Aloha,
Monday’s Whale Watch Cruises were really dynamic. We hadn’t even left the bay on our Wake Up with the Whales Cruise when we started seeing breaches and pec slaps from a couple different Humpbacks and many, many spouts from other whales in the area. Captain Ty decided to head towards the breacher but that whale sounded before we got very close. After watching the various spouts and flukes from whales in every direction, we headed south towards a very active competitive pod. These 3 (or maybe 4) Humpbacks were definitely working something out between each other, and we got to see lots of chin slaps, and pec slaps, and heard a lot of trumpeting from them as they struggled to catch their breath. They really didn’t seem to notice our presence, surfacing close to us a couple of times. We even watched them shove each other around at the surface — which is quite the sight to see since they probably weighed around 35 tons each.
We were hoping to find the same pod during our Late Morning Whale Watch Cruise but before we did, we found a Mom/Calf/Escort trio. Mom was pretty permissive with her calf, allowing him to approach within 40 yards of the bow several times. For awhile, Mom was on our port side, and baby was at our bow. While we were watching them, the Escort disappeared from sight and never returned (maybe he decided to try his luck with a more receptive female). Towards the end of this cruise, we saw what we think was our competitive pod from the first cruise — this time they were further out to sea, and this time, they were much less active.
Mahalo,
Claire
Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: We frequently see Mom and Baby Humpback accompanied by a third whale. We used to think this was a female helping mom take care of her baby, but now that we can identify gender more easily, we know it isn’t. It’s a male. Though a new mom ovulates infrequently, researchers believe that perhaps the male whale is “hoping to make a good impression” so when she is receptive, he may be the first to mate with her. Unless it’s a very strange coincidence, this escort is not the father of the calf as male Humpbacks aren’t involved in raising their own offspring. Since the gestation period for a Humpback is about a year, “Dad” was last year’s love interest.