Peduncle Throw
Aloha,
We started operating our Whale Watch Cruises this past Friday, and on the first couple of trips we had a good time looking for Humpbacks, but didn’t have any success finding them. But, since our trips are GUARANTEED, we invited all of our guests to keep trying with us for FREE, and on Sunday, all of our searching paid off!
The trades were blowing about 40 knots, and Captain Will let our guests know to expect a safe but exciting ride. 14 guests decided to join us…and we got quite the show when we found a pair of fully grown whales at the surface. These Humpbacks cruised the coastline with us for about half an hour. Besides watching them spout, and seeing their dorsal fins and flukes as they dove, we also watched them tail lob for awhile, and even got to see a peduncle throw (since we weren’t quick enough with our cameras to get a photo, I’ve included a peduncle throw photo from a couple of seasons ago, so you can see what we’re talking about).
Why were the whales doing all this? Of course we can’t be entirely sure, but researchers posit that a lot of the surface behaviors we get to see are Humpbacks communicating excitement, dominance, and aggression (among other things) to each other…and the exciting conditions on the surface on Sunday may have contributed to the whales’ moods!
We hope you can join us for a Whale Watch Cruise to witness the action yourself soon. Until December 15th, I’ll be sending out these updates a couple of times each week. After the 15th, I’ll update the sightings weekdays.
Mahalo!
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Humpbacks can be found in all of the oceans of the world — and researchers now recognize 14 distinct populations of Humpback Whales. The whales we see here each winter are part of the North Pacific population. “Our” whales feed in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska during the summer months and swim approximately 3000 miles to Hawaii each winter presumably for social reasons…to give birth to their calves and to mate.