Aloha,
We woke up to a little wind, which made the ocean a bit choppy for Wednesday’s 8:00 Wake up with the Whales Cruise…but as is often the case, when the ocean conditions are exciting, the behaviors we see from the Humpbacks are exciting too. We got to see 8 different humpbacks during this cruise, one of whom swam parallel to our boat, just over 100 yards away from us, for more than 5 minutes. We also got to see two whales breaching from about 300 yards away, not just once, not just twice, but 5 times. And that wasn’t all…we saw several head lunges, and witnessed lots and lots of dynamic spouting as these whales worked to catch their breath.
On our 10:00 Whale Watch from Kawaihae, we got to see 6 different Humpbacks fairly close by. We spent most of our time offshore of the Mauna Kea Resort with a pod of two whales, who were surfacing, spouting several times, and then diving for 11 minutes before surfacing again. We also ALL got to see a full breach about a mile away from us (we can’t tell you how rare it is for everyone to be looking at the right place at the right time to witness a full breach)!
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: According to the experts at NOAA, in 1966 when commercial whaling was finally banned, the Humpback population in the North Pacific was estimated to consist of fewer than 1400 individuals.