Aloha,
On our Wednesday Wake up with the Whales Cruise, we saw lots and lots of spouts. There were Humpbacks in all directions, and they all seemed to be in the “surfacing-spouting a few times-and diving” mode. We got some great views of many of their flukes too. After we dropped off the guests from this cruise, we turned right around and departed on our Snorkel and Whale Watch Adventure Cruise. Though it was only about 30 minutes between the arrival of our first cruise, and the departure for our second cruise, it seemed like we were in a different ocean. We saw multiple breaches and tail lobs, and even got to witness a Humpback sleeping (or “logging”). Though we tried to maintain a 100 yard distance from this resting whale, a couple of times he drifted within 50 yards of us. Why do we call sleeping behavior “logging”? Imagine a 45 foot log, floating in the ocean with just its top exposed…and you’ll “get the picture”.
Mahalo,
Claire
Captain Claire’s Humpback Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales don’t sleep as soundly as we do — if they did, researchers believe that they’d drown. Humans breathe in response to carbon dioxide build-up in our blood, but Humpbacks and other marine mammals have to keep part of their brain awake at all times so they remember to breathe. When a Humpback sleeps, he floats just under the surface of the ocean, and comes up to breathe every couple of minutes. This is the behavior we call “logging”.