Aloha,
We shared another crazy day on the water with the Humpbacks on Monday. During our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise most of the Humpbacks we got to see were hanging out in pods of two. None of these duos interacted with other duos on the surface, but when we deployed the hydrophone we heard a LOT of different whale voices, so we’re pretty sure there was a lot of interaction going on that we couldn’t observe. We also got to see some wild surface action south of the bay with some full-on breaches and pec slapping.
We met a Mom and her little calf during our Late-Morning Whale Watch Cruise. These two were swimming around north of the bay, and after we stopped our boat, they came over to investigate us. Almost every time we see this kind of behavior, it seems like it’s prompted by the baby’s curiosity. Sometimes we’ll see the Mom get all protective by maneuvering her big body between her baby and whatever she perceives as the threat — and other times, like today, she actually lets her baby come over to look at us. After these two left us, we got to watch a couple of adult Humpbacks breach and pec slap right next to each other. And then, we saw a lot of commotion out to sea, so we made the decision to head that way in hopes we’d get close enough to see what was going on before the commotion stopped. The decision paid off (this time, at least) and we got to watch a very active pod of 4 whales chasing each other at the surface, head lunging and chin slapping as they charged to the south.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Those lines we see under the Humpback’s mouth when she lifts her head are actually pleats that allow for the expansion of her mouth when she feeds. This expansion, combined with her ability to flex her jaws, allows her to hold up to 5,000 gallons of sea water in her mouth at one time — that’s the equivalent of 55,500 cans of Pepsi in every gulp — of course, she doesn’t swallow the water she gulps…just the unlucky fish that had been swimming in it. Incidently, the word “Rorqual” used to describe species of whales that have those pleats translates from a Norwegian word røyrkval (sometimes translated as “furrowed”) and is used only to describe whales (like our Humpbacks) in the family Balaenopteridae.