Small Humpback breaches off shore of the Hilton. Photo courtesy of Rodger Berge
Aloha,
Guests on Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise got to see a lot of the activity everyone always asks us about…breaching. First, we watched a smaller lone adult breach multiple times…and when he stopped, we waited around for him to surface again. But after about 15 minutes, a different whale caught our eye, as he was pec slapping multiple times. And then on our way back to the bay, we watched a third Humpback breach 10 times in front of the Hilton Waikoloa Village. In between all this wild surface activity, we saw multiple spouts and dorsal fins from lots of other Humpbacks in the vicinity.
We found a competitive pod of 3 whales just outside the harbor during our Signature Whale Watch. These whales were extremely active, peduncle throwing, tail lobbing, pec slapping and breaching. In fact we were completely surprised when one of them breached just 100 yards from the boat, and then we saw 3 more breaches one after the other from these whales. We also got to listen to a cacophony of sounds when we deployed the hydrophone later in the cruise.
Mahalo and have a wonderful weekend. I’ll send out my next report on Monday.
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Just how difficult is it for a 40 ton, 45 foot long animal to “fly” from the sea in a total breach? Observers have reported seeing Humpbacks breach after only two kick strokes for propulsion. Based on the formula for calculating horsepower, measurements of laminar flow around cetacean skin (how water flows past the skin of the animal), girth and drag in the water, the breaching whale is producing between 1500 and 1700 horsepower in order to “catch air”. We used to think it was closer to 5000 horsepower, but with the aid of a calculator and more accurate measurements, we’ve been able to recalculate more accurately…still,1700 horsepower?? Try this yourself next time you’re in the water. We’re betting you won’t get very far!