Tag Archives: pectoral slap

Close Encounters, Breaches, and Surface Activity

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Aloha,
Monday’s whale watches can be characterized by one of our favorite behaviors: Close Encounters of the Humpback Kind! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw a variety of behaviors from 7 different whales – 5 tail lobs, 2 body lunges, 2 pec slaps and 2 peduncle throws, but for more than 20 minutes, they got to watch a Humpback apparently enamored with one of our dive-site mooring balls. As the boat hovered nearby, the whale swam around and around that mooring ball! At 3:00, our Whales & Cocktails cruise reports seeing somewhere around 20 different whales (sometimes it’s difficult to count) and a couple of pec slaps, but they had a close enounter with 3 whales. Captain Will said they saw the whales in the beginning of the cruise so he shut down the boat engines when he was about 150 yards from the whales, but the whales disappeared. He decided to go look for other whales. After he left, the guests looking behind the boat saw the whales surface again, so Captain Will turned the boat around and motored to 150 yards of them, but this time he left the engines on (in neutral, so the props weren’t turning). Apparently the whales liked the boat noise because they came over to investigate, giving us another close encounter! Oh — and our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise didn’t have a close encounter, but they did see 13 different whales, with 2 close-by breaches from the same whale! They also saw 3 pec slaps and got in the right place to see some beautiful fluke dives.
Join Ocean Sports and see the Whales. We offer 2 cruises daily just for whale watching, but this time of year, you’ll see whales from our Black Sand Snorkel Sails and our Sunset Sails!  Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We know Humpbacks are big animals, but it’s not until we have a CLOSE ENCOUNTER that we really appreciate how big they are. But Humpbacks are only the 5th largest of the great whales — Blue whales, Finbacks, Grays, and Right Whales (including Bowheads) are all longer (on average)– and if you want to count the toothed whales in the list, Sperm Whales are longer too.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Almost too many to count!

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Aloha,
We had some great times the past few days watching the Humpbacks along the Kohala Coast! On Friday, both our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise out of Anaeho’omalu and our 10:00 Whale Watch out of Kawaihae reported seeing 5 different Humpbacks. Each boat reported seeing breaches (8:00 guests saw 4, and the 10:00 guests saw 2) but the guests aboard the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails trip reported an astounding 25 breaches from 2 whales about 200 yards from the boat. Even Captain Will, who has been running charters for more than 30 years was so excited he could barely describe the action! On Saturday, the 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise reports seeing 14 Humpbacks, and the 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 11 Humpbacks. Both boats were approached by whales, and both boats report some pretty loud and clear singing. Sunday’s 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip reports seeing 25 different whales with 7 breaches, and on our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw only 13 Humpbacks, but they report seeing 28 tail lobs, 6 peduncle throws and 3 breaches. What a show! Of course we have to save the best for last…   the final trip of the weekend was the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, where 27 different whales were seen, and guests counted 7 breaches, 15 tail slaps, 3 head lunges, 2 pec slaps and some “motor boating’ — that’s what we call it when the whales are travelling near the surface of the water with their massive heads angled up, creating an actual wake…it’s generally an aggressive behavior for the Humpbacks.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our daily Whale Watch trips for a guaranteed adventure – our morning Whale Watches even guarantee sightings — See Humpbacks, or ride again for free! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t have teeth — they have approximately 270 – 400 pairs of baleen plates hanging from the top palate of their mouths ranging in length from a foot to about 3 feet long. Where the baleen is attached to the palate, it feels like a horse’s hoof — but it fringes out to form dense mats allowing the whale to “strain the soup of the ocean” when feeding.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Lots of Whale Songs, and a bit of Competition

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Aloha,
Guests on all three of our Whale Watch cruises from both locations reported good sightings on Tuesday. Both the 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales departing from Abay, and the 10:00 Whale Watch departing from Kawaihae reported seeing 4 different whales (with the folks on the 8:00 Whale Watch reporting some dolphins accompanying the boat for awhile too)..but the highlight of each of those trips happened when the hydrophone was deployed. Both trips reported LOUD singing, and the guests aboard the 10:00 Whale Watch were able to hear 3 different whales singing. At 3:00, guests aboard our Whales & Cocktails trip not only heard a lot of singing, but also watched 8 different whales. At one point, one of the whales swam directly beneath the stern of the boat! And there seemed to be a bit of competition going on at 3:00 with some tail lobs and pectoral slaps too.
Ocean Sports provides 3 opportunities daily to see the whales, and we depart from two different locations within the Hawaii Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Please call us at 886-6666 ext 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com for more information.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: When we say we heard LOUD singing yesterday, just how loud do we mean? Well, Humpback Whales have been recorded producing sounds at around 185 decibels. Because the decibel scales use different references for sounds underwater than thru the air, that’s the equivalent of about 123 decibels for us on the surface..which is as loud as the amplified music at a rock concert when you’re standing directly in front of a tower of speakers!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire