Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics

Weekend Whale Watching Highlights

Humpback Whale Sightings and Statistics|
Humpback breaches behind posing guests

Once in a Lifetime Shot!

Aloha,

Hope your weekend was as exciting as ours!

  • Guests on Friday’s Wake up with the Whales cruise found themselves in between 2 competitive pods of Humpbacks. We were watching the first pod of 4 a couple hundred yards off our port side while a pod of 6 was breaching a mile or so in front of us. As we watched, the pod of 6 stopped breaching and began swimming towards us (fighting among each other the entire way). They eventually came within 30 yards of our bow before 2 of the 6 gave up and followed the original pod of 4 (who by then were heading to our south). The rest of this second pod (now numbering 4 ) continued their competition as they headed north. Just re-reading that description, I realize it’s kind of confusing, but it was very exciting to watch at the time!
  • We operated 5 cruises on Saturday. Highlights included watching a very young calf napping on his mom’s pectoral flipper at the surface. We also got to watch a very interactive pod of two adult Humpbacks. Of course we couldn’t be sure of their genders, but they sure seemed interested in each other, staying very close together. Eventually, they swam close to us too, surfacing just 20 feet off our bow.
  • On Sunday, we operated 2 Exclusive Cruises. We were very excited to see some close-by breaches from some Humpbacks who also appeared to be very excited. We even got to see some peduncle throws and a few pectoral slaps from Humpbacks within competitive pods. There definitely was a lot happening for us to watch on the surface, and when we deployed our hydrophone, we eavesdropped on a lot that was happening below the surface too.

    Mahalo,

    Claire


    Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day:     According to researchers, the sleep process for a Humpback is most likely very similar to how their little toothed cousins, the dolphins, sleep. EEG readings from sleeping bottlenose dolphins show that the dolphins shut down half their brains at a time to rest – a process called “uni-hemispheric slow wave sleep”. Mallard ducks and some species of seals sleep this way too. The active half of the brain presumably is monitoring breathing and perhaps scanning the surroundings for predators, while the passive half is resting. Bottlenose dolphins sleep approximately 33% of the day, but stay asleep for only a couple of hours at a time.