Tuesday was another 9 Whale Watch Cruise day for us. Highlights included watching a competitive pod of 5 whales from the Alala from 8:15 till 9:45. We found this pod off of Spencer Beach, and paralleled them as they swam north. We saw lots of head lunges, and lots of jaw claps. We also saw 6 pectoral slaps from the whale in the front of the pack, and lots of head butting from the whales behind. At one point, we saw the lead whale peduncle throw on top of one of the followers. And when we stopped the boat and deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were so loud they almost shook the boat. On the next cruise, the competitive pod was no where to be found, but we did see lots of pods of two…and one pod of two came to see us for more than 20 minutes, surfacing right next to us, and diving right underneath us. Guests aboard Seasmoke and Manu Iwa departing from Anaeho’omalu Bay also got some great sightings with a couple of close encounters. Each cruise reports seeing 15 – 20 different whales, most in pods of two, but there were several competitive pods of 5 and 6 whales too.

Mahalo,

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpbacks produce sounds in frequencies ranging from 10 hz to 24 khz. A healthy young adult human can generally hear sounds in frequencies between the ranges of 20 hz to 20 khz.