Aloha,
Guests joining us on Wednesday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise saw 4 or 5 different Humpbacks multiple times. These whales were all several hundred yards from the boat, but since the ocean was so calm, we still got some good views of each of them. Towards the end of the cruise the whales got ACTIVE. We saw a whole bunch of peduncle throws and tail lobs, and even some pec slaps. In between sightings, we lowered our hydrophone and got to listen in on some very loud, close-by Humpbacks. Oh…and we also got a brief glimpse of some Bottle Nose dolphins who were cruising down the coastlne.
Mahalo,
Claire
P.S. We have private cruises scheduled on Thursday…and since I don’t post over the weekend, look for the next update on Monday.
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales, Bottlenose Dolphins, and Spinner Dolphins are actually related — they’re all classified under the scientific order “Cetacean” (derived from the Greek word, “ketos” which translates to “Monster”). But they’re in different sub-orders. Humpbacks are baleen whales, classified in the sub-order called “Mysticete”, while the Dolphins are toothed whales, classified in the sub-order “Odontocete”. For those of you etymologists out there, “Mysticete” either translates from the Greek “mystacoceti” meaning “mustached”, which is a pretty accurate description of how the baleen in these whales’ mouths appears…or is a “mistranslation” from the Latin “Mustiketos” which means “Mouse Whale” — perhaps one of the earliest examples of a scientist (in this case, Aristotle) demonstrating he understood the concept of irony. “Odontocete” shares a common root word with “orthodontist”…and means just what it sounds like — “toothed – whale”.