Breaches, Close Encounters and Maybe some Tutoring?

Aloha,
After a weekend of very challenging weather, the ocean finally calmed down on Sunday and we had some great Humpback encounters! On our Breakfast with the Whales cruise, within minutes of leaving the bay we saw a breaching Humpback. As we cruised over to investigate, we all got to see multiple breaches from this whale. And then, much to our surprise two whales surfaced very close to us. We absolutely love it when we can see their white pec fins reflecting as turquoise when they’re just below the surface.
On our 10:00 Cruise, the same whales chose to come and investigate us further, surfacing and diving all around us. We even got to watch one whale swim right underneath us between the hulls! And if that weren’t exciting enough – we got to watch a Mom/Baby pod. Baby was breaching a lot, and Mom was breaching too – we’re never really sure if she’s teaching her baby how to breach or if she’s just excited (or slightly irritated) by all of baby’s activities. We also saw multiple pectoral slaps from another whale, and lots of flukes. There were whales pretty much every direction we looked!
Mahalo,
Claire
Join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Cruises. Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback whale calf weighs between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds which is between 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies are proportionally larger, averaging  4%-5% of their Mom’s weight

Suprised by Spouts

Aloha,
Guests on both of our Whale Watch Cruises on Thursday got to experience the best that Whale Watching in Hawaii has to offer! On the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we found Humpbacks just outside of the bay – we watched them for awhile, but were distracted by all the splashing going on about a 1/2 mile further. So went to check it out and found some whales that wanted to look at us. They came right by the boat more than once. We also saw pretty much every surface display you ever read about in the whale watching books – pec slaps, peduncle throws, head lunges and breaches! Guests on our 10:00 Whale Watch also had some great viewing. We watched a pod of three Humpbacks (most likely one female and two males – based on their behavior). The two we were assuming to be males got into a competition – shoving each other around – until one of them must have had enough and swam away, leaving the other two to swim off together out to sea. As we were all enjoying that sight, two whales that we didn’t even know were there surfaced right next to us, startling all of us with their loud spouts (if you’ve ever heard the powerful sound of a whale spout close by, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about) And if that wasn’t enough…for our grand finale, as we were coming back into the bay, we all got to see a big Humpback breach completely out of the water!
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Experience the excitement for yourself – join Ocean Sports for Hawaii’s Best Whale Watch Tours – call (808)886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to book your adventure today!
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  When we watch a surface active competitive pod of whales, we assume it is comprised of one female either leading or being chased by a group of males. It often appears that every male is competing with every other male for access to the female. Recently researchers have observed that male humpbacks may form coalitions, working together to corral the female so that one may have easier access to her. 

Reverse Sexual Size Dimorphism

Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started out with a lot of surface activity. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guests saw 4 different Humpbacks. Two were in the distance, but the two closest to us were excited about something – we got to see tail lobs, pectoral slaps and even a breach! On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails, we saw 7 different whales but spent most of our time with a competitive pod of 4 that chose to come pretty close to us. We saw multiple tail lobs and peduncle throws, and at one point, one of the whales surfaced just 50 feet from us. Saturday and Sunday brought us more of the same great action. Highlights included seeing breaches, tail lobs, and pec slaps all from what our onboard naturalist Gary reports as a yearling (based on her size) just out of Anaeho’omalu Bay on Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch guests saw 5 different whales and lots of surface activity including multiple breaches, pec slaps and tail lobs.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales (and, in fact, all Baleen Whales) demonstrate something called “reverse sexual size dimorphism”. This means that an adult female Humpback is larger than an adult male (by about 5%). Though researchers are not sure of the exact reason for the difference in size, they theorize that the increased size allows the female to store more reserves to feed and care for her calf, and also to give birth to a bigger calf who might have a better chance of survival than a smaller one. Average length for a fully grown female Humpback is around 45 feet. At her heaviest, she weighs 35 – 40 tons.

A Day Full of Breaching

Aloha
If you read the Whale Report I sent out on Thursday morning, it may have been a little confusing since I somehow got a day ahead of myself, and I was really reporting on Wednesday’s Whale Watches…sorry about that, and here’s the recap for the real Thursday.
Thursday’s Whale Watches started out with pretty much “every activity you could see from Humpbacks” according to our naturalist Mike. We saw tail lobs, peduncle throws, pec slaps, head lunges and even a few breaches. We also had two close encounters with different pods of Mom/Baby who swam by to check us out. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw over 30 different Humpbacks, but the highlights were definitely the competitive pods we found  – especially the second one. The whale in front of this group (which according to researchers, is almost always the female) did 6 full breaches expressing her excitement (or anxiety, or irritation, or health…not sure which). We also saw multiple peduncle throws, tail lobs and pec slaps from the other whales in this pod. And on the Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw lots of breaches and pec slaps in the distance, but towards the end of the cruise we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod with a very active calf. Baby breached repetitively, and the escort performed several peduncle throws right near the boat.
Mahalo, and enjoy your weekend! I really will send out the next report on Monday,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either 1). Female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partners…or 2). Female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating.

Backwards Breach?

Aloha,
On Tuesday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we encountered a competitive pod of 4 whales (one of whom we’re pretty sure we watched in a competitive pod on Monday, based on the markings on his flukes). For awhile, we watched two of the whales in this pod swimming belly to belly. Mom had her calf out in front of the group, and though to our naturalist Ryan the calf looked tired, Ryan did report that the calf was definitely keeping up with the group. We also encountered another pod with a very active tail lobber. At one point, this whale had about 80 percent of his body out of the water while lobbing…it looked like a backwards breach. On our way back to the bay, we found another pod of Mom/Baby/Escort, and watched them swim along the surface. On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw lots of breaches and and had a couple of close encounters with whales swimming by who swung over to check us out. And we went out again at 12:30 and had a great encounter with with a Mom and her calf who decided to swim right under our boat. We deployed the hydrophone on both of these trips and heard some very loud, clear singing. We finished the day with sightings of 20 different whales on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise. We found one Mom with her Baby (no escort) and lots of pods of 3 whales. We saw some pec slapping and some beautiful fluke dives on this trip too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks don’t associate with each other at all while they’re in Hawaii. This is especially interesting in light of the fact that the females do associate with each other in Alaska — they’ll even feed cooperatively there. Since the females come here just to mate (and calve), we can postulate that female-female interaction must somehow get in the way of successful mating. Maybe groups of females would attract too many competitive males for safe mating to occur….what do you think?

Humpbacks, False Killer Whales, and even a Hammerhead!

Aloha,
Our weekend whale watching started out with “too many whales to count” on Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We spent about an hour with a pod of 3  – Mom, her calf and an escort. The calf was really active – lobbing his little tail over and over. We also had a couple of very close encounters with whales swimming just 10 feet away from the boat! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 30 whales! We had breaches close to the boat; we saw a spy hop, head lunges, tail lobs, pec slaps and double pec slaps – pretty much every behavior in the book! On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise. the highlight of the trip was either the competitive pod of 6 whales repetitively tail lobbing and peduncle throwing…or the VERY CLOSE BREACH. We couldn’t decide which was more exciting. On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we encountered a pod of two whales just outside of the Bay. They stayed with us for awhile, but then we saw a pod of 5, so we headed out to see them. They were really active on the surface, breaching and tail lobbing, and at one point all 5 of them crossed our bow just 20 feet away. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 25 whales, including a fairly active competitive pod of 3. The two males were clearly jockeying for position to get closer to the female…lots of trumpeting and bubble blowing from them. We also saw two breaches on the horizon, tail lobs and peduncle throws. But the highlight of this trip is when our naturalist Jonathan saw something white floating on the water. As we got closer we were able to determine it was a Hammerhead Shark! This shark was probably 8-10 feet long, (which is normal for that species) and it stayed with the boat for almost 20 minutes! On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 7 whales including two pods of Mom/Baby without escorts. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard faint singing. And to top off the day, on our Whales and Cocktails trip, not only did we see a lots of Humpbacks, but we also saw a pod of false killer whales (they look like kind of like  big – really big – dolphins, and though they’re shaped a lot like orcas, they don’t have the white markings). False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) are not really that rare, although we don’t see them often in shallow water. They feed on large fish and squid, and average between 16-20 feet long.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Friday’s pectoral and double pectoral slaps showed our guests the most distinctive physical characteristic of the Humpback Whale…Humpback Whales have the longest Pectoral Fins (arms) of any of the great whales. They’re so distinctive that the Latin Genus name (Megaptera) for the Humpback actually describes those fins…The Genus and Species names are “Megaptera Novaengliae” meaning“Big-Winged New Englander” and pronounced “MAY-ga-terra No-vee-ANG-li-ee.

Humpbacks, Spinners, Babies, Competitive Pods…a GREAT Weekend!

Aloha,
We had a great weekend of whale watching. On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we found 3 whales who decided to spend quite a bit of time with us. At one point, one of them surfaced just 50 yards away from the boat! We also saw lots of breaches on the horizon (but we couldn’t get out to those whales). On our 10:00 Whale Watch, the wind began to come up…but we did see a Humpback and we also saw about 200 very active Spinner Dolphins. When we deployed the hydrophone on that trip, we did pick up some very faint singing.
On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales we saw 11 Humpbacks. The first 5 were off in the distance…but then we came upon a competitive pod of 6 whales south of the Bay. This pod circled us TWICE, coming within about 6 feet of the bow (we weren’t moving at that point). We saw a few head lunges, lots of motor-boating (a description that sounds like exactly what it is…whales moving thru the water with their heads above the surface, so they look like high-speed boats), and some tail lobs! The strong winds up north on Saturday prevented us from running the 10:00 Whale Watch, however our guests aboard our Whales and Cocktails cruise encountered the same competitive pod as the morning guests did (at least we think it was the same group of whales). We got to see a few peduncle throws from this pod and the same exciting chase scene.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, guest saw 8 whales…lots of breaches and pec slapping in the distance, and a close enough encounter that some of us got covered by what comes out of the blowholes when the whale spouts (see the Humpback Fact of the Day for more on this). On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we spent a considerable amount of time with a Cow/Calf pod just outside of the harbor…and we saw a few more whales in the distance. And we finished the weekend with our Whales and Cocktails cruise where we saw 7 whales…but the coolest thing that happened on that trip was watching a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins surround two of the whales. We’re not really sure how much inter-species communication actually goes on, but it sure appears to us that the dolphins are interested in playing with the whales (and that the whales find their little cousins to be pretty irritating)!
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see a whale spout, 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!

Singing, Baby Pec Slaps, and Humphrey’s Story

Aloha,

We had some great times on the water on Wednesday. Our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales and our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails both departed from Anaeho’omalu on Manu Iwa. The whales seemed happy to see us as both trips report lots of sightings and too many surface activities to keep track of. When we deployed the hydrophone on each of those trips, we heard some very loud and clear singing and vocalizations. But it was on our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae that we saw a complete turn-around from the day before. On this trip we saw 14 whales, 4 breaches, 2 pec slaps and one double pec slap from a calf (we love to see calves attempt this maneuver — they look so uncoordinated and cute while lying on their backs, flipping their pectoral fins around). We saw 2 pods of Cow/Calf/Escorts and one competitive pod consisting of 2 males and a female (at least that’s what our naturalist Jonathan was able to infer, based on the whales’ behaviors). We had one close encounter, and one mugging on that trip, and we deployed the hydrophone twice. The first time, we heard lots of whales, but the second time the sounds were incredibly resonant which means our singing whale was pretty close by.

 

Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I promised to tell you the rest of the Humphrey the Humpback Whale story. After successfully luring Humphrey to the ocean in 1985, researchers were a little surprised to see him back in San Francisco Bay again in 1990. This time, he got stuck on a mud flat south of Candlestick Park. Rescuers from the Marine Mammal Center  and the US Coast Guard used a cargo net and a boat to free him. Then, he was guided out of the Bay to the ocean by a flotilla of boats behind him full of people banging on steel pipes (a Japanese fishing technique called “oikomi”). At the same time, those same attractive sounds of Humpbacks feeding that lured Humphrey out to sea in 1985 were broadcast from boats in front of Humphrey. It worked. Since then, Humphrey’s story has been memorialized in a number of children’s books, a movie and he even has a Facebook page!

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Male Humpbacks acting out during Mating Season

Aloha,
Monday’s Whale Watch trips were a lot of fun. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, guests saw 23 different whales, but we spent most of our time with a Cow/calf pod who had attracted the interest of two males. We were able to determine who was the primary escort, and watched his attempts to keep the other whale away. Meanwhile, Mom and baby seemed to want nothing to do with either of them, and Mom used our boat a couple of times as a blocking aid. We saw a double breach, 3 single breaches, and a couple of pectoral slaps from the adults, and then a couple of half-completed tail lobs and a really small pec slap from the baby. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard a couple of whales loud and clear! On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 13 whales. 4 tail lobs, 5 breaches. a pec slap and 2 peduncle throws. We also saw Spinner Dolphins and heard some great whale songs when we deployed the hydrophone. Things seemed to quiet down in the afternoon, but guests aboard our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise saw 12 whales, 3 pec slaps and had 2 whales swim so close by that we could hear them breathing!
Join Ocean Sports to see and hear the Humpbacks. Call us at 886-6666 ext 103, or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers report that Humpbacks in Alaska can consume a ton of food in a day. Their diet consists mainly of very small fish like herring — based on the calorie count of herring, a Humpback in Alaska is consuming 1,500,000 calories each day!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Season of Love

Aloha,
Monday’s whale watches started out with a great show right outside the bay. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, our guests had a close encounter with a competitive pod of 4 whales who swam right by us, slapping their tails and pectoral fins. We then encountered a pod of 2 whales who met up with a pod of 3 whales at which point a fight ensued. We’re not very violent people, but we found ourselves yelling “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as we watched the incredible interaction between those whales. We ended that trip watching a very cute little calf and his Momma. Baby made some little pectoral slaps and tail slaps as we all said “Awwww”. On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 14 whales, including 3 Cow/Calf/Escort pods. When we deployed our hydrophone, we heard some very clear songs (which means there were some submerged males close by). And on our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, guests saw a dozen Humpbacks, including a very active competitive pod. Looks like we’re in the season of love for those whales!
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watching adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com for reservations today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: According the the website of the International Whaling Commission (the international agency overseeing whaling) the only countries with people allowed to hunt Humpbacks under the Aboriginal Sustenance Hunting program are a tribe in Greenland (who are allowed 9 West Greenland Humpbacks annually for the years 2010-2012), and the Bequian people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who are allowed a total of 20 Humpbacks between the years 2008 and 2012. The next meeting of the sub-committee overseeing these quotas will take place from June 20th to the  27th, 2012 in Panama City.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Captain Claire