Tag Archives: tail lob

Mugged All Day – and that’s ok!

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Aloha,
We had a great time on yesterday’s whale watches. On our first trip, we had two whales spend 45 minutes with us just 10 feet from the boat. We also got to see a couple of breaches about 50 feet from the boat, and lots of tail lobs about the same distance. And then, according to our on board naturalist Mike, the next whale watch was even better! The winds had calmed down a bit and we found the same two whales from the first trip, who still wanted to look at us. They were joined by 3 other whales, so now we had 5 Humpbacks curious about the boat. And on the next trip, we had 4 whales spend an hour and a half with us, surfacing, spouting, and even tail lobbing very close by! Of course, all day long we saw lots of other whales around us, but when we’re being “mugged” by curious Humpbacks, we tend to focus our attention on the whales right next to us!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Yesterday, I promised to explain how 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:

Curious Calves All Weekend Long

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Aloha,
We had nice weekend of whale watching – too many trips to report everything, so I’ll just summarize the highlights, starting with Friday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise where 3 adult humpbacks decided to surround our boat for close to 15 minutes. On Saturday’s 12:30 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we got to watch an interesting interaction between Mom and her baby. The calf breached about 10 times before mom did a big peduncle throw landing her tail just about on top of the calf…was Mom trying to tell her baby “enough! settle down!”?. We also saw some beautiful fluke dives from a different Cow/Calf/Escort pod – Mom’s flukes were all black, and the escort had some very distinct white patches on his flukes. On Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails Cruise we saw 5 different Cow/Calf/Escort pods. We had two really, really close encounters when different escorts came right up along side the boat. We also saw some pretty vigorous tail lobbing and peduncle throws from a different pod. On Sunday, guests aboard our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise saw lots of breaches in the wind, but were most excited by the Mom and calf who circled our boat for more than 20 minutes. We all got a very good look at these whales (and they got a very good look at us too)!. And a similar thing happened to us on the Sunday Whales and Cocktails Cruise when a Mom and her calf decided to spend a considerable amount of time right next to us. We also saw a series of tail lobs and a peduncle throw from a competitive pod, and lots of breaches but they were in the wind, and we decided it wasn’t worth it to travel out there to see those whales.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: At birth, a Humpback Whale Calf weighs betweeen 3% and 4% of his Mom’s weight. Interestingly, at birth, human babies average 4%-5% of their Mom’s weight.
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Spy Hops, Breaches, and Lots of Singing

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Aloha,
Wednesday’s Whale Watches started out with a bang! On our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw somewhere around 35 different whales. We saw 20 breaches (mostly out on the horizon – we can’t always see the animal but we can see the SPLASH). We also saw 3 spy hops, and lots of pec slaps and tail lobs. On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we counted 20 different Humpbacks. We did see a competitive pod of 4 whales (our on-board naturalist Jonathan thinks they are the same individuals that we’ve been seeing for the last 3 days). We saw 2 breaches way on the horizon and a couple of head lunges closer in. On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise on Manu Iwa, we saw about 20 whales, and enjoyed watching a mom with her little calf. The baby was pretty active, tail lobbing right next to Mom. We saw a bunch of breaches in the distance, but we couldn’t believe it when a whale breached 40 yards from the boat.  Seasmoke was also out on a Whales and Cocktails Cruise last night and guests aboard that boat saw about 15 different whales. Everyone was really excited when a mature Humpback surfaced right behind the boat and then swam along side. Guests also saw a lot of breaching about 400 yards away from the boat. When we deployed the hydrophone on this trip, the sounds we heard were loud and clear.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Spy hopping is one of the ways a Humpback can see what’s going on above the surface of the water. Because Humpbacks have really big heads proportionally, their eyes are about a third of the way down their bodies. When the whale spy hops, she rises slowly and vertically from the water, head first. If she’s a fully grown whale, her rostrum may be 15 feet above the surface before her eyes get there!

Whale Watching Season is in Full Swing

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Aloha,
You know the whale season is in full swing when the naturalists see so many whales they forget to count! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales, our naturalist Logan reports seeing “a whole bunch of whales”. Not a very accurate count…but when the action is this good, it’s hard to keep track! Guests also saw a Mom and her calf fairly close to the boat. They saw two breaches in the distance and lots of tail lobs. The same thing happened on our other whale watches, with the naturalists describing the trips as “so many whales we didn’t know where to look”! On our Whales & Cocktails Cruise, Adam, our on board naturalist, gave his best guesstimate as sighting 20 different whales throughout the course of the trip. He reports that the highlight of this trip was watching 2 whales breaching right next to each other. All that energy and splashing apparently attracted the attention of some other Humpbacks as we all got to watch 5 more whales join the breachers.
Mahalo and Have a Great Weekend. I’ll send the weekend recap out on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Yesterday I promised to discuss a few theories about why a female Humpback with a calf would allow males to approach her since she doesn’t appear to be receptive to getting pregnant while she’s caring for a calf, and since DNA studies have proven that the escort isn’t the calf’s father. Researchers have observed Mom and Baby accompanied by a male escort about 83% of the time during the winter season in Hawaii, so she must have her reasons…one theory is that the escort is trying to make a good impression on the female so that when she finally 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 easier than having to deal with 2, 3, 4 or more! 

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)!

Whales in Every Direction

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Aloha,
We started a great weekend of Whale Watching with sightings of 13 whales on our 10:00 Whale Watch including 3 spectacular breaches on the horizon. On this trip, we also saw a kind of lazy competitive pod. Our on board naturalist, Dr. Jonathan, thinks this is a pod of sub-adults just kind of going through the motions. On our Whales and Cocktails cruise, guests saw 10 different whales and a couple of horizon breaches too. Highlights from the rest of the weekend included, according to Captain Shane on his Saturday Whale Watch…”plenty whales and lots of action”. On Sunday, Angelica, our on board naturalist for the Whales and Cocktails Cruise reports that they just had to get out of the bay a few minutes before they had “whales in every direction”. Guests aboard that trip saw a total of 8 whales. 6 of them were on 15 minute long breath hold dives. They also saw 3 tail lobs and a couple of breaches on the horizon.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day:   An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval) sitting side by side. The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.

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Aloha, We had some interesting activities to watch on Wednesday’s Whale Watches. On our 10:00 Whale Watch we saw 6 whales. We watched a few competitive pods fighting amongst themselves. If you’re a Humpback, you don’t have claws or teeth, so the only way to “win” a fight or express dominance is to shove the other guys around (think pro-wrestling). From our viewpoint, this competition is really exciting. Five or six 60,000 – 70,000 pound whales pushing each other and slapping at each other right next to the boat is really exciting! We went out again from 12:30 to 2:30 and got to see another competitive pod. This pod had 4 whales in it, and they also were really active at the surface. We saw 4 tail lobs from them, and a couple of times we saw a pectoral slap (the pectoral fin is what would be an arm on a human). The water was so clear that we could see the outlines of the whales as they swam under the surface close to the boat. And on our Whales and Cocktails Cruise we witnessed yet another fight. This time, we stayed with a competitive pod of 4 whales and watched them battle. We saw 25 tail lobs, lots of pectoral slaps, and lots of bubble blowing (again, an aggressive maneuver for the Humpbacks). According to Captain Will, who was on all of these cruises, this was the “best day so far this season for whale watching”…and it’s only going to get better!
Mahalo, Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day : Humpback Whales (and, in fact, all Baleen Whales) demonstrate something called “reverse sexual size dimorphism”. This means that an adult female Humpback is larger than an adult male. Though researchers are not sure of the exact reason for the difference in size, they theorize that the increased size allows the female to store more reserves to feed and care for her calf, and also to give birth to a bigger calf who might have a better chance of survival than a smaller one.

A New Year and a New Calf

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Aloha,
Our 2013 Whale Watches began with sightings of 5 different Humpbacks on our Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. We also saw a breach off in the distance on this cruise. On our 10:00 Whale Watch on Alala, we were delighted to see 2 whales…Mom and her baby. Our onboard naturalist Jonathan reports that the calf was very young – perhaps just a few days old, since it was still very grey and still had the natal folds indicative of a newborn (when the baby slides out of its mom’s birth canal, he’s really wrinkled from his time in the womb – it takes several days for the wrinkles to smooth out). This little calf was very active too…performing 3 tail lobs and 2 little pectoral slaps. Since Mom and baby were just over 100 yards from the boat, we also got to see the little guy’s head poke out of the water a few times as he tried to get a better look at us! We finished the day with our Whales and Cocktails Cruise, where everyone enjoyed seeing spouts and flukes from several different whales.
 
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Mahalo,
Claire
 
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: The gestation period for a Humpback whale is between 10 and 11 months, which means the calves we’re seeing this year were conceived last winter.