Humpback’s Blowholes
Aloha,
We didn’t operate any dedicated Whale Watch Cruises on Monday, but we did take out all 3 of our catamarans on an Exclusive Snorkel & Whale Watch Cruise. On the way to our snorkel site, guests aboard Seasmoke spent some time watching a Mom/Calf/Escort pod. Of course we saw quite a bit of baby, but Mom surfaced and spouted several times while we watched too. Both Mom and the escort were big whales and the calf certainly wasn’t a newborn. Baby was able to hold his breath for at least 5 minutes at a time, which might have explained why we saw Mom lift her flukes when she sounded (we guessed she was confident her calf wouldn’t get lost on the surface if she headed a bit deeper). At the snorkel site, those of us who could free dive at least 10 feet under the surface could hear some fairly loud singing. And on the way back from snorkeling we found a different Mom/Calf pod. This calf had the tell-tale bent over dorsal fin of a very young baby whale…and he was on the surface every 3 minutes or so. We watched him make several attempts to investigate our boat, but his Mom wasn’t having it, and after he surfaced about 30 yards from us, she veered him away for good.
Mahalo,
Claire
FYI, I’ll be without internet access from Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning, so I’ll post our next report on Thursday (which will include sightings from Tuesday and Wednesday).
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: The first whales to leave Hawaii each year are mature females (who are either newly pregnant, or taking time off between pregnancies), followed by sub adult whales, and then, mature males. The last to leave are new mothers with their calves.