Tag Archives: migration

Late Season Humpback Fun

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Aloha,

What are you likely to see when you go on a Whale Watch Cruise this late in the season?  Researchers have observed that the last whales to leave our protected coastlines each year are Moms with their late season calves, and male humpbacks still hanging around most likely as a means to optimize mating opportunities. And that’s pretty much what we’ve been seeing on our Whale Watch Cruises during the last several days. Almost every pod we’ve seen has been comprised of Mom and a small baby accompanied by at least one escort. When we’ve deployed our hydrophone we’ve been hearing lots of very clear and loud singing, indicating the presence of male humpbacks as well.
Though sightings this time of year are less frequent than they were just a few weeks ago, late season whale watching is still a lot of fun. Small calves can be uncoordinated and often just can’t get down the 20 feet or so to their resting moms, ending up flopping back up to the surface tail first. We also see lots of twirls and spins from these little guys…and the peduncle throws and breaches attempted by the young calves quite commonly end up as belly flops.The littlest calves are very curious, attempting to approach us at every opportunity.
On the other end of the spectrum, the males who are still around appear desperate to mate. We see a lot of very aggressive activities, including peduncle throws, breaches, body blocks and lunges from these guys. In previous years, April has been the month when we’ve encountered huge competitive pods of as many as a dozen humpbacks — which makes sense. If there aren’t very many females around, each of them will attract a LOT of attention from the remaining males. Sharing the ocean with a dozen charging humpbacks is an experience of a lifetime, and we look forward to sharing the adventure with you before the last Humpback leaves the islands.
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Where do the Humpbacks go when they migrate away from Hawaii? Most of them appear to migrate directly north, to feeding grounds off of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska waters. But they can migrate to just about any location round the Pacific Rim — one humpback satellite-tagged in Hawaii spent the summer in Russian waters.

 

Baby Whale Plays with Mom

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Aloha,

Monday brought us some winter weather — well “winter” for Hawaii that is. We were still able to run our Wake up With the Whales cruise on Seasmoke though, and guests who joined us saw some pretty cute stuff. We found 2 different Mom/Baby pods. The first pod came right up to us to check us out while we enjoyed checking them out. The second pod consisted of an active calf who decided to not only breach right near us, but then to roll over on his back, lay on Mom’s rostrum, and slap his little pec fins on the water. Mom didn’t seem bothered at all by his antics.On the way back to the bay, we found a pod of three adults lazily swimming along the surface together. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also got to watch two different Mom/Baby pods. This time we didn’t see any escorts, but both pods came over to look at us. The second pod surfaced just 10 yards from us!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though no one is really sure how Humpback Whales are able to navigate so accurately through the open ocean to find Hawaii, research conducted on the migratory paths of a few South Atlantic and a few South Pacific Humpbacks between 2003 and 2007 did show that regardless of currents on the surface, storms and obstacles, the humpbacks never deviated more than about 5 degrees from their straight-line migratory paths. Researchers don’t think the whales are relying solely on the earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, since magnetism varies too widely to explain the straight paths the whales swim, and they also don’t think the whales are just using the sun (like many birds do) because the ocean wouldn’t provide an adequate frame of reference. It’s possible the whales rely on both those methods, combined with celestial markers. Or maybe the whales navigate by following the sounds of each other’s voices. Researchers are still working to solve the mystery.

Mating Mantas Surround the Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Tuesday’s Wake Up With the Whales was a really fun cruise. We got to see 6 different Humpbacks, and…they were active on the surface! We saw breaches and pectoral slaps, but since this is just the beginning of the season we were too excited to keep an accurate count on how many of each. Captain Mike reports that what really blew him away though  was watching two dozen Manta Rays swimming all around the whales! According to Captain Nick (who would know) this is mating season for Manta Rays, so that might explain the action.  When we got an opportunity to lower the hydrophone, we heard some very clear singing for the first time this season.
Mahalo,
Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback 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  1 -2  knots (which is the speed we travel when ambling)!

More Late Season Calves

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Aloha,
Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch on Wednesday got to see a total of 9 whales. We were really lucky to get to spend almost an hour and a half cruising parallel to a pod of 3 whales…Mom, her baby, and a very good sized escort. We didn’t see a lot of energetic surface displays from these 3 whales as they seemed intent on just swimming along slowly off the Kohala Coast., but we did get some nice fluke sightings from the escort. The ocean conditions were just about perfect…so we did get to deploy our hydrophone. We could hear quite a bit of singing still, though we could tell that the singers were pretty far away from us.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  Based on the number of Humpback sightings we’ve been experiencing, we know that most of the Humpbacks have begun their almost 3000 mile long migration to the waters off of Alaska…which sounds like a very long swim. But in 2001 a Norwegian tourist snapped a photo of a female Humpback in breeding grounds off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. When he found the photo again in 2010 and posted it, researchers were able to match the flukes to a photo they had taken of the SAME whale in breeding grounds off the coast of Brazil — which means she had swum more than 6000 miles! Researchers aren’t sure what motivated the whale to swim across the Atlantic– until this whale was identified in both places, it was assumed that Humpbacks only travelled across latitudes, not longitudes. Which just goes to show you…we still have a LOT to learn.

Motorboating and Piggy Backing

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Aloha,
Tuesday’s Whale Watches brought us all kinds of activities. On the Breakfast with the Whales, as we left the bay we found a competitive pod of 5 whales. They were really battling it out, with lots of tail lobs, motorboating (this term describes exactly what it sounds like it describes…whales moving through the water with their heads angled up so they look like boats), and even some piggy backing. And right after we saw this pod of 5, another competitive pod of 4 popped up right near us. This pod was clearly out of breath as we heard lots of trumpeting from them. We also ran a special 10:00 Whale Watch for the kids from Laupahoehoe. On this cruise, we saw 16 different whales, but the highlight definitely was watching baby and mom take turns breaching (4 times), head lunging (twice) and pec slapping (3 times).  And on our Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 16 whales. We saw LOTS of pec slapping, 9 peduncle throws (from different whales) and several different competitive pods. The last pod we watched was a a pod of 4, and though we all wished we could see what was going on below the surface, based on what we could see from above, it must have been a big shoving match. From our vantage point we got to see lots of twisting fluke dives, and lots of whales on top of other whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers are not sure how Humpbacks find their way from Alaska to Hawaii each winter…after all, Hawaii is the most isolated land mass in the world. Since small particles of a form of iron called “magnetite” have been found in Humpback’s brains, some researchers theorize that the magnetite acts like a magnet, helping the Humpbacks to feel the magnetic pull of the earth and keeping them on track. Other researchers disagree, claiming that the Humpbacks swim in such straight lines  when they migrate that they must be orienting themselves with a combination of methods, including some celestial markers like the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night.

More on Migration

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Aloha,
Thursday brought us a mixed bag for whale watching. Guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise didn’t see any Humpbacks, and though the guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae did see a spout in the distance, it was pretty windy, so we couldn’t get out to that whale. Captains on both cruises called the trips a “fluke” so guests aboard both those cruises are invited to return on another whale watch cruise for FREE! On our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, Captain Will reports seeing a whale off the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. They never got closer than about 400 yards to that whale, but he tells us that the guests saw the whale “spouting and splashing around a bit” on the surface.
 
Our Whale Watch Season has just begun….join us on any of our 3 Whale Watches Cruises departing daily. Call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com for information and reservations.
 
Mahalo, and enjoy your weekend. I’ll send out my next report on Monday.
claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though no one is really sure how Humpback Whales are able to navigate so accurately through the open ocean to find Hawaii, research conducted on the migratory paths of a few South Atlantic and a few South Pacific Humpbacks between 2003 and 2007 did show that regardless of currents on the surface, storms and obstacles, the humpbacks never deviated more than about 5 degrees from their straight-line migratory paths. Researchers don’t think the whales are relying solely on the earth’s magnetic fields for navigation, since magnetism varies too widely to explain the straight paths the whales swim, and they also don’t think the whales are just using the sun (like many birds do) because the ocean wouldn’t provide an adequate frame of reference. It’s possible the whales rely on both those methods, combined with celestial markers. Or maybe the whales navigate by following the sounds of each other’s voices. Researchers are still working to solve the mystery.

Migrations – Horizontal and Vertical!

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Aloha,
It’s been another great week for Dolphin Watching on the Kohala Coast! Our favorite day last week had to have been Thursday, when we not only saw a pod of Spinners on our Dolphin Watch Adventure, but we encountered them again on our Moku Nui Sunset Sail. Both times we first saw the pod as we exited Kawaihae Harbor. Both times, the pod numbered between 75-100 animals, and both times, the pod stayed with us for at least 45 minutes. On the morning Dolphin Watch Adventure, as soon as the pod heard us exit the harbor, they swam over to investigate. We loved watching the dolphins play lazily in our bow and stern wakes as we motored slowly to the north. On the evening Moku Nui Sunset Sail, we were actually under sail, but the dolphins seemed to enjoy our speed as they accompanied us along the coast line. We saw a lot of end-over-end flips, and lots of spins!
Join us Tuesday for our next scheduled Dolphin Watch Adventure departing from Kawaihae Harbor at 8:00 am, or on Wednesday, departing from Kauna’oa Beach fronting the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel!
Dolphin Fact of the Day: Spinner Dolphins spend their night time hours feeding out in the open ocean on fish and squid that follow a nocturnal vertical migratory route. During daylight hours, the prey descends, and the Spinners “migrate” horizontally towards shore to rest in shallow bays. The pod of dolphins we encountered in the early morning hours last Thursday was relaxing after dinner. By the time we saw them in the late afternoon, they were beginning their evening wake-up ritual (lots more jumping and spinning – especially from the smaller adolescents) prior to “going out to dinner”.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire