Aloha,
I know that in my last report I said I wasn’t going to post again until Monday, but Friday’s cruises were just too good, and I couldn’t wait to tell you about them!
Guests on both our Friday morning Guaranteed Whale Watch Cruises got to meet a newborn Humpback calf. We found the same calf on both our cruises and during our Late-Morning Whale Watch Cruise, we got to see this little guy breach 4 times from just over 100 yards!
Why do we think he was a newborn? Well, he had all the tell-tale signs…he was really small compared to Mom, he was a pretty light colored gray, he was kind of wrinkly, and his dorsal fin (the fin on his back) was completely bent over (which indicates a recent passage through Mom’s birth canal). As little as this guy was, we were kind of thinking we might have been witnessing his very first breaches.
Besides our little calf, we got to see at least 5 other Humpbacks during each of our cruises. Baby was accompanied by Mom (of course) and Mom was accompanied by an escort. We saw spouts here and there from other mid-size Humpbacks. Oh, and when we deployed our hydrophone during our first cruise, we heard lots of Humpback voices (and loud ones, too). Oddly, when we deployed the hydrophone during the second cruise, the ocean was silent.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Taking care of a Humpback calf is not an easy task. Recent research conducted by the University of Hawaii shows that Mother Humpbacks in Hawaii lost nearly 20% of their volume in 60 days, and nearly 214 pounds of blubber per day. On the other hand, over a 6 month period, Humpback calves’ body volume increased by an average of 395% and their length increased by an average of 60%. And when Mom returns to the feeding grounds in Alaska, she doesn’t regain her size very quickly. In fact lactating Humpbacks gain back an average of just 32 pounds per day, while pregnant whales are gaining more than 190 pounds each day, and non-pregnant females are gaining more than 60 pounds each day.