Tag Archives: humpback spout

Spouting at the Ladder

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Aloha,

As usual, a whole weekend’s worth of whale watching provided us with way too much to

Breach

Breach (Mahalo to Helen Turner for this image)

talk about in one email, so I’ll just recap a few of our favorite cruises.

Our weekend started out fantastically with guests seeing the whole gamut of surface activities on Friday’s Wake up with the Whales. Not only did we see 5 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods, but we got to see lots of full breaches, pec slaps, tail lobs, and head lunges too! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, all the action was right in front of the Hilton Waikoloa Village where we found a Mom and her calf. We got to watch a competitive pod form as two males approached Mom and baby. Once these guys got to where Mom and Baby were resting, they got really active — we couldn’t believe our eyes as we watched them smack each other with their pectoral fins and peduncles, and shove each other around with their huge rostrums. On Sunday’s Wake up with the Whales on Alala, we found a Mom, Baby and Escort right outside of the harbor. We enjoyed watching them surface multiple times, but since we didn’t want to bother them, we decided to leave and check out some action a bit further down the coast. This turned out to be another Mom/Baby/Escort pod. This time we got to see baby breach, followed by Mom, followed by the Escort. And right after that, both adults breached again! And finally, on Sunday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we had two close encounters in the beginning of the cruise by two different whales. After that excitement, we headed out to sea a bit and idled. Two humpbacks spent over an hour RIGHT under the boat, spouting between the trampolines and all around us. We saw a breach and a tail lob 30 yards from us. The whales wouldn’t leave, and finally, Captain Ryan had to roll out the staysail so we could get back. As we started to sail away, one of the whales chased us down and followed us back to the bay.
Mahalo,
Claire

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Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: You may have read about the entangled Humpback whale that was just freed by the Whale Entanglement Response Team off the Maui coastline (if you haven’t, click here )…but did you notice the route taken by the whale since it was first spotted off the Hamakua coast? In the space of a week, this whale circled the Big Island, and then crossed the Alenuihaha Channel to Maui — all while entangled in more than 200 feet of heavy line and crab buoys. Pretty amazing — and we know it’s common for Humpbacks who aren’t all tangled up to swim between the islands too — not in any particular direction we’re aware of. Some travel south to north, and others north to south…much like our human visitors!

Thar She Blows Again and Again!

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Aloha,

On Friday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 12 different Humpbacks. Almost all of them were in pods of two, and based on the sizes of the spouts, all of them were adults (or at least close to adulthood). It’s kind of amazing to us that we can tell anything about a population by the size of their breath (if you’re as amazed as we are, check out today’s Fact of the Day)…One whale chose to approach us to get a look as he swam by. We also saw splashes from some breaching and peduncle throws in the distance. On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we found one Humpback offshore of Puako. This whale was on 13 minute dives, surfacing to take 3 or 4 breaths before slipping below the surface again. We got to see the white markings on his flukes a few times. We also saw another spout in the distance, but ran out of time and weren’t able to run out her way to say “aloha”.And on Sunday, the winds came up, so though we could see the whales out there, it was much more difficult to get to them.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Did you know that you can identify the species of whale by the size and shape of it’s spout? Humpbacks create that distinctive 10-15 foot tall pear shaped plume…sperm whales create an angular blow, grey whales create a bushy v shaped blow, and blue whales — the biggest species of whales– typically create a 30 foot tall cone shaped blow.

Two Spouting Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Guests aboard our Thursday Wake up With the Whales saw two different Humpbacks. They were on pretty long dive cycles, just coming up to spout a few times before heading back under water. We stayed with these two for the whole cruise and spent their underwater time talking about what we know about Humpbacks and waiting for them to resurface. Seeing those spouts makes all the anticipation worth the wait!Humpback Spout
Mahalo,
Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size human adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult human exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.

Spouts and Splashes

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Aloha,
On Monday, we ran two different Breakfast with the Whales Cruises. Guests aboard Seasmoke watched 6 different Humpbacks. All of them were in pods of two. At one point, these three pods joined up, and according to Captain Baker, it was fun watching them all play around each other. Guests aboard our Manu Iwa Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw 7 different Humpbacks. Some of them were in the distance, so we concentrated on watching a very active juvenile who breached multiple times. The conditions were finally calm enough for us to drop our hydrophone…but when we did, we weren’t able to pick up any voices. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we spent most of our time watching 2 Humpbacks. This pod was slowly cruising together down the coast, just surfacing for a couple of breaths before diving down and continuing their swim.
Mahalo,
Claire
Looking for the best Whale Watch Cruise in Hawaii? Join Ocean Sports – call us at (808)886-6666 or visit hawaiioceansports.com
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.

Humpbacks Hawaiian Style

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Aloha,
Our Wednesday Whale Watches began with Breakfast with the Whales from Anaeho’omalu Bay. On this cruise, guests saw a total of 6 different Humpbacks, in 3 different pods of 2. We saw a breach in the distance, and did have a close encounter when one of the whales decided to surface next to our boat. On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we did see a spout and a breach in the distance, but that wasn’t good enough for us, so we invited all our guests to come back with us another time for FREE! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also saw a Humpback spouting and diving…but on our Champagne Sunset Cruise, guests were delighted to spend 45 minutes with a very curious Humpback who just kept approaching us, and surfacing on all sides of the boat. At one point we were looking at a whale off our port side, and a double rainbow off our starboard side! Lucky we live Hawaii!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see the spout from a whale, you’re actually looking at an interesting combination of things. Some of what you’re looking at is condensation from the whales’ lungs (the same thing you’re looking at when you see your own breath after exhaling in a cold environment); some is atomized ocean water (Humpbacks live in a wet world, and there’s always some of the ocean pooled on top of their blow holes when they surface); and…since Humpbacks don’t have cilia in their respiratory tracks (little hairs)…a lot of what you see (and occasionally feel) is actually mucus! Yuck!

A Pod of Two

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Aloha,
On Monday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae on Alala watched two Humpback Whales cruise along the Kohala Coast. These two whales were pretty mellow, just surfacing, spouting a few times, and then diving. We weren’t really sure what they were doing underwater (we never really know), and we think they weren’t too sure what we were doing on the surface because at one point, one of them surfaced right behind the boat, surprising us all!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size human adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult human exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.

Surprised by a Curious Humpback

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Aloha,
All 3 Whale Watch Cruises on Wednesday reported seeing a lot of whales and a lot of surface activity! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, guests saw 14 different whales, but the favorite sighting was of a Mom/Baby who came over to the boat to investigate. The also saw a head lunge and a breach from different whales. Our 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 17 different Humpbacks. The count was confirmed by our Junior Whale Naturalist, Sloan, who helped us keep track of what we were seeing (Mahalo, Sloan — we hope you consider a career in Marine Sciences — we think you’d be very good at it). Guests at 10:00 also report seeing 4 breaches, 3 tail lobs, and 2 peduncle throws. On the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, guests were gazing off to the starboard side of the boat to look for whales when EVERYONE was surprised by a whale who spouted right off the port side. The whale then dove under the boat, hovered there, apparently looking at all of us looking at him (or her) before surfacing right next to us on the starboard side. Another dive, another hover right beneath us, and another surface on the port side seemed to satisfy that whale’s curiosity, because s/he then swam away. Later in the trip, guests had another close encounter with 2 whales who spouted about 100 feet away and then swam right along side the boat! Our naturalist aboard that trip reports a total of 15 whales sighted, 1 head lunge and one breach.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises departing from 2 different locations within the Hawaii Islands National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com and reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire