Tag Archives: mom/baby competitive pod

Life Cycle of Humpbacks

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Aloha,

Researchers think that the gestation period for a Humpback is around 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last year…and on Tuesday, we got to see both aspects of the life cycle, Our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales Cruise began with Mom and calf right outside of the bay. They stayed with us for about 15 Baby breachesminutes, and then we saw a competitive pod starting up, so we left our Mom and calf and headed out to see what was going on. There were some really aggressive whales in this pod, banging into each other, head lunging and pec slapping. It was difficult to see if there was a female being chased, or if this was just a group of males fighting amongst each other. We were fortunate enough to watch this pod for over an hour before we had to leave them and return to the bay.On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, a Mom/Calf pod spent some time with us, followed by a different Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Baby breached repeatedly (and adorably). And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also got to watch two different Mom/Calf pods. The first was accompanied by 2 escorts, and the second pod was accompanied by 3 escorts. There was a lot of competition going on between the males in the second group, which got baby excited. That little guy kept breaching and breaching and breaching just about 50 yards from our idling boat.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Not all whaling activity occurred during the “golden age of whaling” at the beginning of the 19th century. Based on catch records corrected for illegal Soviet whaling, a total of more than 200,000 Humpback Whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1980. Also, Illegal Soviet takes of 25,000 Humpback Whales in two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) precipitated a population crash and the closure of land stations in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Singing and Breaching

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Aloha,

We started out the week with a double boat Wake Up with the Whales. Both Manu Iwa and Seasmoke departed from Anaeho’omalu Bay at around the same time, so you’d think all of us would have had the same experience. But of course, we didn’t…guests aboard both boats saw spouts from more than 2 dozen whales, but Captain Jeff chose to take Seasmoke out to a competitive pod about a mile outside of the Hilton. We got to see some great peduncle throws and a couple of pec slaps and tail lobs from this pod of 3. We then found two different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Captain Will took Manu Iwa to the south, and guests also got to spend some quality time with a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Lots of whales around the boat were breaching — they weren’t super close, but we definitely got to see more than just the splash. And when each boat deployed our hydrophone, we got to hear some very clear and loud singing.
By the time we departed for the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, the wind had come up. We only were able to stay out for an hour, but we got to see 13 different whales (or splashes from the whales). As is usual on a very windy ocean there was lots of breaching, peduncle throwing and tail lobbing going on. Even though we saw a lot and it was really pretty exciting, since we did have to come in early we invited our guests to come back again for no charge.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.

 

Humpbacks Can Sleep – But How?

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Aloha,
Between our regularly scheduled cruises, our kid’s field trip cruises, and some private cruises, we ran 5 different Whale Watch Tours yesterday — with all those cruises, there are just too many details to send in an email. Suffice it to say, the majority of the pods we saw throughout the day were Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We did get to watch some pretty wild surface action on a couple of our trips, with competitive pods charging around the Mom/Baby duo. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, a couple of breaches and lots of spouts and dorsal fins too. We deployed our hydrophones several times throughout the day with mixed results. We were always able to hear the underwater chorus the whales listen to all day, but only a few times did we hear very loud singing (indicating close-by males). Based on what we were watching on the surface, the males close by to us were way too busy to stop and sing!
Have a great weekend,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Humpback Whales don’t sleep as soundly as we do — if they did, researchers believe that they’d drown. Humans breathe in response to carbon dioxide build-up in our blood, but Humpbacks and other marine mammals have to keep part of their brain awake at all times so they remember to breathe. When a Humpback sleeps, he floats just under the surface of the ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. We call this behavior “logging’ as the whale looks a lot like a floating log.

Competitive Pod Forms Before our Very Eyes

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Aloha,
On our Wednesday 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 8 different whales. As we exited the harbor, we turned south and just cruised the coastline watching multiple spouts, dorsal fins and flukes as these whales surfaced and dived. Just before the trip ended, we saw what everyone hopes to see on a whale watch — a full breach. And then another full breach…and then a third full breach! On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod just outside of the bay. We paralleled them, staying with them for almost the entire cruise. We actually got to watch a competitive pod form, as other males in the area located Mom. By the end of the cruise she had 4 males chasing after her and battling among each other for that prime escort position.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to the experts at NOAA, in 1966 when commercial whaling was finally banned, the Humpback population in the North Pacific was estimated to be fewer than 1400 individuals.

No Mating but Valient Effort

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Aloha,
Our guests braved the on-again, off-again rain on Wednesday, and enjoyed some pretty great whale watches. We operated two boats for our Breakfast with the Whales Cruises, and our Captains decided to go in different directions. Both Captains made the right decision, as guests on each boat saw at least 20 – 24 different whales. With all those whales out there, everyone got to see multiple breaches, pec slaps, and tail lobs. Guests on Manu Iwa were surprised when a competitive pod of 4 whales decided to use the boat for their own purposes. This pod included a Cow/Calf pair and two males who were battling to see who would dominate and get to stay with the female. They all dived multiple times just below the boat, surfacing right next to us on the other side each time. There was a lot of jockeying for position between the males, and the female did a great job keeping her calf away from the action. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we found 5 different competitive pods so we actually had to choose which group to watch. We decided on paralleling a group of 4 whales who were doing a lot of tail lobbing and peduncle throws. At one point we got to watch one of them (we think it was the female, based on her behavior and position) actually roll over onto her dorsal side (her back) and slap the water with her tail multiple times. Some researchers have observed that a female whale in this position is much more difficult for a male to approach closely (in other words, she may be communicating her disinterest in mating by making it much more difficult for mating to occur).
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks with calves are accompanied by a male escort about 83% of the time during the winter season in Hawaii. Since nursing moms rarely get pregnant, we’re not sure why these males are hanging around…one theory is that the escort is trying to make a good impression on the female so that when she is receptive, she’ll consider the possibility of mating with him. Other researchers theorize that she puts up with the company of one male, hoping that he’ll scare off other amorous suitors (maybe dealing with one male at a time is better than having to deal with 2, 3, 4 or more).