Breach – Image courtesy of Francis Hebert
Throughout the course of Wednesday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise, we saw about 10 different Humpbacks, including a Momma and her little calf. We spent a good chunk of our time though watching a very active competitive pod of Humpbacks. These whales were chasing each other all over the surface. We spent more than 30 minutes watching the action (lots of twisty dives, and lots of very heavy breathing). By the end of the half hour, we thought the whales had run out of steam, so we prepared to take our leave. Just as we turned the boat to head on our way, one of our competitive pod completely surprised us by breaching just about 100 yards from the boat. After that breach, he just kept going — we saw 7 breaches from him. And then, maybe in response, another Humpback who was about 800 yards from us started breaching — and we got to witness 5 breaches from him.
Mahalo,
Claire
FYI – We going to be operating a lot of Exclusive Cruises in the next few days, so I’ll post my next report when I can.
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 proved 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.