Weekend Whale Recap

Aloha,
On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we got to see some interspecies interaction. Shortly after exiting Anaeho’omalu Bay, we saw a lot of splashing just south of us. It turned out that a competitive pod of 6 whales were creating most of the splashes – but right in the middle of all those whales was a pod of Spinner Dolphins. The whales were really active on the surface, tail lobbing, head lunging, pec slapping and peduncle throwing. The dolphins were doing their typical jumps and spins. When they heard us, some of the dolphins left the whales to surf our bow wake (giving us a great view of their swimming skills). We stayed with this mélange for most of the cruise. Towards the end, two of the whales actually broke away from the competition and made a b-line for us, surfacing at our bow and mugging us for awhile. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw a LOT of breaching in the distance, but were delighted when a Mom/Baby pod decided to come over to check us out.
On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales we saw spouts from lots of different whales, but our on-board naturalist Gary reports that it wasn’t till the end of the trip that we saw two very close breaches, causing all of us (guests and crew) to “lose our minds”! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. When we stopped the boat to deploy the hydrophone we heard some very clear and loud sounds so we knew there were a few submerged whales close by. At the end of this cruise, we were surrounded by 6 or 7 (Captain Will thinks it was 6, but our naturalist Brooke counted 7) very big whales. The water was calm and crystal clear so we could see those beautiful turquoise reflections from their white pectoral fins as they swam along side of us.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we were lucky enough to witness the formation of a competitive pod consisting of 8 whales. On the 10:00 Cruise, we were approached by a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. We saw more than 20 whales during that cruise, and at least 8 breaches (sometimes it’s difficult to keep track). And finally, on Sunday’s Whales and Cocktails we got to watch a calf practice his breaching. He must have thought all the encouragement coming from our boat was interesting, so he came over to check us out before scurrying off to catch up to Mom.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In the early part of the 19th century, whales were hunted for more than just their blubber (which was used primarily as lamp oil). The meat was used mainly for fertilizer, the baleen was used for umbrella and corset stays, and their organs were processed to extract vitamins.

Muggings, Close Encounters, and Lots of Surface Action

Aloha,
Thursday was an incredible day for whale watching. Between our 3 boats, we ran a total of 11 Whale Watch Cruises, so reporting details for each would be pretty difficult. Highlights included several muggings (the first on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, where we were approached by two different Mom/Baby pods at different times). On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we also were approached several times by different whales checking us out. We got to see a whale calf attempting multiple breaches (sometimes he just couldn’t quite get the timing right and did more of a back-flop). We also watched a competitive pod of 6 whales charging along the surface of the ocean. Our afternoon trips allowed our guests to see pretty much every surface behavior of the Humpbacks in Hawaii including tail lobs, pec slaps, head lunges, peduncle throws, throat inflations (from whales in competitive pods), and multiple breaches.
Mahalo… have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Valentines Day!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Valentines Day Humpback Fact of the Day:  A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to measurements made by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 times per minute.

Massive Humpback Tongues

Aloha,
There was lots of great activity to see this past weekend. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests were delighted to watch a Mom/Baby pair. Baby was busily breaching repetitively, while Mom stayed just below. We also saw some great tail lobs and pec slaps from a couple of nearby adults. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we got to see a VERY competitive pod chasing across the ocean. We saw lots of chin slaps and quick changes of direction and got quite the surprise when they all surfaced next to us, surrounding us. They spent almost 10 minutes using our boat, and all of us humans got quite the workout trying to follow them as they surfaced on opposite sides of the boat over and over again. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we loved watching a Humpback tail lob 30+ times right in front of the boat. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, Captain Baker reports watching 2 competitive pods, but the highlight of that cruise was the Mom/Baby/Escort pod that chose to stay with us for 45 minutes. On Sunday’s 10:00 Cruise, two whales spent considerable time right next to our boat. On our 12:30 Cruise we got to watch baby whale breach 36 times (we counted) right in front of the boat. Mom cruised right alongside her calf. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we paralleled a very active competitive pod as they headed south. We saw lots of whale aggression – head lunges, chin slaps, and lots of shoving around.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales have massive tongues. An 80,000 pound Humpback has a two-ton tongue!  Taste buds appear to be atrophied…and they are unable to protrude their tongues from their mouths.

Who’s Watching Whom?

Aloha,
We had multiple breaches right off the bat as we left A’bay on our Breakfast with the Whale Cruise on Monday. There seemed to be a whale on the surface no matter which direction we looked, and we saw some great fluke shots throughout the trip. On the 10:00 Whale Watch we had a lot of activity pretty close to the boat. We focused on 3 whales who pretty much swarmed us. We saw lots of breaches and lots of other surface activities from this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails, we got mugged for about 15 minutes by three HUGE whales! Everyone on board was just blown away by the whales’ attention to us. We’re not the kind of people who like to say we’re the most interesting thing in the ocean, but for these 3 whales, for at least 15 minutes, we were!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The Whales “mugging” us are definitely taking a look at us. Though Humpbacks rely on their sense of hearing far more than any other sense, we do know that vision is also important to them. Based on the shape of the Humpbacks’ corneas, they can certainly see us…but, they’re probably a bit farsighted when looking through water and a bit nearsighted when looking through the air. And in case anyone asks you, Humpbacks have beautiful brown eyes. Their eyeballs weigh, on average, 2.16 pounds. Human eyeballs weigh about a quarter of an ounce.

Mugged Again

Aloha,
Thursday’s Breakfast with the Whales was a LOT of fun. We’re still seeing lots of blows in all directions, and we’re still seeing lots of calves. On this trip we found 3 different Mom/Calf pods including one pod with a very, very small calf. This pod spent a good 15 minutes right next to our boat. We all got to watch baby rolling around and off of mom’s head (which must be a pretty fun game if you’re a baby whale). We also saw quite a bit of Mom, until she decided to dive under her baby…and then surprise all of us with 2 complete breaches about 15 yards from the boat! When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some very clear and loud singing. We also saw a lot of other breaches somewhat further away from the boat. The rest of the day was equally great, with lots of blows, fluke dives, Mom/Calf/Escort pods and competitive pods. We did see some pec slaps and head lunges from one very active calf, and some breaches from a couple of adults. We also saw peduncle throws and tail lobs from some competitive adults.
Mahalo and have a great weekend! I’ll send out a weekend recap on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the DayBeing mammals, Humpbacks have belly buttons – in case you’re wondering….they’re “innies”.

Wild Times on the Water

Aloha,
We had a wild show on Tuesday’s 10:00 Whale Watch. We found a competitive pod of 8 whales right off of Puako. We’re guessing it was composed of one female and 7 males…but we suppose it could have been just 8 competitive males. Regardless, we watched this group for our entire whale watch. We saw lots of trumpeting, lots of whales shoving other whales around, bubble blowing, chin lifts, peduncle throws and well…the ocean was churning from all their surface activity. It’s exhausting just trying to recount this…we can only imagine how exhausted the whales must be feeling! And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, our onboard naturalist Angelica, reports that it was the best trip of her life! Leaving the bay, we saw what we thought was a competitive pod because we could see lots of splashing. As we approached, we realized it was a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. The adults were acting really aggressively towards each other…lots of chasing, lunging, and trumpeting, and it appeared to us that the poor little calf was just trying to stay out of the way. Apparently in the midst of all this chasing around, Mom saw our boat because she turned right towards us, leading the male to us too. All three of them spent the next hour swimming back and forth from side to side and bow to stern under the boat. At one point one of the adults did a tail lob so close to the stern that it splashed all of us! Baby seemed to like looking at the boat (very curious)…and as we watched this incredible show, the whole boat was rocking from the waves these whales were creating. The other interesting thing we noticed was as these whales spent more and more time using our boat for whatever purpose they were using it, they did seem to calm down a bit. We’re not sure if they were getting tired or just found us to be an interesting diversion.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the DayThe maternal instinct of the Humpback is so strong that she’ll even take care of other small animals in danger! In 2009, 2 scientists sailing off the coast of South America watched as a pod of Orcas flipped a Weddell Seal off an ice flow. The seal began swimming towards a nearby Humpback. Just as the seal got close, the whale rolled onto her back, sweeping the 400 pound seal onto her chest. As the Orcas closed in, the Humpback arched her back, which lifted the seal out of the water…unfortunately for the seal, the water rushing off the whale started to wash the seal back into the sea. The scientists were astounded to see the Humpback use her flipper to gently nudge the floundering seal back onto her chest…moments later, the seal slid back into the water and swam to the safety of a nearby ice flow.

Mugged, Spy Hops and a Shark

Aloha,
We ran a lot of whale watches on Thursday, so I’ll just summarize some of the highlights. On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we were mugged by a Mom and her baby who were being pursued by two escorts. We saw a couple of great double pec slaps as mom was lying on her back waving those pec fins (we’re pretty sure she was trying to give those escorts the message that she wanted nothing to do with them). Baby seemed to be having a lot of fun rolling around on Mom’s head and down her pectoral fins. At one point, the two of them came right up to the stern of the boat, and just under the surface, Mom rolled over on to her back and cradled the baby in between her pectoral fin and the left side of her body. Just after that, baby did a spy hop which included a 360 degree spin. This baby was really young – he was a very light shade of grey and had a very bent dorsal fin.
On the next cruise, we saw the same Mom and baby, and this time both of them breached multiple times  – first mom, then baby, then mom, then baby again (and baby kept going for awhile). Of course we can’t be certain that she was teaching him or that he was mimicking her, but it sure was interesting to watch. On the 12:30 cruise, we were mugged again by a different Mom/Calf/Escort pod. These whales stayed with the boat for about 15 minutes. We also saw several tail lobs and some peduncle throws about 500 yards away. As we were heading north to get back to the bay at the end of this cruise, we were passed by a competitive pod of 7 (or possibly 8 – it was impossible to count) BIG whales charging south. They came right by the boat, mostly motor boating (a behavior that describes their posture as they swim fast on the surface), but we also saw a few chin lifts and a couple of piggy backs as they passed us. Even if we were heading the same direction as they were, we’d never have been able to keep up with this pod.
And on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had close encounters with 3 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and saw several tail lobs and peduncle throws about 500 yards away. Just north of the Bay we did see an unusual thing…we saw a very big shark cruise by. Our naturalist Mike wasn’t able to identify the species, but he did say it was really big!
Mahalo, and have a great weekend. I’ll send out the weekend recap on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the DayDo you know the easiest way to distinguish whether that big creature swimming rapidly towards you is a whale or a shark? Watch the way it swims…whales propel themselves through the water by moving their tails up and down vertically. Sharks and other fish move their tails from side to side. Aristotle was the first person to document this difference around 350 B.C. Hopefully you’ll never need to use this information for anything other than winning a trivia contest!

What Attracts a Whale

Aloha, On Wednesday we ran only one whale watch… but guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise had quite the experience! We started the cruise by watching a whale breach 3 times. It was so exciting that it took our collective breath away (we can only imagine how the whale must have felt after all that exertion). And then we found a  pod  of two adults – or rather, they found us! They seemed to think we were something worth investigating because they swam around us, looking at us for a long time. We were theorizing that these whales were both male and that they were thinking that our long, sleek hulls were shaped a lot like a female whale…And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, these two whales were joined by a third whale who decided to “mug” us for awhile too. Days like today make us very excited to see what tomorrow will bring.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the DayHumpback whales can’t cry — they don’t have tear ducts (they don’t need them — their eyes are always bathed in salt water) but they do have glands on their outer corneas which secrete an oily substance that helps to protect their eyes from debris in the ocean

Singing a New Tune

Aloha,
With the risk of sounding like a broken record, Thursday was another windy day. But guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay did see whales. According to our onboard naturalist Mike, there were lots of “blows and goes” — whales just surfacing, spouting, and diving. We did see some breaching and splashing on the horizon though, and when we deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were loud and clear. On our 12:30 Whale Watch, most of us (except for our on board naturalist, Angelica who was looking the wrong way) saw a whale breach RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BOW! After that, we saw whales everywhere we looked, including two cow/calf/escort pods.We also found a competitive pod and watched as one whale breached, landing on another in the pod…and then the same whale (we think) head lunged on top of another whale…lots of charging and trumpeting from this pod. At the end of the trip, just as we were returning to the bay, a Mom and her Baby decided to acquaint themselves with us, circling the boat and looking at all of us. And on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw lots of whales and lots of very close-by surface activities including head lunges, pectoral slaps, peduncle throws, breaches, and tail lobs. We found 3 Mom/Baby/Escort pods and a couple of different competitive pods. We were able to deploy the hydrophone on this trip and the sounds we heard were so loud that we actually had to turn the volume down by half so we didn’t blast everyone right off the boat.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend.
I’ll send out the next report on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  To our untrained ears, the sounds we hear from our Hydrophones sound pretty random, though we have noticed the lack of certain phrases this year that we heard fairly often last year (most notably, a phrase that sounded like “whoop,Whoop, WHOOP, WHOOP WHOOP“).  And this year we’re hearing a very distinctive laughing-type sound (HEH – HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH).  According to a paper published in the journal Current Biology, it turns out that our ears aren’t so untrained after all. Researchers have documented that the Humpback songs in the South Pacific are actually changing really quickly. Over the last decade, completely new song themes are appearing within a season. The researchers compared the radical evolution of the Humpbacks’ songs to human musical composition, suggesting that the themes are so novel, it’s as if whole new human musical genres were appearing that no one had ever heard just a few years ago

Cavorting Calves All Weekend Long

Aloha,
We saw way too much this past weekend to recap all of it…so here’s a few highlights. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 23 different whales, but really enjoyed watching a pod of 3 who seemed to be rolling around on top of each other. These whales came up vertically out of the water belly-to-belly a couple of times and though we didn’t see their eyes, the posture was very much like a spy hop. They also twisted and turned on the surface, and one of them pec slapped 13 times (we know that because one of our second-grade age guests kept the count for all of us). This whale also did a few complete roll-overs at the surface slapping each of his pec fins as he twisted. On the Alala on Friday, we ran two trips and saw 15 whales the first time, and 20 the second. The highlight of each of those trips was the close encounters with pods of Mom/Baby/Escort who decided to swim under our boat to check us out!
Saturday’s Whale Watches were much the same, with lots of energetic calves playing all around us. One of our favorite moments was watching a calf literally rolling around on top of Mom’s rostrum, slapping his pectoral fins (in delight?). We also loved watching a very young calf (with a completely bent over dorsal fin) attempting a couple of breaches and head lunges. We also had a couple of very close encounters with Mom/Baby/Escort pods. Each time, the baby seemed to lead the way over to us, and each time Mom actually kept herself between the baby and the escort, allowing baby to surface nearer to us. And on the Whales and Cocktails, we saw 25 different whales – no competitive pods, but plenty of Mom/Baby/Escort pods. We saw 20 adult breaches on this trip and 16 calf breaches along with lots of head lunges and tail lobs.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 18 different Humpbacks and had an extremely close encounter with  a curious Humpback who swam around the boat a few times to take a look at us. And we ended the weekend with an adult Humpback breach about 70 yards from the boat. We also got to watch a baby breach over, and over, and over again…and to top it all off…we got mugged by another curious calf and her Mom.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback 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”  in the whales’ muscles. One of the reasons adult humpbacks can hold their breath for 45 minutes is that they can store oxygen in their muscles (not just their lungs), and baby is training to be able to do that too.