Breach! Image courtesy of Rikki Rivers
Aloha,
Wednesday’s Mid-Morning Cruise started with a splash (or to be more accurate…a whole lot of splashes!). Right after we left the harbor, we were surrounded by a pod of curious Spinner Dolphins who played with the boat (surfing, leaping, twirling and splashing) for a good 20 minutes. After that, we were completely surprised when a Humpback breached just about 50 feet from us, creating another huge splash. Besides the 8 or 10 other pods of Humpbacks we saw spouting and sounding in the near vicinity, we also got to spend time with a Mom/Calf/Escort pod. As is par for the course, we saw Baby on the surface really frequently, Mom sort of frequently, and the Escort just occasionally.
The end of our Wake up with the Whales Cruise on Manu Iwa coincided with the beginning of a Private Snorkel & Whale Watch Cruise we were operating on Seasmoke so everyone got to see some incredible Humpback behaviors from a Mom/Baby/Escort pod that was joined by 4 other whales (presumably males). All of these whales were on the surface a lot – shoving, jaw clapping, head lunging, tail lobbing, and trumpeting (making some very low sounds we’ve never heard before) as they battled to get to Mom. Of course we tried our best to keep 100 yards from the fray, but Mom kept herding her calf towards us (maybe she thought she could use our boat to block the pursuit of those males). At one point she was completely surrounded by all of these competitors. They were all moving at a good clip to our south, and after about 40 minutes, we had to leave them. We know that this kind of competition can go on for hours as the less successful males slowly peel off from the pod leaving Mom and her baby with just one escort again…but it can also end abruptly. We’re not sure who in the pod decides the battle is over…or how it’s decided. See today’s Fact of the Day for more on this phenomenon.
Mahalo,
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Biopsy samples taken from South Pacific Humpbacks show a ratio of 2.4 males for every female on the breeding grounds. A similar ratio has been observed in Hawaii. This suggests either: 1) female Humpbacks can afford to be choosy with their mating partner; or; 2) female Humpbacks are overwhelmed by aggressive males and bullied into mating (e.g. what we witnessed today??).