Aloha,
We had a wonderful weekend of Whale Watching.We ran so many different cruises that there’s no way I can tell you about everything that happened…so here are a few highlights.
On Friday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise we spent most of our cruise watching a pod of three adult Humpbacks interacting. We got to see lots of pec slaps, and got to watch the whales watch us when they spy hopped right near the boat!
On Saturday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise, we were surrounded by Humpbacks. During the course of the cruise, we saw spouts, dorsal fins and/or flukes from somewhere between 30 and 40 different Humpbacks. We also were fortunate to witness a competitive pod of seven Humpbacks charging around on the surface. Guests joining us on our 10:00 Cruise on Saturday also got to watch a competitive pod. We saw lots of pec slaps, and some breaches from whales around 400 yards from us…and when we lowered the hydrophone, we got to hear a lot of different singers too. But as great as all of that was, guests joining us on Saturday’s Whales and Cocktails at Sunset got the biggest treat of all, when 2 Humpbacks decided we were worth investigating. These two stayed right with us for more than 17 minutes, spy hopping behind the boat 5 different times. Captain Baker, who’s been doing this a long time, reports that this Whale Watch rated in the top ten of his career!
Our Valentines Day Whale Watchers on Alala got to watch a very active Mom/Baby/Escort pod. All of three of them spent considerable time on the surface, and all three pec slapped and tail lobbed. There were quite a few other whales further away, but since these 3 refused to leave us, we really couldn’t shift our attention from them.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: A Humpback Whale has a big heart. An 80,000 pound whale’s heart averages just over 400 pounds, and according to measurements made by the Nelson Institute of Marine Research, beats an average of somewhere between 10 and 30 times per minute.