Patience is a Virtue when Watching Humpbacks

Aloha,

We woke up to beautiful skies and a beautiful ocean on Monday. On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we found a couple of Humpbacks surfacing lazily just outside the harbor. This pod of two adults was on 8 minute dives…so after watching them for a bit, we headed up north to where we saw a couple more spouts close to shore, and found another pod of 2 quiet humpbacks, These two were coming up to breathe a bit more frequently than our first pod — we got to see them every 4 minutes or so. And once again, patience paid off for us, as just before we were going to turn the boat back to the harbor, these two decided to surface really close to the boat. There’s something so magical about not just getting to see, but getting to hear those spouts too. On the way back to the harbor we all saw some huge splashes from whales breaching a couple miles off shore. Those splashes sure got our attention, making us wonder what all those whales closer by were thinking about all that action.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Researchers watching Humpbacks feeding in Stellwegan Bay (off the coast of Massachusetts) documented a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Humpbacks there weren’t just bubble-netting. They were spending a lot of their feeding time totally submerged. With the aid of “Critter Cams” the researchers were able to document three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping. Why does this matter? Now that we know how Humpbacks move when they’re underwater, we can take steps to reduce their vulnerability to entanglement to bottom set fishing gear.

Close Up Action

Aloha,

Our Monday Wake up with the Whales Cruise started out with sightings of lots of whales in the distance, but as the saying goes, “it’s not over till it’s over”. Towards the end of our cruise we got to see two tail lobbers, some pectoral slapping and 5 breaches all within a couple hundred yards of the boat. Guests on the 10:00 Cruise from Kawaihae got to watch a competitive pod of 5 whales for most of the cruise. Though there were whales breaching and splashing everywhere, this group kept our attention. They were quiet at first, and then something spurred them to action and we got to see lots of peduncle throws from them. At one point, they dove under us, and surfaced within 100 feet. We got to see several spy hops within 50 feet of us. When we deployed the hydrophone we heard a symphony of singing too.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: When you see the spout from a whale, you’re actually looking at an interesting combination of things. Some of what you’re looking at is condensation from the whales’ lungs (the same thing you’re looking at when you see your own breath after exhaling in a cold environment); some is atomized ocean water (Humpbacks live in a wet world, and there’s always some of the ocean pooled on top of their blow holes when they surface); and…since Humpbacks don’t have cilia in their respiratory tracks (little hairs)…a lot of what you see (and occasionally feel) is actually mucus! Yuck!

Stormy Weather Leads to a Fluke

Aloha,

A combination of open ocean swell and gusty winds prevented our Tuesday Wake up With the Whales cruisers to get to see much whale action. Yes, there were whales out there, and yes we did get to see some spouts and splashes…but Captain Baker couldn’t get us all comfortably out to where the whales were, so he decided to call the cruise a “fluke” and invite everyone to join us again on another cruise for FREE! The impending storm also caused us to cancel the rest of our Tuesday trips. Luckily, weather changes quickly in Hawaii, so we’re hoping we’ll have LOTS to report from our Wednesday Whale Watch Cruises!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: It is very possible that Humpback Whales did not migrate to Hawaii prior to the “golden age of whaling” in the 1820’s. Not only have we never discovered fossilized remains of Humpbacks on the islands from before that time, but we’ve never found petroglyphs of Humpbacks from before the 1820’s either. Also, there’s no word in the Hawaiian language for the Humpback whale (though there is a word for whale – Kohola). No commercial whaling occurred in Hawaii, though whalers did re-provision and spend the winters in Hawaii (especially in Lahaina). And…most interesting is the fact that no mention of humpback whales has been found in the log books of whaling ships anchored off Lahaina – and the whalers were definitely paying attention to the presence of whales, since any whale taken meant MONEY. Perhaps the whaling taking place in the North Japan Sea at that time forced the Humpbacks to search for new migratory destinations eventually bringing them to our islands.

Windy Weather but Plenty of Action

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.

Whale Season off to a Fantastic Start

Aloha,

Sorry I had to ruin the surprise with my earlier email about our first Whale Watch of the 2014/2015 season, but I was just too excited not to share our sighting with you. The Humpbacks we saw on our 8:00 Wake Up with the Whales Cruise first surfaced about 1/2 mile from us and about a mile offshore of the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort. To be completely honest, we were all a little surprised to see that first spout. Though Humpbacks have been spotted numerous times around the islands since that very early sighting off Kauai in August, we know that most of the whales are still on their migratory routes.
Anyway, the two whales we saw stayed with us and each other for at least an hour before we ran out of time and had to head back to the bay. We got to see (and hear) them several times as they surfaced next to each other, spouted a few times and then dove. We also got to see some pretty cool footprints…and at one point as we were travelling away from them, they surfaced about 50 yards behind the boat and actually swam right towards us! We got a good look at the scarring on their sides (some scars obviously from encounters with Cookie Cutter Sharks). We never did get to see the markings on their flukes though.
What a fantastic start to our season!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The smooth round flat spot we see on the water after a whale dives is called the “footprint”. Whalers thought it was caused by oil from the whale’s skin calming the surface of the water, but water samples have proven that theory to be false. When a whale dives (or kicks just below the surface) his flukes break the surface tension of the water and create a vertical wake, forming the circular footprint.

Windy, but we are Still Seeing Whales

Aloha,
The winds were pretty crazy on Monday, but we did manage to find whales on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. As usual when it’s really windy, it was difficult to get anywhere near the whales, but Captain Will did an exceptional job maneuvering the boat, and onboard naturalists Mike and Logan were able to fill the guests in on all the information we’ve shared with you all season in these reports. Guests saw some spouts (though they dissipated really quickly in the wind) and some dorsal fins and flukes. We just have one more day for our Whale Watch season, so I’ll send my end of the year report to you tomorrow.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Not all whaling activity occurred during the “golden age of whaling” at the beginning of the 19th century. Based on catch records corrected for illegal Soviet whaling, a total of more than 200,000 Humpback Whales were killed in the Southern Hemisphere from 1904 to 1980. Also, Illegal Soviet takes of 25,000 Humpback Whales in two seasons (1959/60 and 1960/61) precipitated a population crash and the closure of land stations in Australia and New Zealand.

Feeding Techniques of the Humpbacks

Aloha,
Thursday’s Whale Watch Cruises were pretty mellow. We’re still seeing lots of pods of Mom/Baby/Escort. These pods are interesting to watch as it’s often difficult to determine exactly who is leading the pod. Yesterday’s calves were rolling around a lot on the surface, and from our vantage point, it looked like their Moms were just trying to keep up with them. When we were lucky enough to see the escorts surface, they were usually in the rear, and the Moms most often were positioned between the escorts and their calves. We also saw a lot of spouts, dorsal fins, and flukes from lone whales. Since research has shown that females without calves leave the breeding grounds after mating (presumably successfully), we’re guessing that a lot of these loners are males trying to optimize mating opportunities. We did see some splashes more distant from us – some of these were caused by whales breaching, and some by peduncle throws. When we were able to deploy our hydrophones, we heard lots of loud clear songs, and lots of other background songs, so we know there are still plenty of whales around South Kohala.
Mahalo and have a great weekend!
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:Researchers watching Humpbacks feeding in Stellwegan Bay (off the coast of Massachusetts) documented a variety of previously unknown feeding techniques along the seafloor. Humpbacks there weren’t just bubble-netting. They were spending a lot of their feeding time totally submerged. With the aid of “Critter Cams” the researchers were able to document three distinct feeding approaches: simple side-rolls, side-roll inversions, and repetitive scooping. Why does this matter? Now that we know how Humpbacks move when they’re underwater, we can take steps to reduce their vulnerability to entanglement to bottom set fishing gear.

Diving, Spouting, and Tail Lobs

Aloha,

On Thursday, we ran two different Breakfast with the Whales Cruises from Anaeho’omalu using Seasmoke and Manu Iwa. Even though both of the boats left at roughly the same time and from the same location, guests on each got to see different activities.

On Manu Iwa’s Cruise, we got to watch lots of whales spouting. We saw a few breaches in the distance, but since the water was so calm we decided to stop the boat for awhile and deploy the hydrophone. We heard some very clear and very loud singing and vocalizing, so we knew there were a lot of whales underwater as well. We did get a close encounter on this cruise when a whale decided to surface about 20 yards from us. On Seasmoke’s Cruise, we spent considerable time with a whale our younger guests named “Flappy” due to his repetitive tail lobbing at close range. “Flappy” was part of a competitive pod who were all charging around on the surface nearby and breathing hard so we got to hear lots of trumpeting. As we made our way back to the bay, we got to see lots of other adult humpbacks as they surfaced, spouted, and dived (or “dove” – I looked it up and both of these past-tense forms of the word “dive” are correct) in every direction we looked. To top it off, we spent our last few minutes just outside the bay with a pod of Mom and her baby. Mom may have had an escort, but we weren’t able to stick around to see him surface.

Mahalo and have a great weekend!

Claire

Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: There’s a time when a whale is still in its fetal stage that it’s covered in fur. By the time the calf is born, the fur has disappeared. Many researchers believe that this is another indication that whales have evolved from an animal with a common ancestor to a hippo. The idea that the stages of an animal’s fetal development reflect evolutionary development or “Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny” was first proposed by Ernst Haeckel around 1900.