Spouting Humpback
Have you ever played that game “Whack-A-Mole”? That’s what the beginning of Friday’s Wake Up With the Whales Cruise was like…but without the whacking.
As soon as we’d turn our attention to a whale who had popped up to the surface to breathe, that whale would dive. It kept happening over and over and over again…whale up…whale down…whale up…whale down.
We got to see at least 8 different Humpbacks several times, a lot of Humpback spouts, a lot of Humpback dorsal fins and a lot of Humpback flukes, but not a lot of other surface activity. Don’t get me wrong…it was fun, but also a bit frustrating (because we always want to see more). We’re patient people though, so we knew not to give up.
Our positive attitudes paid off again, because just as we were headed back into the bay at the end of our cruise we found a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. Besides getting to watch Baby dive down to her Mom several times, and getting to contrast how big Mom and her Escort were in comparison to the little one, we also were completely surprised when we got to see what everyone was hoping to see…Mom and baby breaching not once, not twice but FOUR separate times!
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: We used to think that the whales that arrived on the coast of the Big Island spent their Hawaii-time here with us. Research and close observation of individuals has proven us wrong. While the Humpbacks seem to prefer to spend most of their time on the lee sides of islands and in water less than 600 feet deep, they will travel between the islands (not in any particular direction that we’re aware of)….females who have calves travel less frequently though.