japan Sea at that time forced the Humpbacks to search for new migratory destinations eventually bringing them to our islands.

Humpback Migratory Changes

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Aloha,
After searching and searching and searching, we finally found one whale just outside of the harbor on Thursday’s 10:00 am Whale Watch. We did find it kind of ironic that we drove all over the place looking for Humpbacks only to find one right where we started! It was a totally different story for us on our Whales & Cocktails Cruise. We found our first whale about 5 minutes after we left the bay. We watched this Humpback spout twice, and then he was joined by another whale who wasn’t quite as peaceful. Whale number 2 did a couple of peduncle throws, landing right on top of whale number one. We could hear them both trumpeting (breathing really hard) when they surfaced. We got to see a few more partial peduncle throws, and then they did a deeper dive showing us their flukes (one was almost all white). We thought the show might be over, but then a third whale surfaced and started swimming towards our duo. At this point, all three began swimming and surfacing around our boat, and they were so close to the surface that we could see the turquoise reflection off their white pectoral fins (which makes them appear to be glowing). They made almost a complete circle of us before swimming on. But it wasn’t over yet. We saw 7 more whales throughout the course of the charter, bringing us to a grand total of 10 Humpbacks…on a charter on April 10th (the season isn’t over yet folks)! When we deployed the hydrophone, we did hear some singing (but it was pretty faint).
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  It is very possible that Humpback Whales did not migrate to Hawaii prior to the “golden age of whaling” in the 1820’s. Not only have we not discovered fossilized remains of Humpbacks on the islands from before that time, we’ve never found petroglyphs of Humpbacks from before the 1820’s either. Also, there’s no word in the Hawaiian language for the Humpback whale (though there is a word for whale – Kohola). No commercial whaling occurred in Hawaii, though whalers did re-provision and spend the winters in Hawaii (especially in Lahaina). And…most interesting is the fact that no mention of humpback whales has been found in the log books of whaling ships anchored off Lahaina – and the whalers were paying attention to the presence of whales, since any whale taken meant MONEY. Perhaps the whaling taking place in the North Japan Sea at that time forced the Humpbacks to find new migratory destinations eventually bringing them to our shores.

Humpback Calf Checks Us Out

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Aloha,
Highlights from Tuesday’s Whale Watch Cruises include sightings of two different Mom/Baby pods on our 10:00 Cruise. Neither of these pods were accompanied by an escort (or if one was around, he didn’t surface). The weather was calm enough that Captain Will could turn off the engines, so once we spotted the Mom/Baby pods, we were able to just drift. Apparently, our lack of movement was not threatening to the whales, because one of the calves came right over to us to inspect the boat. Mom was about 35 feet long (so she was a young mother), and her calf was really little with a very bent dorsal fin (indicating a recent birth). We also got to see a breach from a big adult about 800 yards from us, and as we cruised back to the harbor, we watched a couple of other adult Humpbacks cruising calmly along in our direction.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:The first whales to leave Hawaii each year are mature females (who are either newly pregnant, or taking a year off), followed by sub adult whales, and then, mature males. The last to leave are new mothers with their calves.

Juveniles Cruising the Coast

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Aloha,
Guests on all of our Thursday cruises saw Humpbacks. On the 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala out of Kawaihae, we cruised around for almost the whole trip till we found a juvenile Humpback right in front of the harbor. This whale was pretty mellow, just surfacing, spouting, and then diving for 7 minutes before coming up and doing it all again.  Since it took so long for us to find each other, and with the support of the guests on board, Captain Will decided to stay out for an extra half hour so we could all enjoy the experience.
On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, two sub-adult whales found us and appeared to be curious about our presence, They hung around with us for about 30 minutes! At one point, one of them surfaced about 20 feet from our stern, so we all got a good look at each other. We also got to see a peduncle throw from one of them (a “peduncle throw” describes the whale throwing the back half of his body out of water – generally thought to be an expression of aggression towards another whale close by).
Hope your Thursday was as interesting and fun as ours!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: It takes an average of just under 3 months for the Humpbacks to migrate from the summer feeding grounds in Alaska to Hawaii (although at least one Humpback was seen in Alaska and then in Hawaii just 45 days later). That means the Humpbacks are generally swimming at a speed of about 4 knots (a little bit faster than we travel when taking a brisk walk)!

Humpback Migration Speeds

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Aloha,
The highlight of our Wednesday whale watches happened on our 10:00 Whale Watch cruise from Kawaihae where we found 4 juvenile whales. When we first saw them, 3 of them were together, travelling down the coast. We watched the other whale actually join the trio as they continued to travel. The group also performed a few head lunges, and came up on both sides of the boat.
 
Join Ocean Sports for your whale watch adventure. We depart daily at 8:00, 10:00 and 3:00 from two locations within the Hawaiian Humpback National Marine Sanctuary. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com for reservations.
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: It takes an average of just under 3 months for the Humpbacks to migrate from the summer feeding grounds in Alaska to Hawaii (although at least one Humpback was seen in Alaska and then in Hawaii just 45 days later). That means the Humpbacks are generally swimming at a speed of about 4 knots (a little bit faster than we travel when taking a brisk walk)!

Windy weather hides the Humpbacks

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Aloha,,
Well…Tuesday was a VERY windy day in Waikoloa, and though we did take Seasmoke out on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we weren’t able to find any Humpbacks. That doesn’t mean they aren’t here…it just means that any tell-tale spouts from close-by whales dissipated so quickly that none of us saw them. Our guests did have a fun ride though, (and enjoyed learning about the whales from our onboard naturalists…and everyone liked the continental breakfast and our Ocean Sports Ohana Malie Kona coffee).Best of all, since our morning trips are guaranteed, everyone is invited back to ride on another Whale Watch Cruise for FREE! Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for more information and reservations.
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: There are Humpback Whale populations in all the oceans of the world. The whales we see here each winter are part of the North Pacific population. “Our” whales feed in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska during the summer months. They swim the 3500 miles to Hawaii each year to calve in warm waters (and to mate).

Humpback Season off to a Bang!

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Aloha,
Our 2012/2013 Humpback Whale Watch Season started with a bang this year, with the first sighting on the Kohala Coast on October 20th! We hardly could believe what we were seeing…not just a couple of spouts, but some breaches from these early arriving whales too. Since the end of October, we’ve been treated to lots more sightings..and last week, guests aboard our boats saw whales on most of our tours. Most of the whales were loners, and most appeared to be sub-adults in the 25-35 foot long range, which isn’t unusual for this early in the season. And on both Saturday and Sunday, we saw single whales who were swimming slowly north just spouting and sounding (we sometimes call that a “blow and go”). We’ve dropped our hydrophones a few times (before it got really windy), and not surprisingly, we weren’t able to pick up any singing. Based on what we know about the singing, as the Humpback whale population density increases around the islands, and with the arrival of the bigger males, we should start hearing the whales singing very soon.
 
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 whale watch tours departing daily. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for information and to reserve your adventure. Our morning whale watch tours are guaranteed — see a Humpback or you can ride again for FREE!
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to researchers, the first whales to arrive in Hawaii each year from Alaska are sub-adults (usually males) – the teenagers of the whale world. The next arrivals are adults who are looking for mates, and the last to arrive are pregnant females.

Triple Breach and Ancient Migratory Paths

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Aloha,
Wednesday’s whale watching started off with a bang! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip, guests saw 10 different Humpbacks. Nate, our naturalist aboard that trip, reports that the best encounter though was with a Cow/Calf/Escort pod who performed a triple breach about 100 feet from the boat! Just getting to see 3 breaches in your life is a wonderful experience, but when you see 3 whales breaching simultaneously and they’re close enough that you can see their tubercles — well…that’s a sight you’ll never forget! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 2 whales, and had one close encounter. Apparently, the Humpbacks that are still here are pretty interested in us! When we deployed the hydrophone, we did here some good singing. On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we looked and looked, but we couldn’t find a whale…but the cocktails were flowing and guests enjoyed the cruise.
Join Ocean Sports for the Whale Watch Adventure of your life. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot before the spectacular 2011-2012 season ends.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though Humpback whales in different hemispheres migrate on opposite schedules (when it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and therefore are very unlikely to meet, no subspecies of Humpbacks are recognized genetically. In fact there has been some research done on maternal lineages that demonstrates relationships which exist in the present across hemispheric boundaries. This suggests that at one point (perhaps in the very distant past)  there was some level  of inter-hemispheric gene flow.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Breaches in the Wind

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Aloha!

Yesterday was the last official day of Autumn and the season sure blew out with some gusts! The windy weather didn’t seem to affect the Humpbacks though, as both morning trips reported seeing some whales. Guests on the 8:00 am Breakfast with the Whales out of Abay saw only a couple of whales, but they did see a full breach. Guests on the 10:00 Whale Watch out of Kawaihae saw 4 different whales multiple times and a couple of breaches (or the splashes from breaches) on the horizon. It’s not unusual for us to see a lot of surface activity (like those breaches both boats reported) on windy days…why? Well, we’re not sure if the wind excites the whales or just makes it more difficult for them to communicate in other ways.

Ocean Sports offers 3 different opportunities for Whale Watching daily departing from 2 different locations within the Hawaiian Islands National Humpback Marine Sanctuary Waters. For reservations or information, please call us at (808)886-6666 ext 103, or visit  www.Hawaiioceansports.com.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The first whales to arrive in Hawaii each year from Alaska are sub-adults (usually males) — the teenagers of the Whale World. The next arrivals are adults who are looking for mates, and the last to arrive are pregnant females.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire