Lots to Avoid
Aloha,
Based on the weather forecast posted on Wednesday, we weren’t sure what we were going to see when we woke up on Thursday morning, but the strong winds and rain that were supposed to be hitting us hadn’t filled in yet, so we boarded our guests and headed out to sea for our Wake up with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay.
Guests joining us onboard first made their acquaintance with a Mom and her little calf in pretty shallow water — why would these two be close to shore? See today’s Fact of the Day for a possible answer. Baby was on the small side, and spent a lot of time diving down to her mom and then coming up to breathe. After watching them for awhile, we headed south where we soon found ourselves between 3 different pods of two whales each. Each of these pods seemed to be battling it out — not with the other pods but with the whale closest to them. We saw 10 breaches, lots of tail lobs (one of our guests counted 26 tail lobs in a row from a single whale) and lots of head lunges. While we watched, these duos never approached each other, but since all of us on the boat could not only see but also hear all the whales’ splashing, we’re pretty sure the whales must have been aware of each other too.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Dr. Alison Craig and her associates observed that female Humpbacks in Hawaii with calves in tow swim 75% faster when they’re being chased by males in deep water than when they’re being chased in shallow water. As water depth decreased so did the number of males following the mother, making females most likely to be found alone with their calves in the shallows. So why is this observation important? Dr. Craig suggests that it is unwanted male attention which causes the females and calves to increase their swimming speed, in turn requiring the mothers to supply their calves with more milk to compensate for the extra energy they’ve used. Since the females aren’t feeding in Hawaii, the researchers theorize that these female Humpbacks are actually seeking shallow water not to avoid predators… .but to avoid the energetic consequences of male Humpback sexual harassment!