Bumps and Blows

January 31. 2024

Aloha,

It was kind of drizzling when we departed on Tuesday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise, but we figured that the whales wouldn’t mind the rain — they’re wet anyway.

Throughout the course of the cruise we saw a dozen different Humpbacks — most of them were just spouting and sounding. Two times though, we were approached by curious Humpbacks. The first time we were surprised when a duo surfaced just about 50 yards from us, spouting and then sounding. We were sure that this would be the highlight of the cruise (really — how can it get any better than seeing a couple of 50 foot long animals from 50 yards away??!!). But at the end of the cruise, 3 Humpbacks surprised us by surfacing just 15 FEET from our idling boat. These three didn’t just spout either — they trumpeted (which is exactly what you’d think we’re describing — extremely loud exhales through fairly small blowholes). They were so close to us that we could easily see the tubercles (bumps) on their faces too.

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: An average size adult Humpback has 2 oval shaped blowholes that measure about 9 inches in diameter (on the bigger part of the oval). The whales use them like you use your nostrils, exhaling through both before inhaling. If an average size human had nostril openings in the same proportion to his size as a whale’s blowholes are to the whale’s body size, each human nostril would measure about an inch and a quarter in diameter.