Guests on Alala Watch Tail-Lobbing Humpback – Image courtesy of John Landers
Aloha,
With just 11 days left in our spectacular 2018/2019 Whale Watch Season, I thought that instead of talking about what we saw on Wednesday’s Whale Watch Cruises, I’d offer another perspective. Sometimes the Humpbacks are so close to shore that we can stand on the beach and watch guests on our boats watching the whales. The Humpback in the photo was Mom, and she was tail lobbing over and over and over again. We didn’t see an Escort with her, but we did see her calf. We’re not really sure what prompted all that surface activity, but eventually she must have been satisfied that she had communicated what she needed to communicate, and she and her baby swam peacefully away.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: We don’t always need to deploy our hydrophone to hear the whales singing. When singing whales are very close to the boat, their songs reverberate through our hulls. Is this phenomena responsible for the origin of the Greek myth of the Sirens? In Greek mythology, Sirens were the beautiful creatures who lured sailors with their enchanting music to crash on their islands. Now, imagine you were an uneducated sailor back then listening to these haunting sounds in the hold of your ship…who (or what) would you think was responsible for these intriguing sounds? Sirens? Mermaids?