Humpback Calf Just Below the Surface – Image courtesy of Caroline Fye
Aloha,
What a difference a day makes — the big swell we were experiencing on Monday was virtually gone by Tuesday morning, and the whales were out in full force. On our Wake Up With the Whales Cruise, guests saw 10 different Humpbacks in 4 different pods all around us. We spent at least 30 minutes with a very interesting (and interested) Mom/Baby pod. Both of them took their time cruising around us, checking us out. We got great views of the two of them as they swam right under our bow. We suspected there may have been an Escort lurking around somewhere, but in the half hour we spent with Mom and Baby, he never made an appearance.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers studying the totally geographically isolated Arabian Sea Humpbacks have recently noted that these Humpbacks sing songs that are a whole level less complex than the songs Humpbacks in every other ocean of the world sing. Arabian Humpback songs are comprised of notes, making phrases, which are repeated in the same order, while other Humpbacks group the phrases into themes and the repeated themes comprise the song. If I’m interpreting this correctly, the Arabian Humpbacks’ version of say “Old McDonald Had a Farm” would feature only one farm animal, and they’d be singing about that one animal over and over and over. Humpbacks elsewhere would be able to use the structured verse to sing about lots of different animals on the farm…If there are any music theorists out there please help me out. You can read more about this research and the Arabian Sea Humpbacks here.