Excitement or Aggression?

Aloha,

We were met with some pretty strong trade winds on Monday for our two Guaranteed Whale Watch Cruises from Anaeho’omalu Bay.

Guests on our 8AM Wake up with the Whales Cruise saw probably 10 different Humpbacks, and these whales were really active on the surface. Besides the three breaches we saw from about 500 yards away, we got to witness a good 25 minutes of back-to-back peduncle throws from a couple of very excited/aggressive whales. We also got to see a couple of other Humpbacks slap their huge pectoral flippers onto the surface of the water multiple times.

We departed from the bay again at 10:30 for our Late Morning Whale Watch Cruise. This time the ocean was a lot quieter — it took us almost 40 minutes to find any Humpbacks at all. But then we found a pod of two who surfaced, spouted, and sounded twice about 100 yards from us. We also saw spouts from a couple of other Humpback duos a bit further away, and most of us got to see a Humpback breaching (or at least the splash left behind when this whale landed on the surface).

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: One of the questions we get asked most frequently on whale watches, is “Why are the whales doing that?” (and for “that”, you can substitute any whale behavior we see…breaches, head lunges, peduncle throws…etc). Since we really can’t ask the whales (well, we can ask, but they aren’t answering) we tend to interpret behavior based on what else is going on in the whales’ lives at that particular time. Humpbacks are in Hawaii to mate, calve, and take care of their babies. Surface behaviors like the ones we saw today result in big splashes which may be a great way for a whale to communicate size, status, location, excitement, aggression, irritation, or health to other whales (or to something/someone else he hears on the surface).