Dolphins and Humpbacks Together

Aloha,

Guests joining us on our Wednesday 10:00 Signature Cruise from Kawaihae got to see a variety of cetaceans. Our first sighting was of a lone humpback who spouted and then took a 20 minute breath-hold dive. After watching him surface again, we headed north and found two “smallish” humpbacks. They also were on long breath hold dives – 17 minutes. But after seeing them dive the first time, a pod of very active spinner dolphins came over to check us out. While they were jumping and spinning and leaping, the Humpbacks surfaced again (maybe to see what all the excitement was about?). We watched them amongst the dolphins…and then when they dove we watched the dolphins play all around us again. On our way back to the harbor, most of us got to see our lone whale from the beginning of the charter breach…and then we all saw another pod of playful spinner dolphins.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day
ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. We call this behavior “logging’ as the whale looks a lot like a floating log.

Spinners Join the Fun

Aloha,

Lots to report from our weekend of whale watching. On Friday’s 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae, a very active and aggressive competitive pod spent a lot of time with our boat. Guests got to see a lot of head lunges and shoving. At the at the end of the cruise, the whole pod took a turn towards us, cruising right along side the boat. Saturday, we found ourselves surrounded by Humpbacks all day. We saw lots of competitive pods — lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods — and lots of breaching, pec slapping and tail lobbing.And on our Sunset Cruise, we not only saw all of the above…but a pod of Spinner Dolphins found the boat and put on quite a show. During the late afternoon, the Spinners wake-up from their daytime resting period and begin the procces of getting ready for their cruise out to deeper water to feed on the vertical migration of small squid and weird fish like lantern fish…so getting to see them at this time of day is always a treat. Not only do they love to ride our bow wake, but we get to see lots of end-over-end flips, spins, arcuate leaps, and tail lobs. On Sunday, we operated private cruises all day from Kawaihae Harbor…and though most of them weren’t strictly for Whale Watching, the whales didn’t know that. As is usual for this late in the season, most of what we saw revolved around the female Humpbacks taking care of their calves, and the rest of the Humpbacks creating next year’s calves. We saw lots of Mom/Baby/Escort pods, and lots of competitive pods. It seems like it’s a much rarer occurrence for a Humpback to be alone this time of year than in the beginning of the season.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In 1918, in effort to stockpile more beef, mutton and pork to send to the American troops fighting the 1st World War, the US government sponsored a luncheon at the American Museum of National History in New York featuring Humpback Whale meat. Several dignitaries were invited (including Admiral Peary) to feast on the menu created by the Head Chef of Delmonico’s, and were quoted saying the meat tasted like pot roast or venison. During the luncheon, the museum’s “reliable sources” reported that if all of the 7 operational whaling stations on the Pacific Coast began processing whale for food (instead of for fertilizer), more than 20 million pounds of whale meat could be distributed to the American public during the summer months alone at a cost of 12.5 cents/pound. The idea never really caught on with the American public though

 

Baby Whales Steal the Show

Aloha,

The weather cleared on Thursday, so we ran all of our cruises. As usual with a busy day, there’s just too much to report for one email, so here’s what we saw on just one of those cruises. On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala from Kawaihae, we started the day with a pod of Spinner Dolphins. As soon as those little guys heard the boat, they came right over to play in our bow wake. We got to see some very lively little dolphin calves spinning and jumping…but not to be outdone, the adults in the pod did some incredible twists and twirls too. After we passed the dolphins, we found a competitive pod charging around on the surface. We paralleled this pod for several minutes and they led us to two separate pods of Mom and her baby. Each of these babies was very active. For awhile, we were watching one calf breach repetitively off the port side of the boat, while the other was breaching off the starboard side. We also saw lots of flukes and spouts from other adult Humpbacks in the area.
Have a great weekend — I’ll send out a recap of our weekend sightings on Monday.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: How do Humpbacks keep their cool when swimming through our warm Hawaiian waters?  During prolonged exercise in warm water, excess heat is shed by increasing circulation to a network of capillaries (in Latin they’re called “retia mirabiliia” which translates to “miracle network”) near the surface of the Humpbacks’ flippers, flukes and dorsal fin — the excess heat is shed to the external environment. In fact, many researchers believe that whales lifting their pectoral fins into the air, or resting with their flukes exposed vertically are actually trying to cool off.

Surrounded by Activity

Aloha,

Monday morning brought us calm winds (finally) but a pretty big swell. The whales didn’t seem to mind the water movement though, because we saw and heard a LOT without going very far from shore. On our Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Manu Iwa, we found ourselves surrounded frequently throughout the trip. Every direction we looked, we were seeing spouts and flukes. We got to see 4 different Mom/baby pods — none of them appeared to be accompanied by escorts, and a couple of different other adult humpbacks pec slapping and peduncle throwing. The whale song was really loud and clear when we dropped our hydrophone. If you’d like to hear a snippet, click here.The same thing happened to guests on Seasmoke’s Wake up with the Whales — surrounded by Mom’s and babies! That trip started with an additional treat though — guests got to see a huge pod of spinner dolphins who found the boat to be an object of fun. On our 10:00 Cruise on Alala, we got to watch a pod of  Mom/Baby/Escort for almost the whole cruise. They were pretty calm and quiet but the baby did try to approach us several times. At the end of the cruise, the baby woke up a bit, rolling around on the surface and slapping his pectoral fin just a bit. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we got to see a spyhop in the beginning of the cruise, followed by a couple of very active breaching calves (we got to see their mom’s surface, but no signs of any escorts). We also got surprised when an adult humpback decided to breach about 400 yards away from us.
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to researchers, the sleep process for a Humpback is most likely very similar to how their little toothed cousins, the dolphins, sleep. EEG readings from sleeping bottlenose dolphins show that the dolphins shut down half their brains at a time to rest – a process called “uni-hemispheric slow wave sleep”.  Mallard ducks and some species of seals sleep this way too. The active half of the brain presumably is monitoring breathing and perhaps scanning the surroundings for predators, while the passive half is resting. Bottlenose dolphins sleep approximately 33% of the day, but stay asleep for only a couple of hours at a time.

Spinners and Humpbacks Swim Together

Aloha,

Monday morning brought us some windy conditions at Anaeho’omalu Bay, but guests joining us on Seasmoke’s Wake up With the Whales got to see some pretty fun surface activity. Throughout the two hours, we saw spouts from 10 different whales. The highlight of the cruise was a pod of three that just sort of surfaced out of nowhere erupting into a peduncle throw battle. These whales were on a 7 minute dive pattern and surfaced pretty close to where they dove each time, making us wonder what was going on underwater during all those 7 minute dives. We also saw a few nice fluke dives from a solo sub-adult . On the 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we spotted Mom and her calf just outside of the harbor. They were moving very slowly north, so we paralleled them until they dove. They surprised all of us when they popped up on the other side of the boat accompanied by an escort. On our Whales and Cocktails Cruise out of Anaeho’omalu we saw whales before we even left the bay. We were enjoying watching one whale at the surface when Captain Ryan spotted a huge pod of Spinner Dolphins behind us. As we turned to go take a look, a Humpback surfaced in the middle of the pod. The dolphins stayed with that whale in pretty much the same spot for over an hour and a half, jumping and spinning frequently. We watched the whale surface a lot too and kind of twist around before making a shallow dive. By the end of the cruise, our whale was joined by 4 other whales and the dolphins were STILL there…dolphins and whales together for 2 hours…incredible!

Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Though Humpbacks come to Hawaii primarily to have babies and make babies, and though researchers have watched them closely here since the early 1970’s there are no documented observations of Humpbacks mating or calving!

Humpback Population Growing

Aloha,
Our winds are not subsiding, so we only got to run one Whale Watch at 10:00 am on Tuesday. We did see a few Humpbacks — mostly their tails, dorsal fins and spouts. But we also got to see the Humpbacks’ littler cousins when a pod of Spinner Dolphins found us. We always think it’s difficult to estimate the number of dolphins in these Spinner pods, and today’s group was no exception. We know there were a LOT of dolphins though, and we saw both big adults and some small calves. Some of the pod came over to ride our wake, and the rest of them swam alongside. We saw quite a few arculate leaps, some full-on end-over-end spins, lots of twists, and some tail lobs. We even got to hear the dolphins’ distinct whistles as they cruised on our bow.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to research results released by the SPLASH Project (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of Humpback Whales in the North Pacific – a research project involving more than 400 researchers in 10 countries) in 2008, there were approximately 18,000 – 20,000 Humpbacks living in the North Pacific, with the population wintering in Hawaii seeing a 5.5% – 6% annual rate of increase since the early 1990′s

Weekend Whale Recap

Aloha,
On Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales Cruise we got to see some interspecies interaction. Shortly after exiting Anaeho’omalu Bay, we saw a lot of splashing just south of us. It turned out that a competitive pod of 6 whales were creating most of the splashes – but right in the middle of all those whales was a pod of Spinner Dolphins. The whales were really active on the surface, tail lobbing, head lunging, pec slapping and peduncle throwing. The dolphins were doing their typical jumps and spins. When they heard us, some of the dolphins left the whales to surf our bow wake (giving us a great view of their swimming skills). We stayed with this mélange for most of the cruise. Towards the end, two of the whales actually broke away from the competition and made a b-line for us, surfacing at our bow and mugging us for awhile. On Friday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw a LOT of breaching in the distance, but were delighted when a Mom/Baby pod decided to come over to check us out.
On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales we saw spouts from lots of different whales, but our on-board naturalist Gary reports that it wasn’t till the end of the trip that we saw two very close breaches, causing all of us (guests and crew) to “lose our minds”! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 different Mom/Baby/Escort pods. When we stopped the boat to deploy the hydrophone we heard some very clear and loud sounds so we knew there were a few submerged whales close by. At the end of this cruise, we were surrounded by 6 or 7 (Captain Will thinks it was 6, but our naturalist Brooke counted 7) very big whales. The water was calm and crystal clear so we could see those beautiful turquoise reflections from their white pectoral fins as they swam along side of us.
On Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales, we were lucky enough to witness the formation of a competitive pod consisting of 8 whales. On the 10:00 Cruise, we were approached by a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. We saw more than 20 whales during that cruise, and at least 8 breaches (sometimes it’s difficult to keep track). And finally, on Sunday’s Whales and Cocktails we got to watch a calf practice his breaching. He must have thought all the encouragement coming from our boat was interesting, so he came over to check us out before scurrying off to catch up to Mom.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: In the early part of the 19th century, whales were hunted for more than just their blubber (which was used primarily as lamp oil). The meat was used mainly for fertilizer, the baleen was used for umbrella and corset stays, and their organs were processed to extract vitamins.

Active Adult Humpbacks and a Curious Calf

Aloha,
Based on the Humpback activity these days, you can sure tell it’s February! On Monday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we had barely left the harbor when we saw 2 full breaches from what turned out to be a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Unlike our experiences the past few days, it was the adults who were most active, and baby just swam on the surface. After watching this pod for awhile, we headed over to a competitive pod of 5 whales where we heard lots of trumpeting (the sounds whales make when they’re breathing hard) and saw lots of tail lobs. As we headed back to the harbor, we found the same Mom/Baby/Escort pod we had seen in the beginning of the trip. This time, baby decided it was time to check us out, and we watched as he made his approach to the stern of the boat. He couldn’t get too close though before Mom decided to step in and guide this little guy away from us. To top it all off, a big pod (we estimated about 150) of Spinner Dolphins found us and decided our boat was worth playing with – many of them swam right over to ride our bow and stern wakes.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A baby whale, called a “calf” looks so small and cute when seen playing with her Mom. But everything is relative…when the calf is born, she can already be 10 to as much as 15 feet long, and she weighs 2000 to 3000 pounds! The calf is about 26 feet long when it’s weaned (at 10-11 months).

Mugged and Breaches

Aloha,
Guests aboard our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae got to see more than 28 different Humpbacks. It was another very calm day, so we could spouts and dives and dorsal fins from miles away. We didn’t have to travel far before we saw our first spout though, as a Humpback was spouting and tail lobbing just outside of the harbor. After watching that whale for a few minutes, we saw more splashing from a pod of two a bit further south, so we headed in that direction. One of the whales in this pod did a few peduncle throws (most likely directed at the other whale). We also got to see pectoral slaps, and lots of tail lobs. Later in the cruise, we saw a very small spout, so we turned and watched a pod of Mom and baby resting on the surface. Well actually, it was mom who was doing most of the resting – baby was twisting and turning, and tail lobbing and diving – she even spy-hopped to take a look at us. After a few minutes of watching this, the escort surfaced, and Mom quickly put herself between the escort and the baby. We finally had to head back, but not before a pod of about 40 Spinner Dolphins found the Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Some of the dolphins made a b-line right towards the whales, riding the Humpbacks’ bow wakes, and the rest of the dolphins did the same thing with our boat. It was really fun to watch part of the dolphin pod leap all around the whales, while the others played with us.
And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we had a full breach on one side of the boat and a mugging by two whales on the other side. We saw some great fluke dives from the muggers – and when whales dive so close to you, it makes you realize how wide their flukes really are. We also saw some very close-by pec slaps.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback whales can’t cry — they don’t have tear ducts (they don’t need them — their eyes are always bathe d in salt water) but they do have glands on their outer corneas which secrete an oily substance that helps to protect their eyes from debris in the ocean.

Gutteral Grunting and Playing with Dolphins

Aloha,
Our weekend of Whale Watching started with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales, where among other things, we got to watch a competitive pod of 6 whales (including a Mom/Calf pair). Mom did a good job of keeping her baby in front of her and away from the pursuing males. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we heard some incredibly loud sounds when we dropped our hydrophone in the water, including a “new sound” for this year. We’ve just started hearing a very guttural grunting sound, and based on how often we’re hearing it, these singers must really be liking their new tune.
On Saturday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we hadn’t even left the harbor when we saw a baby whale tail lobbing repetitively. This little guy was lobbing backwards and forwards, and then backwards again, making us wonder if he was trying to twist around or was just really uncoordinated. We also got to see an interesting interaction between a Cow/Calf pod and a pod of about 10 Spinner Dolphins (including a dolphin calf that was only about 2 feet long). The dolphins spent a lot of time trailing the whales, but at one point they got in front and rode the Humpback’s bow wake. The dolphins did lots of spins and leaps all around the whales which must have amused the baby whale too, since while the dolphins were busy, baby took a roll right down Mom’s rostrum (head) .
Sunday’s Breakfast with the Whales and 10:00 Whale Watch can be summarized with just one word: “BREACH”! It seemed like everywhere we looked during both cruises, we got to watch a whale breach out of the water. Calves were breaching…their mom’s were breaching…single whales were breaching…and we even saw a couple of double breaches! We also deployed the hydrophone on each of these trips and heard lots of singing and vocalizing, so I guess there must have been as much activity going on underwater as there was at the surface.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers report that Humpbacks in Alaska can consume a ton of food in a day. The Humpbacks’ diet consists mainly of very small fish like herring, capelin, sand lance, and krill. Based on the calorie count of herring, a Humpback in Alaska is consuming 1,500,000 calories each day!