“Shark-finning”
Aloha,
If you had joined us for Thursday’s Mid-Morning Whale Watch Cruise, you would have gotten to know a Humpback really, really well. Within 10 minutes of leaving the harbor, we were approached by a lone 30 – 35 foot whale. This guy must have liked what he saw, because he spent an hour and 20 minutes circling us, swimming under us, surfacing next to us, pec slapping and even swimming sideways along the surface of the water “shark-finning” (see the picture to see why this behavior is named what it is).
We weren’t really sure why he was doing what he was doing with us…maybe he was bored, and all those excited noises we were making on deck amused him….or maybe he thought our long, sleek hulls were attractive. Regardless of the reason, we were certainly glad to be the object of his interest. In whale watch parlance, this could be considered a “mugging”…the kind of mugging we wish would happen daily.
Have a great weekend. I’ll post a recap of our weekend sightings on Monday.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: The Whales “mugging” us are definitely taking a look at us. Though Humpbacks rely on their sense of hearing far more than any other sense, we do know that vision is also important to them. Based on the shape of the Humpbacks’ corneas, they can certainly see us…but, they’re probably a bit farsighted when looking through water and a bit nearsighted when looking through the air. And in case anyone asks you, Humpbacks have beautiful brown eyes. Their eyeballs weigh, on average, 2.16 pounds. Human eyeballs weigh about a quarter of an ounce.