Aloha,
We operated way too many cruises this past weekend for me to provide a detailed narrative of each, so here are just a few highlights (hopefully enough to entice you to join us onboard).
First, Friday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise reminded us of that game at the carnival — Whack-a-Mole. Yes, we saw lots of Humpbacks during this cruise, but none close up. We’d see a whale spouting, head towards the area, only to watch it sound and then a different whale would surface and spout close to where we had JUST been. Frustrating for sure, but definitely an expected part of the Whale Watching game.
Guests on Saturday’s Late Morning Whale Watch saw a Humpback breaching straight outside the bay about 2 miles away. While watching that whale, we also saw Humpbacks to the south, and Humpbacks to the north and these whales were also doing a lot of breaching (but none were close by). When we deployed our hydrophone during this cruise, we heard a lot of loud singing too.
We don’t have to be on a Morning Whale Watch to see Humpbacks. Case in point: guests on Saturday’s Pau Hana Sunset Sail lost count of the number of breaches from two Humpbacks who were battling it out about 100 yards from us. We saw at least 3 double breachs (simultaneous breaches) from these whales, but when that much is going on so close to us, we all tend to lose count.
Guests on Sunday’s Wake Up with the Whales Cruise saw more than a dozen different Humpbacks, and many, multiple times. Two of these whales decided to investigate us. They kept surfacing about 50 feet away from our idling boat and when they dove, they were only underwater about 6 minutes at a time so we got to see them often. Again, when we deployed our hydrophone we heard a lot of whale voices, and these whales must have been close by, because we actually had to turn the volume down on our speakers.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Researchers off the coast of Brazil have discovered that some marine mammals including Humpbacks may have up to 14 spleens. Among other functions, the spleen stores red blood cells (which store oxygen)…so an extra spleen may help a deep diving animal stay underwater longer. These spleens can contract during a dive releasing fresh blood with oxygenated red blood cells to keep the whale’s important organs alive and functioning. 14 spleens?! Amazing.