Aloha,
Guest’s on Monday’s Wake Up with the Whales got to see a lot of whales. Though it was pretty windy out there and we couldn’t just stop the boat to watch them, we saw plenty of spouts, lots of breaches (including a spectacular double breach within 100 yards of us) and even some pec slapping. We didn’t see any calves today, but we suspect the blustery winds would have dissipated their spouts so quickly that we missed the evidence of their presence.Oh, and to top off this very fun morning, an active pod of Spinner Dolphins found us and played with us and all around us for awhile too!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback whale communication signals comprise two different types: vocal signals, and surface-generated signals such as ‘breaching’ or ‘pectoral slapping’. Recently, researchers have found that humpback whales gradually switched from primarily vocal to primarily surface-generated communication in increasing wind speeds and background noise levels. Why? Surface-generated sounds have energy distributed over a greater frequency range and may be less likely to become confused in periods of high wind-generated noise. Therefore, it may be easier for the whales to communicate to each other by splashing when it’s windy.