Crazy Competition

Aloha,

Guests on Monday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay saw pair after pair after pair (and we can keep going with this phrase) of Humpbacks, along with one trio, adding up to sightings of at least 15 different whales. All of these Humpbacks were on 15 – 20 minute dive cycles, but since the dive cycles weren’t synchronized, we never had to wait very long before spotting a spout or two. A couple of times we were surprised when a surfacing Humpback spouted just about 50 yards from us, allowing us to hear both her exhalation and her inhalation. Some of us got to see a full breach, and even more of us got to see a double breach. Oh — and when we deployed the hydrophone we realized that there were some singers very close to the boat (we even had to turn the volume down so we wouldn’t blow out our speakers). At one point, Captain Will, who was monitoring our depth finder, noticed one whale hovering about 50 feet below our idling boat.

As we left the bay for our second Whale Watch of the day, our Late-Morning Cruise, a guest spotted a spout to our south, so Captain Will turned to port and we headed down the coast. Before we got to that first sighting, we saw spouts from 5 whales, who turned out to be in a competitive pod. We paralleled this group as they headed south for as long as we could. We got to see a lot of head lunges, some motor boating (a term that describes exactly what you’re thinking — the whale charging through the water with part of his head above the surface), some rolling around and shoving between the competitors and even a peduncle throw. Eventually, we had to make the difficult decision to leave the pod (or we’d never get back to the bay), but on the way back we encountered a lone Humpback who was obviously interested in us. He first surfaced about 50 feet behind our boat (we hadn’t known he was there) and after we stopped, he approached us as close as 25 feet, and then he stuck around us for another 10 minutes. With his curiosity about us apparently sated, he turned away from us and gave us a great view of the underside of his flukes as he sounded and swam away.

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: When we watch a surface active competitive pod of whales, we assume it is comprised of one female either leading or being chased by a group of males. It often appears that every male is competing with every other male for access to the female. Recently researchers have observed that male humpbacks may form coalitions, working together to corral the female so that one may have easier access to her.