Looking for Whales
Aloha,
We spent the first official day of winter our favorite way…looking for Humpbacks! On our 10:00 Signature Whale Watch we saw several spouts in different directions, all about 1/2 mile away. At one point we were about 250 yards away from a spouting Humpback off shore of Hapuna Beach, but as we motored her way, she dove and though we waited around in the area for about 15 minutes, she decided not to surface till about 5 minutes after we left the area.
But leaving turned out not to be a bad decision after all, because it put us in the position to be completely surprised by a sub-adult whale who surfaced just 75 yards off our port bow. and we got to see and hear him spout and show his flukes as he headed back under the surface. Oh…and earlier in the trip, we got a chance to lower our hydrophone, and we heard some really great sounds — apparently the male Humpbacks are starting to arrive!
On our Sail with the Whales Cruise, we saw spouts all over the place. Though the weather conditions made it a little more challenging to get to the whales, we did get to see a pod of two about 120 yards from us. We also saw lots and lots of splashes from whales who were breaching and otherwise throwing themselves around on the surface further away from us.
Have a great weekend…I’ll send out my next update on Monday!
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: All whales, regardless of species, age, or gender make noises. Only Humpback whales sing an organized song…and only male Humpbacks sing. We used to believe that the males only “sing” when they are in the warmer waters where they mate. Now that we’re listening more closely, we have heard the males singing a bit in their colder feeding waters (mostly at the end of feeding season prior to the beginning of the migration). So, is the male Humpback singing a mating song? Researchers have observed that female whales will not approach a singing male, so if the males are singing to bring the females closer to them, it seems to be pretty ineffective.