Spouting while Lunging
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Collier
Aloha,
Though we operated cruises all day on Valentines Day, we only ran one dedicated Whale Watch Cruise…our Wake up with the Whales Cruise.
After leaving the bay on this cruise, it took us awhile to find spouts. But we knew the whales were out there, so we kept searching and finally spotted two whales. These whales decided to sound before we could get too close, but we decided it would be worth it to wait around in the area to see if they’d surface again close by. While we waited, we lowered the hydrophone and heard some great songs.
After 25 minutes or so, we guessed that our pod of two had left the area, so we decided to leave too…at which point those two surfaced just 200 yards off our stern.
Later in the cruise we found Mom/Baby/Escort, and watched them for awhile, and then, as we entered the bay we saw another pod of two mature Humpbacks just beyond the breaking waves. Throughout the course of the cruise, we saw 3 separate breaches, all about 500 yards from us, and a few more out on the horizon line.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Though we’ve mentioned before that only male Humpback Whales “sing”, all Humpbacks make noises and apparently use these sounds to communicate with each other. Researchers have witnessed cooperative feeding behaviors among the Humpbacks apparently “triggered” by sound, and have also witnessed Humpback Cows (moms) apparently ignoring some sounds made by their calves (researchers called these sounds “goo-goo, ga-ga” noises), but responding immediately when the calves made particular squealing noises. So it appears that Mom recognizes her baby’s voice!