Calm Calf – Excited Adult

Aloha,

Guests on Thursday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise got to spend some time with our favorite duo…Mom Humpback and her calf. These two surfaced frequently (of course we saw more of baby than of Mom). We were with the two of them for quite awhile and never saw an escort. Both of these whales were very calm, and since baby appeared to be pretty big, we’re guessing he’s storing up his energy right now in preparation for that long swim back to Alaska.

We took a left hand turn as we departed from the harbor on our Signature Whale Watch Cruise and headed south. Just offshore of the Mauna Lani Resort, we found two mature whales and watched them surface, spout and sound. We were totally surprised when one of them breached just about 50 yards from us. Apparently not all the action was going on where we could see it though, because when we lowered the hydrophone, we had to turn the volume down really low so we didn’t blow out our speakers — there must have been a singer really close by.

Have a great weekend. I’ll send out a recap of our sightings on Monday.

Mahalo,

Claire

 

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that Humpback calves are very playful, investigating all kinds of objects in their environment (including our boat), interacting with their moms, and even interacting with passing pods of dolphins. But for as many calves as we see in Hawaii during the winter, we never have observed the calves playing with each other. Though we’re not sure why this is, perhaps the new moms won’t allow a calf not her own to approach, because she doesn’t want to feed the wrong one.