Tag Archives: peduncle throw

Swell time Despite the Swell

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Aloha,

Well the surf that came up on Thursday decided to stick around for most of the weekend, so we were forced to cancel a lot of our Whale Watch Cruises. But on the few cruises we did take out, it seemed that the whales were as happy to see us as we were to see them. For instance, on Saturday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise on Seasmoke from Anaeho’omalu Bay, we got to see 7 breaches. But that wasn’t all. It seemed like no matter which way we looked, there was something going on at the surface — peduncle throws, tail lobs, pectoral slaps. Perhaps the best of all though, was when we found ourselves the object of interest for a Mom and her calf who decided to surface right next to us while we were all looking the other way. By Sunday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had some wind along with the swell, but we still got to see Mom and calf, and we also got to see a lone adult cruising along the surface.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A distinguishing morphological (body) characteristic of the Humpback is the length of her pectoral fins. Their average length is 1/3rd the length of the Humpback’s body (approx. 15 feet). The genus name for the Humpback (Megaptera) describes the fin – the translation from Latin for Megaptera is “Big – Winged”)

Delicious, Nutritious Humpback Whale Milk

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Aloha,

We started out our Wednesday with some excellent sightings on both Manu Iwa and Seasmoke for our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise. On Manu Iwa, we saw more than 20 Humpbacks within a mile from us, but many of them were much closer. We got to see a Mom and her baby unaccompanied by an escort. Baby breached a few times (probably burning off some of the energy he gains from drinking all that milk). We also saw a few HUGE (45 foot plus) whales — one of whom surfaced within 20 feet of us while we were idling with the hydrophone in the water. And speaking of the hydrophone — we heard a whole symphony when we deployed it today. While all this was going on, we also saw peduncle throws, and lots of pectoral slaps. Since Seasmoke departed at the same time from the same location, we decided to look for our “own” whales, and boy, did we find them! We watched a calf and his Mom for awhile, before another whale surfaced less than 100 feet from us. We actually didn’t know which way to look for a lot of the charter since there were whales everywhere! We saw lots of pec slaps, breaches, and peduncle throws, and also heard some pretty clear singing when we deployed our hydrophone.
On our 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, we found a Mom/Calf pod just north of the harbor. We watched them for awhile and got to see baby breach before we headed off to watch some of the other bigger whales we were seeing out a bit further. We came across a competitive pod of 5 whales who were doing their usual competitive aggressive behaviors — head lunging, peduncle throwing, and bubble blowing. At one point, they all passed within about 50 feet of our idling boat. On the way back to the harbor, we found our Mom and baby again. We stopped to watch baby breach 8 more times…but had to head back to the dock. As we left (which it was just killing us to do, but we had to get back), we watched baby continuing to breach over and over and over again.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpback Moms feed their calves milk. But Humpback milk isn’t just any old milk — it’s extremely rich with a fat content of approximately 50%! Human milk contains only about 4.5% fat. Supposedly, Humpback milk tastes like “sweetened cod liver oil” …but I don’t know that from experience!

Oh Baby!

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Aloha,

On Tuesday’s Wake up With the Whales on Seasmoke, we got to see three different Mom/Calf/Escort pods. We also saw a lot of surface activity from other adult humpbacks in the area including 6 or 7 full breaches (one was just 50 yards from the boat — sure surprised all of us)! We also saw some peduncle throws and a few pec slaps from other whales. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise we also got to see some calves. We actually saw two different Mom/Calf/Escort pods. Baby was pretty active in that second pod — up on the surface a lot, and even breaching. In between watching those two pods, we got surrounded by a competitive pod. These whales were really acting aggressively towards each other. We saw lots of lunges, peduncle throws and tail lobs — even a few pec slaps.
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).

Intense Sightings All Weekend

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Aloha,

The whales were everywhere this weekend, and we ran a lot of different cruises, so I’ll just recap highlights from a few of them. On Friday’s10:00 Whale Watch, Captain Baker reports seeing a couple of pods of 3 whales harassing each other for the duration of the cruise which provided lots of surface action to watch. Guests also saw one whale do a complete breach just 120 yards from the boat. This guy was totally out of the water, and everyone got to see it (which is kind of unusual; it’s much more common that most of us are looking a different direction until we hear the shouts from the lucky people who see the whale’s rostrum exit the water)! And on the Whales and Cocktails Cruise we saw lots of spouting and lots of fluking. We also got to see 2 lazy breaches from a whale about 200 yards away from us. He only got half his body out of the water, but he did land on his back both times.
On Saturday’s 10:00 cruise from Kawaihae, we started out with a single whale who breached 4 times in a row, and then did 7 peduncle throws — which certainly got our attention. But after that expenditure of energy, he just swam down the coast spouting and diving. Then we found a pod of Mom/Baby/Escort offshore of the Mauna Kea Resort. We watched the interaction between the 3 of them for the rest of our cruise.
On Sunday’s Wake up With the Whales, we hardly got a break from the action the whole trip. Not only did we see every surface activity in the book, but we had a whale breach not more than 100 feet from us, and at one point two whales surfaced just in front of our idling boat while one whale was tail lobbing right at our stern. On the 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, the whales were eerily quiet — until the last 30 minutes when a sub-adult started doing peduncle throw after peduncle throw. Some of us counted 15 — some of us counted 17. By our 3:00 departure for the Whale & Cocktails Cruise, it had gotten kind of windy,and the Humpbacks were reflecting that energy. We watched at least 6 pods of two whales, plus a few competitive pods — and according to Captain Mark, saw lots of tail lobs, peduncle throws, head lunges and breaches from these pods.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A Humpback Whale doesn’t reach sexual maturity till it’s about 35 feet long (age 5 or 6 for females, and a little bit later for males). Researchers have observed that most Humpbacks in the North Pacific don’t begin calving successfully till they’re at least 10 years old – the mean average is 11.8 years. In the North Atlantic, Humpbacks generally give birth for the first time between ages 5 and 7.Baby Breaches

Everything you can Imagine a Humpback Doing

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Aloha,

Guests aboard Thursday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise got to see basically everything you could imagine a Humpback doing in Hawaii. We saw multiple breaches — so many we lost count — (including one from a calf), pec slaps, head lunges, peduncle throws, and tail lobs. And to top it off, a lot of this activity was just 20 yards or so from our idling boat! There was so much activity going on that we never had to travel more than about a mile from the bay – we spent the whole cruise between Anaeho’omalu and the Hilton. Oh, and when we dropped the hyrdophone into the water, we heard quite a bit too. A lot of the chorus seemed to be pretty far away, but there were a couple of very loud, clear voices (indicating the presence of some submerged singers very close by).
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll check in again with a recap on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Just how difficult is it for a 40 ton, 45 foot long animal to “fly” from the sea in a total breach? Observers have reported seeing Humpbacks breach after only two kick strokes for propulsion. Based on the formula for calculating horsepower, measurements of laminar flow around cetacean skin (how water flows past the skin of the animal), girth and drag in the water, the breaching whale is producing between 1500 and 1700 horsepower in order to “catch air”. We used to think it was closer to 5000 horsepower, but with the aid of a calculator and more accurate measurements, we’ve been able to recalculate more accurately…and even though a lot less power is required than we thought, try this yourself next time you’re in the water. We’re betting you won’t get very far!

Whales active from Dawn til Dusk

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Aloha,

Tuesday morning was a great time to be on the water. On our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise on Seasmoke, we saw a LOT of whales. We watched one whale breach about 8 times, and another whale breach about 50 feet from someone on a kayak (both whale and kayaker were fine, though we’re betting each of them was a bit surprised by the other)!. We also saw peduncle throws, pec slaps and numerous tail lobs during this cruise. On Manu Iwa, we also saw a lot of whales, but the highlight had to have been the double breach. We often wonder what kind of communication occurs between two humpbacks in order to successfully breach simultaneously. And Captain Baker reports that guests joining us on our Sunset Cruise from Kawaihae had “an outstanding show”. He reports seeing whales all around and even under the boat. The whales were really active on the surface too — slapping their pectoral fins, peduncle throwing, and breaching.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When we see a Humpback wave his pectoral fin, it looks really floppy — as if there were no bones inside it at all. But if you were to x-ray that fin, surprisingly, you’d find all the same bones and joints that we have in our arms — all the way down to the smallest digits of our fingers. Though according to researcher Spencer Wilkie Tinker, Humpbacks are missing what would be their third finger on a human.

Best Whale Show This Year!

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Aloha,

January 1st brought us the best whale shows we’ve had all year (ha ha ha)! Seriously though, on our 8:00 Whale Watch, Captain Ryan reports that despite the bumpy ocean conditions guests saw a LOT of activity — everything from multiple pec slaps, to multiple peduncle throws, to close encounters. Breaches could be seen in the distance too. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we also had a close encounter. We got to see two Humpbacks just kind of milling about and saw some peduncle throws a couple of miles from us. And on the Whales & Cocktails Cruise, we saw 14 different whales. Most of them were a couple of miles away, but we did get to watch 3 Humpbacks close to shore chasing each other around, and we also saw 3 very clear (but kind of far away) breaches.
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll check back in again on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Why would a whale waste the energy to throw the back half of his or her body out of the water in a peduncle throw (sometimes repetitively)?? Since the whales won’t tell us, all we can do is try to interpret their behavior in terms of what else is going on in their lives at that moment. We know that Humpbacks very rarely eat while they’re in Hawaii, and since a peduncle throw is a huge expenditure of energy — if you don’t believe me, try it yourself the next time you’re in the ocean — it’s got to be important to the whale. Throwing half of yourself out of the water results in a huge splash and might be a way to communicate location, health, excitement, or even aggression and irritation to nearby whales. Especially if the nearby whale happens to be so nearby that he gets landed upon!

All kinds of Surface Behavior

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Aloha,

Hope you had a wonderful holiday yesterday…ours started off with a BANG! On our 8:00 Wake up With the Whales Cruise out of Anaeho’omalu Bay we got to watch a juvenile humpback breach 10 or 11 times (too exciting to keep track). Some of our guests got some great video — here’s hoping they share it with us, so we can share it with you!. And according to Captain Baker, there were whales everywhere, tail slapping, pec slapping, and peduncle throwing. He says “it was the direct opposite” of the day before! The rest of the day was spectacular too — we got to see the full gamut of surface behaviors, and more than once, Humpbacks decided that we were interesting enough to swing by and check us out!
Mahalo and have a great weekend. I’ll send out a weekend recap on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”, you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Aerial behaviors often result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface).

Windy Weather but Plenty of Action

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Aloha,

We started the week off with plenty of wind…but plenty of whales too. On Monday’s Wake up With the Whales, we saw 10 different Humpbacks. We also got to see a full breach which is always as appreciated as it is unexpected.
And on our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala we had a pretty quiet first hour, just watching a couple of whales spouting and diving and spouting and diving again. Then we saw some splashing south of the harbor off of Hapuna Beach, so we headed down that way, and though we knew we’d have to fight the wind on the way back  we were hoping we’d be rewarded with some pretty exciting activity. The decision paid off as there were 4 Humpbacks down there, and while we were idling, one popped up off our port bow causing a bunch of us to “ooh” and “ahh”…and if that weren’t exciting enough about 200 yards away from us another whale began tail lobbing, while yet another one started peduncle throwing repeatedly, and (it looked to us), aggressively. Since up until a few years ago December 15th was the traditional start to our Whale Watching Season, we find it remarkable how many Humpbacks are here already!
Mahalo,Peduncle throw
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: The order of whales is called “Cetacean”. The order is divided into two sub-orders, based on what’s in the whales’ mouths. Whales with baleen are in the sub-order “Mysticete”, and whales with teeth are in the sub-order “Odonotocete”. Researchers do not agree on the number of species in each sub-order, but the Society for Marine Mammalogy lists 14 species of Baleen Whales, and 72 species of Toothed Whales.

Weekend Recap – Lots of Action

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Peduncle ThrowAloha,

We hope you had as nice a weekend as we did! We started out our Aloha Friday with a sighting of 3 Humpbacks about a mile and a half outside of the harbor. At first we thought one of these whales was a calf…but as we approached we were pretty sure we were looking at Mom, her yearling and an escort. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay, we had to search a bit…but it paid off when we found a mom/baby pod. Baby breached 4 times just 400 yards from us. We also saw another big adult wave and slap his pectoral fin twice — this whale also performed two peduncle throws. On both of these cruises we were able to lower our hydrophone and make out some faint singing.
Saturday morning, guests on our Signature 10:00 Whale Watch got to see 6 different Humpbacks. The first two we saw were the most active…we couldn’t tell what was really going on with them, but we did get to see them approach each other “nose” to “nose” (well actually, rostrum to rostrum) on the surface, after which the whale on the left did a very, very small tail lob. Right after that, the whale on the right did a whole peduncle throw. We watched these two chase each other around for a good hour or so before they separated.
And on Sunday’s Wake up with the Whales, we saw 6 different Humpbacks…and on the Snorkel Adventure which departs just 30 minutes after the Whale Watch returns, we not only saw the same 6 whales (we know that because we were able to identify them by their size, location and fluke markings)…but we even got mugged by one juvenile whale.
But of course, Humpbacks can be seen from shore too…here’s the report I received on Sunday afternoon from one of our favorite OS retail crew, Delilah:
“Two whales were spotted today right in front of the Hilton Waikoloa Village resort traveling north. Two of them were splashing, tail flaps, and playing around. The guests (and some employees) at Lagoon Grill were so excited to see this spectacle, so they dropped their lunch and went to get a closer look…YAYYY!!! whales are here. so exciting”!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:  A fully grown Humpback Whale can hold his or her breath for around 45 minutes. Usually, that’s not what we observe in Hawaii though. We’re more likely to witness 10-20 minute breath hold dives, and if the whale is really active, s/he surfaces to breathe a lot more frequently.