Tag Archives: humpback vocalization

Windy Weather doesn’t stop the Sightings

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Aloha,
We sure had some wild winds this past weekend…which means we didn’t run all our Whale Watch cruises. But when we were running, we saw some great activity. On Friday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 11 Humpbacks. We  watched a very energetic calf breach 10 times. We also saw 8 tail lobs, 4 body lunges, 2 head lunges, 3 pec slaps and heard some great vocalizations when we deployed our hydrophone. Oh, and we did see a pod of Spinner Dolphins when we first left the harbor. On Saturday, the winds starting coming up early, but guests aboard our 8:00 Whale Watch saw 6 Humpbacks pretty far from the coastline. We did see splashes (but we weren’t close enough to determine how the whales were making them). On our Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 Humpbacks, and had 3 close encounters. We all got very excited when a whale decided to breach 105 yards from our boat. We also saw a couple of pec slaps and some tail raises. And we ran a special trip on Saturday afternoon for the Rotary Club out of Kawaihae. The Rotarians saw 3 whales — a Mom and her calf, and later a lone whale. But when we deployed the hydrophone, we heard quite a bit of vocalization…which means the whales are still close by. And on Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise battled the windy conditions but saw 4 Humpbacks and  2 full breaches about 100 yards from the boat. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw 8 Humpbacks and 7 peduncle throws.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watching Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers note that female Humpbacks in the North Pacific population are seen with their first calf when they’re between 8 and 16 years old (the mean age is 11.8). In the North Atlantic, female Humpbacks give birth for the first time when they’re between 5 and 7 years old.

Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Humpback navels, Cow/Calf Vocalizations

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Aloha,
We had a great start to our Whale Watching week with our 8:00 Breakfast with Whales cruise. we saw 15 different whales and spent a good deal of time watching a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. Baby breached three times, did one peduncle throw (well — it was sort of an attempt at a peduncle throw, but mostly just a big splash) and tried to approach us, but Mom  kept him from getting too close. We also saw an adult whale pectoral slapping 4 times. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some pretty clear singing from a couple of whales nearby. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 12 whales, but the highlight of the trip was being mugged for 20 minutes. The whale kept swimming right underneath us and we could see those long white pec fins of his clearly through the water. When we deployed the hydrophone, we actually got to hear a Mom and her baby vocalizing! Our naturalist, Jonathan, reports that the patterns of those vocalizations were very different from the Humpback Song we typically hear the male whales singing. He also noted that the Cow/calf pair were so close to us that when the sounds stopped, we could look over and watch them surface– a dead give away that this was the pair we were listening to!. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 whales, and spent most of our time watching two sub-adults. At one point they swam close enough to us that we could hear them breathing. One of these sub-adults was right on the tail of the other, and they whale in front didn’t seem to be enjoying the attention from his buddy — we watched him express his displeasure with a few small tail lobs.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpbacks have belly buttons —  in case you’re wondering….they’re “innies”.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire