Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics

Weekend Whale Recap + Breach Gif

Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics|
Breach courtesy of crew membr extraordinaire Moani

Breach courtesy of crew member extraordinaire Moani – Click on the image to watch!

Aloha,

Since our last post, we’ve operated 12 different cruises, and though many of them weren’t dedicated Whale Watch Cruises, we saw Humpbacks on all of them. Here are some highlights:

  • On Thursday’s first cruise of the day, we spent time watching two different Mom/Calf pairs. A couple of times these mothers allowed their calves to approach us as close as 20 yards. We also got to watch some adorable breaching efforts from one of the calves.
  • On another of our Thursday Exclusive Cruises, we got the opportunity to hang out with a logging (a.k.a. “sleeping) Mom and calf. After Mom woke up, she swam under our boat (our engines were off at that point).
    We also got to hang out with 2 Mom/calf pods later on Thursday (based on their respective sizes and locations, we’re pretty sure they were the same pods we had watched in the morning). Over the course of this cruise, we got to watch one of the calves breach more than 20 times — it wasn’t all in a row, but his sporadic breaching fits were more fun because we never knew when to expect them.
  • Friday the 13th’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise started out slowly but after we talked about sacrificing our youngest crew member to the sea, the action picked up (just kidding — we’d never really do that)! We saw at least 15 different whales during this cruise, but spent the most time with 3 pods of two Humpbacks, who chose to surface and spout nearby. When we deployed our hydrophone we got to hear quite a bit — lots of loud singing from whales close by, and some fainter calls from the whales further up and down the coastline.
  • On one of Saturday’s early morning cruises we got to witness some breaching action (6 breaches in a row) almost as soon as we left the bay and Moani, our crew member extraordinaire, managed to capture the fun (see the image above). We also saw a Mom/Calf/Escort pod. We saw the same Mom and calf on our next cruise, but this time we didn’t catch a glimpse of the Escort (either he left them to try his luck with another female, or he was on a very long breath hold dive).

    • Mahalo,
    Claire


    Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day    : Just how difficult is it for a 40 ton, 45 foot long animal to “fly” from the sea in a total breach? Observers have reported seeing Humpbacks breach after only two kick strokes for propulsion. Based on the formula for calculating horsepower, measurements of laminar flow around cetacean skin (how water flows past the skin of the animal), girth and drag in the water, the breaching whale is producing between 1500 and 1700 horsepower in order to “catch air”. We used to think it was closer to 5000 horsepower, but with the aid of a calculator and more accurate measurements, we’ve been able to recalculate …still, try this yourself next time you’re in the water. We’re betting you won’t get very far!