Tag Archives: whale baby

More Height of the Season Competition

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Aloha,
We began our Monday Whale Watch with “tons of whales in all directions” (that’s according to our marine naturalist Angelica) sighted from the Breakfast with the Whales Cruise. She then gave us a more accurate estimate of a total of 36 whales seen throughout the cruise. We watched a Mom/Baby/Escort pod in about 60 feet of water… until we saw a competitive pod who showed us a few head lunges. We then found a pod of a couple of smaller whales, and watched them battle for awhile, seeing lots of tail lobs and peduncle throws. Just as we were returning to the bay, we saw a huge breach followed by some pec slaps (which looked to us as if the whale was waving “Aloha”). On the Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we saw about 20 different whales and lots of breaching in the distance. We watched a Mom/Baby/Escort pod hanging out on the surface. Mom was just kind of laying on her side, and the escort was swimming along just below her, but so close to the surface that we could see him really well. It was pretty windy out there, but when we were in the right position to deploy the hydrophone, we gave it a try and heard some very loud and clear songs.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Whale 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.

Competitive Pods, and Dolphins

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Aloha,
If you didn’t get the chance to join us on any of our Whale Watch trips on Tuesday, you missed some incredible sightings! On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 22 different Humpbacks, including two different Cow/Calf pairs, one accompanied by an escort. We also saw 2 different competitive pods, 5 breaches 3 spy hops, 4 tail lobs, 3 body lunges and 3 head lunges. If that wasn’t enough, we were mugged 3 times and we even saw Spinner Dolphins! When we deployed the hydrophone, the songs were really loud and clear. On our 3:00 Whales and Cocktails Cruise, we also saw 22 Humpbacks. We spent the beginning of the trip watching a Cow/Calf/Escort. Mom kept herself between the baby and the escort (which isn’t that unusual — it’s highly unlikely that he’s the father of the calf). Baby did approach us after breaching a few times, and showing us a couple of baby head lunges. We also watched a competitive pod of 5 whales swim right by us, and saw them breach twice, tail lob 5 times, and peduncle throw a couple more times.  And we heard the whale songs loud and clear when we deployed our hydrophone. As our naturalist Jonathan put it, “It was a GREAT day on the water”!
Share a GREAT day on the water with Ocean Sports. We offer Whale Watches, Snorkel Sails and Sunset Sails every day. Call 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your great adventure today.
Humpback Whale Fact of the Day: Being mammals, Humpback Whales nurse their calves with a very rich milk. Supposedly this milk tastes like sweet cod liver oil (though I haven’t tried it myself)!
Mahalo,
Captain Claire

The Prints of Whales

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Aloha,
Both of Tuesday’s Whale Watches were really pretty incredible. On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, guests saw 20 different Humpbacks, 5 breaches, 2 tail lobs and 3 pec slaps. But the highlight had to be when we encountered a pod of 7 whales (we’re guessing 6 males and a female) in a competitive pod (a.k.a. “heat run”). These whales showed us 4 complete body lunges and 6 head lunges as they jockied for position amongst each other. At 3:00, our Whales & Cocktails cruise reports 25 different whales — and many of them were in pods of 3. We saw 6 full breaches about 150 yards from the boat! And when our breacher started to tire, he (or she) started head lunging. Meanwhile, another whale close by rolled over on his back and performed 8 double pec slaps and a few more single pec slaps. We also saw 2 Cow/Calf pods — and when the first baby tried to approach the boat, we watched as a HUGE footprint appeared less than 25 feet from the boat. When the whales surfaced again, Mom had taken her baby away from us.
Join Ocean Sports on a whale watch and see the action for yourself. Call us at 886-6666 ext. 103 or visit www.hawaiioceansports.com to reserve your adventure today.
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 footprint.
Mahalo,
Captain Claire