Lots of Cruises But Just One Report

January 7, 2024

Aloha,

We operated a lot of different cruises on Tuesday and watched Humpbacks on all of them, but just one of these cruises was a dedicated Whale Watch Cruise – our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay.

If you read yesterday’s report, today’s will sound like a broken record. Throughout the course of the cruise we saw more than 2 dozen different Humpbacks including 3 different Mom/calf pods.

We also got to watch some interactions beween these Mom calf pods and multiple male whales who were trying to outdo each other in their quest to be the lone Escort to the Moms they were following. Since there was really no wind while we were out there, we were able to stop the boat and watch curious calves and their Moms surface just about 100 yards from us. We also had ample opportunities to deploy our hydrophone, and each time we did that we heard a lot of different Humpback voices.

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers have observed that female Humpbacks with calves are accompanied by a male escort about 83% of the time during the winter season in Hawaii. Since nursing moms rarely get pregnant, we’re not sure why these males are hanging around…one theory is that the escort is trying to make a good impression on the female so that when she is receptive, she’ll consider the possibility of mating with him. Other researchers theorize that she puts up with the company of one male, hoping that he’ll scare off other amorous suitors (maybe dealing with one male at a time is better than having to deal with 2, 3, 4 or more).