Tag Archives: triple breach

Triple Breach and Ancient Migratory Paths

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Aloha,
Wednesday’s whale watching started off with a bang! On our 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales trip, guests saw 10 different Humpbacks. Nate, our naturalist aboard that trip, reports that the best encounter though was with a Cow/Calf/Escort pod who performed a triple breach about 100 feet from the boat! Just getting to see 3 breaches in your life is a wonderful experience, but when you see 3 whales breaching simultaneously and they’re close enough that you can see their tubercles — well…that’s a sight you’ll never forget! On our 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 2 whales, and had one close encounter. Apparently, the Humpbacks that are still here are pretty interested in us! When we deployed the hydrophone, we did here some good singing. On the 3:00 Whales and Cocktails, we looked and looked, but we couldn’t find a whale…but the cocktails were flowing and guests enjoyed the cruise.
Join Ocean Sports for the Whale Watch Adventure of your life. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your spot before the spectacular 2011-2012 season ends.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Though Humpback whales in different hemispheres migrate on opposite schedules (when it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and therefore are very unlikely to meet, no subspecies of Humpbacks are recognized genetically. In fact there has been some research done on maternal lineages that demonstrates relationships which exist in the present across hemispheric boundaries. This suggests that at one point (perhaps in the very distant past)  there was some level  of inter-hemispheric gene flow.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

Triple Breach among “Right Handed” Humpbacks

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Aloha,
Our Whale Watching Week began with an interesting 8:00 Breakfast with the Whales cruise. We saw 3 Humpbacks and 2 breaches, but we actually got to hear the a Humpback song reverberating through the hulls of the boat! We never saw the singer, but he must have been within just a couple hundred yards of us for the song to be heard without our hydrophone. On the 10:00 Whale Watch, we saw 6 whales, but we got to see 2 triple breaches from a Cow/Calf/Escort pod about 200 yards away from us, preceded by a couple of breaches from just the calf. We also saw 15 tail lobs (10 from the baby) 4 pectoral slaps and 3 peduncle throws. But we can’t emphasize enough how cool those 2 triple breaches were, and how lucky we were to see them! When we deployed the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were pretty faint. Since our 10:00 Whale Watch departs from Kawaihae, and the 8:00 departs from Anaeho’omalu, it’s interesting to note the difference in sound clarity between the two locations.On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails cruise, we saw 5 whales, but we got involved with a competitive pod of 3 off of Puako. We spotted them from fairly far away, and as we made our way North, they decided to come our way and at one point, one of them surfaced about 50 feet from the boat. We also saw some pec slapping from this group and some good tail shots.
Join Ocean Sports to see and hear the Humpbacks. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Most Humpbacks are “right-handed”. Researchers looking at abrasions on Humpbacks’ jaws found more abrasions on the right jaw than on the left, and observed more “flippering” with the right flipper than with the left, suggesting a definite right-side preference among the Humpback population.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire