Humpbacks Dancing at the Surface

Aloha,
Thursday seemed to be “Baby Day” on the Kohala Coast. On the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise, we saw two different Cow/Calf pods, one with an escort (who seemed kind of out-of-breath, because we heard some trumpeting from him). We also saw a breach about 100 yards from the boat, and several pec slaps and peduncle throws. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 different Cow/Calf pods including one with 4 males trailing behind. And on our 12:30 Whale Watch, guests saw 5 different Cow/Calf pods. One of these consisted of a very small Mom and Baby accompanied by a pretty big escort…and another consisted of a pretty big Mom accompanied by 4 escorts who were really battling a lot to get to her. We watched as she continually pushed her baby away from the males, and we watched a lot of aggressive shoving from those escorts (including some bubble blowing, a few head lunges, a throat inflation, and a jaw clap). The highlight of that trip though was when we encountered three adult whales who seemed to be doing some pretty interesting  head down, flukes out of the water vertical dancing. They turned and twisted all around each other for minutes at a time, then they’d disappear, only to reappear and do it all over again.
Mahalo, and have a great weekend. I’ll send out the next report recapping the weekend activity on Monday.
Claire
Captain Claire’s 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.