Tag Archives: Humpback song

Spectacular breaches and Vibrant Songs

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Aloha,

Our Wednesday Whale Watches were Wonderful! We didn’t run our regular schedule, but guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch were treated to sightings of 20 whales, 15 of whom they saw in the first half hour of the charter. They saw 8 “spectacular” breaches about 250 yards from the boat, 2 spy hops, 6 tail lobs, head and body lunges, 4 Cow/Calf/Escort pods, had 5 close encounters, and 3 muggings. When the hydrophone was deployed our naturalist Jonathan reports the singing was loud, clear and vibrant. And on our morning Black Sand Picnic Snorkel Sail, guests report seeing “at least 20 whales” including a couple of calves with their Moms. As one guest put it, “how could there be anything cuter than a baby whale?”. They also saw breaches, lunges and lots of tails and spouting.

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: Humpbacks can maintain a consistant body temperature even when swimming in cold Alaskan waters. How do they do that? Besides their protective layer of blubber, they actually have something called a “counter current” circulatory system. Some arteries in their flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin are surrounded by veins, allowing some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries to be transferred to the venous blood returning to their hearts, instead of being lost to the environment. Tomorrow, I’ll explain how Humpbacks keep their cool in Hawaiian waters!

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Rorquals competing

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Aloha,
We loved whale watching on Tuesday! We started the day with our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise where we saw 16 whales and encountered two competitive pods. They put on quite the show — breaching, pec slapping, tail lobbing and throwing their peduncles. Our naturalist Angelica reports there were so many whales in every direction that we all were getting “whale whiplash” as we tried to keep track of all the sightings! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, our guests saw 15 whales, but the cutest stuff happened when a calf decided it was time to breach, perform tail lobs and head and body lunges. We loved watching Mom push her baby around with her head through the water. We also heard some excellent singing…and got to see two spy hops. Our naturalist Meagan, aboard our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise said that this trip was “THE BEST WHALE WATCH EVER”! We found ourselves surrounded by a very competitive pod of whales who, in the midst of their fights for dominance, performed more breaches than anyone was able to keep track of, along with pec slaps, tail lobs and peduncle throws. The female in the group was using our boat as a barrier to block the males…and everyone even got hit with the spray from their spouts as those whales swam by. What a day!!!
Experience the excitement of a Whale Watch with Ocean Sports. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: You may have heard the term “rorqual” applied to Humpbacks. The word “rorqual’ is derived from a Norwegian word meaning “furrowed” and describes the grooves that run from a Humpback’s chin to her navel. These grooves are actually pleats of skin that allow the whale to expand its mouth size when feeding, but when not in use, allow the Humpback to maintain a more streamlined shape.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Close encounters and Double Pec Slaps

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Aloha,
We had a great day on the water on Thursday with the Humpbacks. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, Captain Baker reports that everyone saw 7 pods of whales, 8 breaches and 6 tail lobs. When we deployed our hydrophone, we were astounded by the clarity of the sounds we heard. But the most exciting thing that happened on that trip was when Mom, Baby and Escort decided to check out our boat. Baby swam within about 20 feet from the boat! On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 10 different whales and 5 breaches. We encountered a competitive pod of 4 adults and watched them lunge with their bodies and heads. We also saw 8 pectoral slaps, and 4 double pectoral slaps (that’s when the whale is lying on his or her back and hitting the surface of the water with both of his pectoral fins alternately). Our hydrophone broadcast some beautiful sounds to everyone on this boat too.
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch you’ll never forget. Call 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Humpback whales have 52-54 vertebrae, of which 42 are articulating (jointed) and 10 are fused forming the sacrum. Humans usually have 33 vertebrae, of which 24  are articulating and 9 fused forming our sacrums.
Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be sending out the next whale report on Monday.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback competition and Humpback Love

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Aloha,
Our Valentine’s Day Whale sightings were all about whale love (some love between adults, but a lot of love between Mom and Baby). On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we saw about 20 different whales, but got to witness a competitive pod of males trying to interact with a female. We saw lots of tail lobs, and 3 breaches right outside of the Bay. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw 6 Humpbacks, but spent most of our time watching a very protective Mother and her baby. We were very quiet, so we wouldn’t disturb them, and Mom and Baby were surfacing just to breathe — it might have been nap time for that little guy! We did deploy our hydrophone on the trip, and the songs we heard were really loud (which indicates there were some submerged adult males fairly close by). On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we witnessed another competitive pod — this one had 4 males chasing after Mom and her baby. We got to see the typical Humpback bullying behavior — lots of shoving and splashing. At one point, the calf started lagging behind a little (just too tired from all that swimming) – and Mom kept veering off to keep herself between the males and her calf.
Feel the excitement of a Humpback Whale Watch on any of the Ocean Sports 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  A humpback whale’s trachea and esophagus are totally separate tubes (unlike ours which meet up in the back of our mouths). We have an epiglottis which protects our lungs from accidental inspiration of food or liquid – Humpbacks don’t need one…but that also means that a Humpback can only breathe thru her blowholes and not thru her mouth.
Aloha,
Captain Claire

Not just seeing, but HEARING a breach!

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Aloha,
We were happy to be back on the water on Thursday, and we think the whales were happy to see us too! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw 15 whales and 5 breaches. One of those breaches was actually a double breach — Mom and baby coming out of the water at the same time. We also saw two other Cow/Calf pods, but the highlight of this trip was definitely the singing. At one point, the singing whale was so close that we were able to hear him in the cabin without the hydrophone! Of course when we did deploy the hydrophone the singing was very LOUD and very clear. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise from Anaeho’omalu, we saw a breach right outside the bay — we had the hydrophone in the water at that point so not only did we get to see it, we got to hear what the whales must hear when one of their buddies lands — it was really incredible. We were also quite the object of curiosity for a calf — the cute little guy kept trying to approach us, but Mom did her job and kept pushing him away. Angelica, our naturalist aboard that trip reports that they saw so many whales in every direction she couldn’t even keep count of them.
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch and see so many whales you can’t keep track of them all! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According to research reported by the Keiki Kohola project, very young calves (identified by the extent to which their fins are still furled from their time in utero) are much more active than older calves, swimming and twirling and kicking. These researchers theorize that all that exercise leads to the production of a necessary oxygen storing protein called “myoglobin” (pronounced “my-oh-globe-in) in the whales’ muscles. One of the reasons adult humpbacks can hold their breath for 45 minutes is that they can store so much oxygen in their muscles, and baby is training to be able to do that too.
Have a great weekend…I’ll be sending the next report on Monday,
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

Lots of Humpbacks and Lots of Surface Activity

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Aloha,
We all had a lot of fun on Thursday’s Whale Watches. On the 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip on Seasmoke, we saw 35 Humpbacks, 2 competitive pods, 12 breaches from a sub-adult whale, pec slaps, head lunges, tail lobs and peduncle throws. Our hydrophone allowed us to listen in to some very close-by and very loud songs. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 18 whales, 6 breaches, 6 spy hops, 3 body lunges, 4 head lunges and 4 Cow/Calf pairs, one of whom was accompanied by an escort. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise we saw 16 whales, 4 breaches, 7 tail lobs, 2 pec slaps and we also got to hear some really loud songs.
Join the friendly crew of 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: Being mammals, Humpback Moms feed their calves milk. But Humpback milk isn’t just any old milk — it’s extremely rich with a fat content of approximately 50%! Human milk is only about  4.5% fat.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend!
Captain Claire

Laughing Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Wednesday brought us some great whale action. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 15 different whales and got to watch a competitive pod form before our eyes. It began with 2 whales (and we watched as a third joined in). About 10 minutes later, we were MUGGED by a whale who on his way to join our trio, seemed interested enough in us to swim back and forth right under the boat twice giving all of us a great view — if whales could laugh, this whale probably would have been giggling as he watched 49 people run from side to side on the boat to see him). Shortly after that, we had a close encounter with 2 more whales who surfaced about 50 feet from us and joined the rest of the gang. We also got to see 7 breaches, 12 pec slaps, 2 peduncle throws — and when we deployed the hydrophone, the singing was loud! At 10:00, guests on our Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 22 different Humpbacks, 3 breaches, 3 tail slaps and 2 cow/calf pods. They also got to hear a whale symphony — and had one close encounter.
Want to be part of the action? Join Ocean Sports on any of our daily whale watches. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com and reserve a spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is between 10 and 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback Chatter

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Aloha,
Guests aboard all our Whale Watch Cruises reported lots of whale activity all day on Wednesday. Because we operated a special schedule yesterday, I don’t have my regular trip report, but suffice it to say, from sunrise (well, actually from 8:00 am — we didn’t start that early) till sunset, we were privileged to share the ocean with the Humpbacks. Throughout the day, guests saw dozens of  Humpbacks multiple times. We witnessed the whole retinue of Humpback surface activity, including breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws, and tail lobs. When hydrophones were deployed on all boats, we could hear lots of singing and lots of “chatter”. Of course we also saw lots of those beautiful V-shaped Humpback spouts up and down the coast.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our daily Whale Watch Cruises, Snorkel Sails or Sunset Sails and see the action for yourself! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com for details and reservations.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though we’ve mentioned before that only male Humpback Whales “sing”, all Humpbacks make noises and apparently use these sounds to communicate with each other. Researchers have witnessed cooperative feeding behaviors among the Humpbacks apparently “triggered” by sound, and have also witnessed Humpback Cows (moms) apparently ignoring some sounds made by their calves (researchers called these sounds “goo-goo, ga-ga” noises), but responding immediately when the calves made particular squealing noises. So it appears that Mom recognizes her baby’s voice!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire