Some Sub-Adults

Aloha,

The surf was up again for Monday’s Wake up with the Whales Cruise from Anaeho’omalu Bay. As soon as we got out of the bay though, we really couldn’t feel the swells. Guests on the cruise got to see 8 different Humpbacks. We spent a lot of our time with a pod of 3 who from far away looked like a Mom/Baby/Escort pod. When we got a bit closer though and got to see all of their flukes when they sounded, we realized none of those tails were small enough to be a calf’s tail, and that we were actually looking at a pod of 3 sub-adults just hanging out together. Also, when these whales dove, they all stayed underwater about 20 minutes before resurfacing and that would be an awfully long dive for a calf to make. We were able to deploy the hydrophone twice during this cruise — the first time we didn’t hear very much, but the second time, the communicating whales were much closer to us and we were able to make out some very distinct sounds.

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day:  The order of whales is called “Cetacean”. The order is divided into two sub-orders, based on what’s in the whales’ mouths. Whales with baleen (including our Humpbacks) are in the sub-order “Mysticete”, and whales with teeth are in the sub-order “Odonotocete”. Researchers do not agree on the number of species in each sub-order, but the Society for Marine Mammalogy lists 14 species of Baleen Whales, and 72 species of Toothed Whales.