Spout ID Chart courtesy of North Atlantic Society
Aloha,
Our Monday Wake Up with the Whales Cruise began with spouting whales to our north, so we took a turn to starboard out of the bay and headed that way. After watching a pair of whales spout and sound, we headed towards another pair further out to sea, who also spouted and sounded. Later in the cruise, we saw several more spouting and sounding whales. Though none of the whales we saw were active on the surface, we did see a lot of different Humpbacks
After this cruise we returned to the bay, and we reboarded for our Snorkel & Whale Watch Adventure Cruise. Highlights of this cruise included a small competitive pod that broke apart shortly after we saw them, and the loudest whale songs we’ve ever heard while snorkeling. We didn’t even have to dive underwater to hear them…we literally just had to lay an ear on top of the water and we could hear the sounds clearly.
After this cruise returned, we reboarded again for an Exclusive Whale Watch Sail. We found a competitive pod of 4 Humpbacks pretty early on during this cruise, and just like the competitive pod we saw on the previous cruise, they went their separate ways soon after we found them. Then we found a group of 4 whales who were moving quickly down the coast. One of them was clearly in the front of the other three, and though we couldn’t tell for sure, it certainly looked like she was either leading them or being chased by them. Because these whales were moving so fast, they were out of breath (think of what happens to you when you’re running), and on the surface a lot. Unfortunately for us, we had to turn the boat and head back to the bay before observing any resolution to the pod’s interactions.
Meanwhile, up in Kawaihae, guests on our Mid-Morning Whale Watch Cruise saw 10 different Humpbacks including 5 of them who ventured pretty close to us. Since there was plenty to see close to the harbor, we didn’t have to spend a lot of time traveling, and that meant we could spend quality time with the whales we were seeing. We found a Mom/Calf/Escort pod right outside of the harbor break-wall in fairly shallow water, and we also found a different Mom/Calf pod (this time, no escort) offshore of the Mauna Kea Resort. When we lowered the hydrophone, the sounds we heard were loud and clear, so there were definitely some whales close by who we weren’t seeing too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Did you know that you can identify the species of whale by the size and shape of its spout? Humpbacks create that distinctive 10-15 foot tall pear shaped plume…sperm whales create an angular blow, grey whales create a bushy v shaped blow, and blue whales — the biggest species of whales– typically create a 30 foot tall cone shaped blow. See the chart above for more spout-id tricks.