Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics

Humpback Breaches RIGHT Next to the Boat!

Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics|

Aloha,

We had lots of sightings from our Whale Watches on Wednesday. Highlights included a big adult Humpback surprising us by surfacing 30 yards off our starboard rails on Seasmoke’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise. Before this Humpback sounded, he waved his pectoral fin at us several times. On Manu Iwa’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise, we were surprised by a breach so close to our port stern that we almost got splashed! We were also mugged for more than 10 minutes by 2 BIG humpbacks. These whales kept surfacing and spouting all over us…and then diving, only to surface on the other side of the boat. Though we know the spout contains a lot of mucus, it was pretty easy to get over the “ickiness”  factor, even as it was landing all over us  — to be that close to whales who obviously want to check us out is such an incredible experience, it even makes “whale boogers” acceptable!

Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”, you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Aerial behaviors often result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface).