Spouting – Image courtesy of Brian Reinsisch
Our first Whale Watch Cruise of 2023 was at least 4 times better than our last one of 2022 (which, as you may recall if you read our last report, was virtually “whale-less”). On Monday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise we were delighted to see our favorite duo — Momma and her calf — just outside of Anaeho’omalu Bay. These two seemed to be in a rest and relaxtion mode, but we got several glimpses of the baby when he surfaced and spouted. Every once in awhile Mom made her presence known too. After she spouted a few times at the surface, she’d just slip below. We never saw her flukes — but we didn’t really expect to see them. The “Flukes-Up” posture is the one used most often by Humpbacks beginning a longer, deeper dive, and we could see that Mom wasn’t comfortable leaving her little calf on the surface all alone.
After watching these two for awhile, we made the decision to let them rest and headed down the coastline. Later in the cruise a pair of smaller adults (35 – 40 feet) passed by us. These two seemed to have a destination in mind to our south…but that didn’t stop them from taking a detour and swimming close enough to our boat to check us out.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Though the Humpbacks we see average between 40 and perhaps 50 feet long, there is anecdotal evidence that the largest Humpback killed by whalers was 88 feet long. This Humpback was taken in the Caribbean.