Aloha,
Guests on both of our Wednesday Cruises got to meet a couple of Humpback couples.
During our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise we found our first Humpback duo just outside of Anaeho’omalu Bay. These two whales didn’t really interact much at the surface, but they did sound and surface several times close to each other and almost simultaneously. They spent considerable time underwater (20 minute dive times), so just like what we saw on Tuesday, when they chose to surface they spent considerable time re-oxygenating (spouting and inhaling about 5 times before heading back underwater). While the whales were underwater we spent the time listening through our hydrophone to some very faint and faraway Humpback voices. We also scanned the surface a lot to see if we could find any other whales, and a couple of times, we spotted another Humpback duo way to our south.
On our Late Morning Whale Watch Cruise we encountered the same duo we had been watching during our first cruise. Captain Sam paralleled them as they travelled slowly to the south, but even he was surprised at their sudden decision to surface behind the boat (they had apparently taken a turn north while they were underwater). Once again we saw a second duo, and once again these other whales were too far away from us to investigate.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers are not sure how Humpbacks find their way from Alaska to Hawaii each winter…after all; Hawaii is one of the most isolated land masses in the world. Since small particles of a form of iron called “magnetite” have been found in Humpback’s brains, some researchers theorize that the magnetite acts like a magnet, helping the Humpbacks to feel the magnetic pull of the earth and keeping them on track. Other researchers disagree, claiming that the Humpbacks swim in such straight lines when they migrate that they must be orienting themselves with a combination of methods, including some celestial markers like the position of the sun during the day, and the stars at night.