Tag Archives: peduncle throw

Just How Well Does a Whale See?

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Aloha,
Our Monday started off really exciting with sightings of at least 20 different whales on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We saw a lot of breaches in the distance but even better…we watched 5 breaches just 100 yards from the boat. We got to spend about a half hour with a Mom and her little calf…they seemed to be aware we were there (all the “oohing” and “aahing” from our guests probably tipped them off), but they didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 7 whales including one Mom with her baby. We saw 3 breaches too, and had two close encounters on the starboard side of the boat. The whales weren’t close enough for their spouts to coat our glasses, but they were close enough that we  see details on their bodies! We deployed the hydrophone on this trip and we heard singing from a whale we estimated to be about one mile away. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw 18 different whales, but spent the majority of our time with a Mom and her very young calf. Meggan, our on-board naturalist estimated this little guy to be no more than a week and a half old. We watched as he attempted several tail lobs and peduncle throws. And we saw Mom breach 15 times! At one point, we got “mugged” as both of them came over to check us out, circling the boat and looking at us (we saw Mom lift her head out of the water to see us better). Oh…and we also saw some breaches out in the distance!
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 (with at least one notable exception…but I’ll tell you about that in a future email)!

Crazy Calf and Lots of Surface Activity

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Aloha,
We had two really run Whale Watches on Thursday. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we saw a total of 8 whales — two of them were a mile or so away, but the other 6 put on quite a show. We watched a very active calf (think of any hyperactive 2 year old human kid you’ve ever met and you’ll get the idea). This baby pec slapped, double pec slapped and tail lobbed so many times that we had to stop counting at 20 for each activity and just enjoy his antics. And as if that weren’t enough, we also saw 3 full breaches just 25 yards from the boat from a couple of adults. An on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, as we were making our way out of the bay in the beginning of the trip, we saw a full breach…then a bunch of tail lobs…then a bunch of peduncle throws about 500 yards from us. The whales kept this up…but they were moving at about the same speed we were, so we got to watch a lot more of this activity from about 500 yards away. We did have one close encounter on this trip, when a smaller whale surfaced just under 100 yards from us, blew, and dived again. In all, we saw 15 different whales on this trip.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll send out a weekend recap report 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 aren’t telling, 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 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, aggression or irritation to near-by whales. Especially if the near-by whale happens to be so near that he gets landed upon!

A Peduncle Throw and a Close Encounter

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Aloha,
Our Monday morning Humpbacks seemed to enjoy the Anaeho’omalu Bay area. Guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise on Seasmoke were treated to sightings of 4 Humpbacks. Two of them were in the distance, but the other pod of two stayed with us for more than 30 minutes. We were all pretty excited when one of the whales threw his peduncle out of the water (the peduncle is what we call the back half of the whale…from behind his dorsal fin). According to our on-board naturalist Mike, at one point, a whale surfaced just 50 feet from the boat (though we never approach the whales closer than 100 yards, they can choose to approach us)! Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae didn’t see any whales, but since our morning trips are guaranteed, they’re all invited to ride again with us for FREE! And by 3:00,the wind had really come up, so we decided that in the interest of guest comfort, to reschedule our Whales & Cocktails Cruise.
 
Join Ocean Sports for the best Hawaii Whale Watch Tours! Call us at (808)886-6666 ext. 103, or visit HawaiiOceanSports.com to reserve your adventure today!
 
Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales received protected status from the International Whaling Commission in 1966, banning most nations from hunting them. In the U.S., the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 provide additional protection to the whales. In fact, unless operating under a federal research permit, approaching humpback whales within 100 yards (300 feet) or within 1,000 feet from aircraft is prohibited by federal regulations.
 
 

Humpback Songs in Space

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Aloha,
Well, the wind is beginning to calm down for some parts of the island, and that’s helping us get the boats to the whales! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we saw 3 Humpbacks. 2 of them were spouting in the distance, but the 3rd was an adult that did a complete peduncle throw about 100 yards from the boat. We also got to see this whale’s flukes — black with two distinct white spots. And on the 10:00 Whale Watch, our naturalist Jonathan reports that we found 2 Humpbacks. They weren’t doing much on the surface…just spouting and sounding. But we did deploy the hydrophone and heard some pretty loud, clear and vibrant singing, which means there are still some male Humpbacks hanging out on the Kohala coast. And based on what we were hearing, they had to be fairly close to the boat. We didn’t run a Whales and Cocktails trip yesterday, so I can’t report what the Humpbacks were up to in the late afternoon.
There’s less than 3 weeks left of our fantastic 2011/2012 Whale Watching Season…don’t miss out! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The haunting song of the Humpback  has actually travelled beyond our oceans. In 1977, NASA launched two Voyager spacecrafts. Aboard each was a golden record with a collection of sites, sounds and greetings from Earth in 54 different human languages. These records also include greetings from Humpback whales!  And that was just the first time the whales’ song travelled beyond our planet…On  Earth Day (4/22) in 2005, a private organization called Deep Space Network broadcast a live feed from a hydrophone off the coast of Maui of the Humpbacks singing. They used a five meter parabolic dish antenna and broadcast the sounds about 18 trillion miles into deep space. So far, we haven’t gotten a response back….
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Whales watching us in the Wind

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Aloha,,

Tuesday brought us some more windy conditions, but also some nice whale sightings. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, our naturalist Meagan reports seeing 4 whales, and a couple of peduncle throws. We watched two pretty small whales travelling together for quite awhile on that trip. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we again fought the wind and only saw one whale. Since Ocean Sports guarantees whale watching (not just “spottings”) on our morning whale watches, Captain Shane called the trip “a fluke” and invited everyone aboard to join us again on another whale watch for FREE. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise, we saw 4 different Humpbacks, but we spent an hour and 20 minutes accompanied by a lone whale. The whale was travelling North for the first hour, paralleling our boat until s/he decided to surface,and make a u-turn, swimming directly under us. We all thought that this was the last we’d see of this whale, but s/he decided to do it again, mugging us once more before continuing the journey North.

 

Join Ocean Sports for a Guaranteed Whale Watch. See Humpbacks on our morning Whale Watch Cruises, or you can ride again with us another whale watch for FREE! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day:  In 1985, a Humpback whale nicknamed “Humphrey” swam into San Francisco Bay and then up the Sacramento River towards Rio Vista, Ca. After a couple of weeks in fresh water, Humphrey started showing signs of physical stress, turning grey and listless. Researchers and scientists were at a loss on how to help him back to the Pacific Ocean, until an acoustician offered the recordings he had made of humpback whales feeding as a way to lure Humphrey down the river to the ocean. It worked — Humphrey followed a ship broadcasting the sounds down the river and as soon as he encountered salt water perked up and began doing longer deeper dives. On November 4th, 1985, at 4:36 pm, he swam past the Golden Gate Bridge and headed south. Humphrey showed up again in 1990…and I’ll tell you how researchers managed to redirect him again tomorrow.

 

Mahalo,

Captain Claire

Windy Weather doesn’t stop the Sightings

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Aloha,
We sure had some wild winds this past weekend…which means we didn’t run all our Whale Watch cruises. But when we were running, we saw some great activity. On Friday, guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae saw 11 Humpbacks. We  watched a very energetic calf breach 10 times. We also saw 8 tail lobs, 4 body lunges, 2 head lunges, 3 pec slaps and heard some great vocalizations when we deployed our hydrophone. Oh, and we did see a pod of Spinner Dolphins when we first left the harbor. On Saturday, the winds starting coming up early, but guests aboard our 8:00 Whale Watch saw 6 Humpbacks pretty far from the coastline. We did see splashes (but we weren’t close enough to determine how the whales were making them). On our Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 Humpbacks, and had 3 close encounters. We all got very excited when a whale decided to breach 105 yards from our boat. We also saw a couple of pec slaps and some tail raises. And we ran a special trip on Saturday afternoon for the Rotary Club out of Kawaihae. The Rotarians saw 3 whales — a Mom and her calf, and later a lone whale. But when we deployed the hydrophone, we heard quite a bit of vocalization…which means the whales are still close by. And on Sunday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise battled the windy conditions but saw 4 Humpbacks and  2 full breaches about 100 yards from the boat. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw 8 Humpbacks and 7 peduncle throws.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watching Adventure. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers note that female Humpbacks in the North Pacific population are seen with their first calf when they’re between 8 and 16 years old (the mean age is 11.8). In the North Atlantic, female Humpbacks give birth for the first time when they’re between 5 and 7 years old.

Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Muggings, Spy hops, Baby Breaches, and Escorts

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Aloha,
All 3 of our Wednesday Whale Watches had very interesting things to report. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, we started the trip with a mugging by 3 whales for more than 25 minutes — the female in the pod (we’re guessing based on behavior) kept leading the two males in front of, underneath and behind the boat. We all got great sightings of the three whales as they swam just feet below the surface and then surfaced very close to us! We saw a total of 23 whales on this trip, 3 breaches, 5 pec slaps and 2 peduncle throws. We also heard great sounds when we deployed the hydrophone. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, guests saw 20 whales, 4 head lunges, 2 pec slaps and three spy hops. Our hydrophone picked up some great sounds on that trip two. On our 3:00 Whales & Cocktails cruise, we saw 8 whales, including a Cow/Calf. The calf breached 3 times about 100 yards from the boat, and then proceeded to make 4 body lunges before Mom gave one big peduncle throw. We weren’t sure if she was just getting tired of her little guy’s hyperactive activity, or if there was an escort who hadn’t surfaced and she was trying to shoo him away. We also saw 9 breaches in the distance and a lot of other big splashes (we couldn’t tell exactly how the whales were creating them).
Join Ocean Sports on a Whale Watch you’ll never forget. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale 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).
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Chemical analysis of whale blood and some exciting surface activity

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Aloha,
There’s lots to report from our day on the water on Tuesday. On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, we saw 10 whales, but spent a lot of our time accompanied by a pod of 3 whales — Mom/Baby and their escort. At one point, the baby surfaced just over 10 feet from our bow (of course we were sitting still in the water and watching those whales approach us)! We also ran a Private Whale Watch for some school kids from Ocean View. According to our naturalist Ikaika, the kids LOVED the cruise. They saw 20 whales and lots of Pectoral Slapping. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw a total of 12 whales. We saw 5 breaches and one double breach from a Mom and her Baby. We also watched a competitive pod of 3 whales who did their usual competitive lunging and shoving. Our hydrophone was able to pick up some very clear singing with great resolution (indicating more submerged whales fairly close by). The Alala dropped off her passengers and went out again in the afternoon. For some reason known only to the Humpbacks, the afternoon sightings were more sporadic. Guests saw a total of 8 whales (a few of them close by), a peduncle throw,  and 2 breeches within 200 yards of the boat. On that trip, the hydrophone picked up only some distant singing.
Join Ocean Sports and experience the excitement of the Humpback action for yourself! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: In 1919, R.G. Meyers, who was working towards his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, conducted a chemical analysis of Humpback whale blood collected from the thoracic cavity of a whale killed in Monterey Bay. He found that the Humpback’s total cholesterol level was similar to a healthy human’s, but the glucose level was 4 times what’s considered  a “healthy” level for a human. Since there’s not a lot of carbohydrates in a Humpback’s diet, he theorized that a Humpback’s liver and pancreas work differently than ours.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Captain Claire

Surprised by a Curious Humpback

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Aloha,
All 3 Whale Watch Cruises on Wednesday reported seeing a lot of whales and a lot of surface activity! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise, guests saw 14 different whales, but the favorite sighting was of a Mom/Baby who came over to the boat to investigate. The also saw a head lunge and a breach from different whales. Our 10:00 Whale Watch reports seeing 17 different Humpbacks. The count was confirmed by our Junior Whale Naturalist, Sloan, who helped us keep track of what we were seeing (Mahalo, Sloan — we hope you consider a career in Marine Sciences — we think you’d be very good at it). Guests at 10:00 also report seeing 4 breaches, 3 tail lobs, and 2 peduncle throws. On the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails, guests were gazing off to the starboard side of the boat to look for whales when EVERYONE was surprised by a whale who spouted right off the port side. The whale then dove under the boat, hovered there, apparently looking at all of us looking at him (or her) before surfacing right next to us on the starboard side. Another dive, another hover right beneath us, and another surface on the port side seemed to satisfy that whale’s curiosity, because s/he then swam away. Later in the trip, guests had another close encounter with 2 whales who spouted about 100 feet away and then swam right along side the boat! Our naturalist aboard that trip reports a total of 15 whales sighted, 1 head lunge and one breach.
Join Ocean Sports on any of our 3 daily Whale Watch Cruises departing from 2 different locations within the Hawaii Islands National Marine Sanctuary Waters. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com and reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: When a Humpback spouts, he’s exhaling in a half of a second, 90% of the volume of air in his lungs. It’s enough air in one blow to fill up the interior of a stretch limousine. In case you’re curious, when an average size adult exhales, he takes 3 times as long to exhale just 15% of the volume of air in his lungs — and an adult exhalation wouldn’t even fill up a Smart Car — it’s only enough air to fill up a lunch bag.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire