Humpback Dorsal Fin courtesy of Monica Sparling
Aloha,
Hope you had a nice weekend — we operated dedicated Whale Watch Cruises on both Friday and Saturday, and here’s what we got to see:
Guests on Friday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise got to spend some time with a sub-adult Whale. We’re estimating this Humpback was somewhere between 30 and 35 feet long, and like many of the smaller whales we encounter, he seemed pretty curious about our boat. During the last 25 minutes of our cruise, this young whale spent some time on the surface cruising only about 100 yards from us. We all got some great views of his dorsal fin (the fin on his back) and his flukes. When we deployed the hydrophone, we got to listen to some good sounds, so we knew there were several whales in our area that we weren’t getting to see too!
On Saturday’s Mid-Morning Whale Watch Cruise from Kawaihae, once again we were approached by a sub-adult Humpback, and once again we were privileged to get to see him surface closer and closer and closer to us. While we were waiting for him to surface, we took the opportunity to deploy our hydrophone. We were all straining to hear some faint whale sounds when our Humpback completely surprised us by surfacing just about 50 yards in front of the boat. At the end of this cruise we were surrounded by a pod of Spinner Dolphins who seemed to enjoy our presence as much as we enjoyed theirs.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: A fully grown Humpback Whale can hold his or her breath for around 45 minutes. Usually, that’s not what we observe in Hawaii though. We’re more likely to witness 10-20 minute breath hold dives, and if the whale is really active, s/he surfaces to breathe a lot more frequently.