Tag Archives: tail lob

Humpbacks, Spinners, and Melon Heads!

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Aloha,
It was yet another windy weekend here in Waikoloa, but we did manage to have some good times on our whale watches. On Friday, guests aboard our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip saw 5 Humpbacks. We saw 3 breaches in the distance, but watched 2 whales lob their tails about 50 or 60 times (there was way more action than we could keep track of)! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we braved the gusty conditions and headed out to sea where we saw 4 whales, 2 breaches and 2 head lunges. But our favorite part of the trip was watching a Mom and her Baby accompanied by a pod of Melon Head Whales (these are smaller, toothed whales identified by, you guessed it — their melon-shaped foreheads). On Saturday’s Breakfast with the Whales cruise, we saw just one whale, but s/he spent considerable time with us. The whale was on a 5 minute dive pattern, so we saw lots of surfacing, spouting and flukes, and lots of beautiful footprints. According to our onboard naturalist Angelica, this was a big Humpback with flukes measuring a good 15 feet across. On Sunday’s 10:00 Whale Watch, we didn’t see any Humpbacks, but we did see a super-pod of more than 200 Spinner Dolphins North of the Harbor. The dolphins stayed with us for about 15 minutes as we headed North, and then as we headed back to the harbor, we got to see them again! And on our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we found 4 whales, including an unescorted Mom and Baby. They spent some time near our boat, giving us 3 close encounters.
Join Ocean Sports on a whale watch before the season ends! Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Those lines we see under the Humpback’s mouth are actually pleats that allow for the expansion of her mouth when she feeds. This expansion, combined with her ability to flex her jaws, allows her to hold up to 15,000 gallons of sea water in her mouth at one time — that’s the equivalent of 160,000 cans of Diet Pepsi (or Budweiser) in every gulp — of course, she doesn’t swallow the water she gulps…just the unlucky fish that had been swimming in it.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire
P.S. Keep those Humpback questions coming…there’s only two weeks left of the season!

Humpback navels, Cow/Calf Vocalizations

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Aloha,
We had a great start to our Whale Watching week with our 8:00 Breakfast with Whales cruise. we saw 15 different whales and spent a good deal of time watching a Cow/Calf/Escort pod. Baby breached three times, did one peduncle throw (well — it was sort of an attempt at a peduncle throw, but mostly just a big splash) and tried to approach us, but Mom  kept him from getting too close. We also saw an adult whale pectoral slapping 4 times. When we deployed the hydrophone, we heard some pretty clear singing from a couple of whales nearby. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 12 whales, but the highlight of the trip was being mugged for 20 minutes. The whale kept swimming right underneath us and we could see those long white pec fins of his clearly through the water. When we deployed the hydrophone, we actually got to hear a Mom and her baby vocalizing! Our naturalist, Jonathan, reports that the patterns of those vocalizations were very different from the Humpback Song we typically hear the male whales singing. He also noted that the Cow/calf pair were so close to us that when the sounds stopped, we could look over and watch them surface– a dead give away that this was the pair we were listening to!. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 7 whales, and spent most of our time watching two sub-adults. At one point they swam close enough to us that we could hear them breathing. One of these sub-adults was right on the tail of the other, and they whale in front didn’t seem to be enjoying the attention from his buddy — we watched him express his displeasure with a few small tail lobs.
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch Adventure. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot today.

 

Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpbacks have belly buttons —  in case you’re wondering….they’re “innies”.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Close Encounters, Breaches, and Surface Activity

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Aloha,
Monday’s whale watches can be characterized by one of our favorite behaviors: Close Encounters of the Humpback Kind! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw a variety of behaviors from 7 different whales – 5 tail lobs, 2 body lunges, 2 pec slaps and 2 peduncle throws, but for more than 20 minutes, they got to watch a Humpback apparently enamored with one of our dive-site mooring balls. As the boat hovered nearby, the whale swam around and around that mooring ball! At 3:00, our Whales & Cocktails cruise reports seeing somewhere around 20 different whales (sometimes it’s difficult to count) and a couple of pec slaps, but they had a close enounter with 3 whales. Captain Will said they saw the whales in the beginning of the cruise so he shut down the boat engines when he was about 150 yards from the whales, but the whales disappeared. He decided to go look for other whales. After he left, the guests looking behind the boat saw the whales surface again, so Captain Will turned the boat around and motored to 150 yards of them, but this time he left the engines on (in neutral, so the props weren’t turning). Apparently the whales liked the boat noise because they came over to investigate, giving us another close encounter! Oh — and our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise didn’t have a close encounter, but they did see 13 different whales, with 2 close-by breaches from the same whale! They also saw 3 pec slaps and got in the right place to see some beautiful fluke dives.
Join Ocean Sports and see the Whales. We offer 2 cruises daily just for whale watching, but this time of year, you’ll see whales from our Black Sand Snorkel Sails and our Sunset Sails!  Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We know Humpbacks are big animals, but it’s not until we have a CLOSE ENCOUNTER that we really appreciate how big they are. But Humpbacks are only the 5th largest of the great whales — Blue whales, Finbacks, Grays, and Right Whales (including Bowheads) are all longer (on average)– and if you want to count the toothed whales in the list, Sperm Whales are longer too.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Travelling Whales and Dolphins

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Aloha,
The ocean conditions on Monday were great for watching whales, and guests aboard all three cruises had lots to report. Our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise aboard Seasmoke reports seeing 12 different whales, 4 breaches and 3 head lunges. Captain Nick, our naturalist aboard that trip noticed that all the whales they saw appeared to be going somewhere, travelling down the coast (But where would they be going? Hawaii is their winter destination after all!!). At 10:00, on Alala departing from Kawaihae, our whale watchers report seeing 3 Humpbacks and a pod of over 200 Nai’a (Spinner Dolphins). But the 3:00 Whales & Cocktails Trip aboard Seasmoke reports seeing the greatest number of whales….13! 6 of those whales were in swimming in a pod, apparently excited (or irritated) about something, because between those 6 whales, they performed 2 breaches, 3 peduncle throws, 2 pectoral slaps and 2 tail lobs!
Join Ocean Sports for a Whale Watch and see the action for yourself! We offer 3 trips daily just to see the whales! Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: We used to think that the whales that arrived on the coast of the Big Island spent their Hawaii-time here with us. Research and close observation of individuals has proved us wrong. While the Humpbacks seem to prefer to spend most of their time on the lee sides of islands and in water less than 600 feet deep, they will travel between the islands (not in any particular direction that we’re aware of)….females who have calves travel less frequently though.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire