Same Ole Song

Aloha,

All the whales we found during our two Whale Watch Cruises from Kawaihae on Tuesday were way up north along the Kohala Coast. Guests on our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise watched 4 different Humpbacks, but each of these whales was spending more time under the water than on the surface. On our Late Morning Whale Watch Cruise we saw a 1/2 dozen different whales including one Mom/calf pod. When we deployed the hydrophone during these two cruises, we heard some loud and very consistent vocalizations. These sounds were so repetitive that we found ourselves having to prove to our guests that what they were hearing was indeed live, and not computer generated!

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Humpback Whales, Bottlenose Dolphins, and Spinner Dolphins are actually related — they’re all classified under the scientific order “Cetacean” (derived from the Greek word, “ketos” which translates to “Monster”). But they’re in different sub-orders. Humpbacks are baleen whales, classified in the sub-order called “Mysticete”, while the Dolphins are toothed whales, classified in the sub-order “Odontocete”. For those of you etymologists out there, “Mysticete” either translates from the Greek “mystacoceti” meaning “mustached”, which is a pretty accurate description of how the baleen in these whales’ mouths appears…or is a “mistranslation” from the Latin “Mustiketos” which means “Mouse Whale” — perhaps one of the earliest examples of a scientist (in this case, Aristotle) demonstrating he understood the concept of irony. “Odontocete” shares a common root word with “orthodontist”…and means just what it sounds like — “toothed – whale”..