Quite possibly Cindy's number one priority while in Hawaii was a chance to take a boat ride out into the Pacific to view the humpback whales up close. There's no shortage of charter services on the islands that will take whale watchers out to see humpback whales leisurely roll, jump or frolic in the waters. We had a chance to go while we were on the Big Island, but were told by some of the locals that the best whale watching was just off the west coast of Maui. Since we were going to be there the next week, it worked out for the best. It turns out that the height of the whale watching season is in February and March - the exact time we'd be in Hawaii.
Each year, hundreds of humpback whales begin to migrate in November from just off the Alaskan coast to the Hawaiian Islands to give birth and raise their young calves, or to breed again. During this time, the whales don't eat - they lose as much as 50% of their body weight in the winter time, going back in April and May to the fertile waters of the north Pacific. One of the things we found out while we were in Hawaii is that the more blue and clear the water, the less amount of nutrients are present in the water to sustain large schools of fish.
Female humpback whales are usually slightly bigger than males and when they give birth to their calves, they guard them against any interloping males who may want to kill the young whales during the winter courting season. Calves will stay close to their mother who feeds them milk that is 50% fat and is pink in color. Calves will grow quickly and the mothers will nurse them for about six months. After about a year, the young whales generally go off from their mothers and the life-cycle will continue for the mother who will breed in the waters off the Hawaiian coast.
The courting process is a part of the whale's ritual while swimming around the Hawaiian Islands. As many as 15 to 20 males will vie for the affection of a single female humpback. Sometimes the competition between the "escorts" can be fierce with a combination of breaching (when a whale comes completely out of the water), tail or fin slapping, and charging other males to establish a dominance in the group.
Along with the posturing that males exhibit during the courtship process, the whale's song is a large part of the annual ritual. Only males make the the song which is a combination of varying air pressure exerted through the whale's nasal cavity. Underwater microphones - hydrophones - can easily capture the singing of a handful of whales in the immediate area. The interesting thing is that all whale songs are the same. However, one whale may begin a different intonation of the same song and other whales will follow suit.
Each whale has a distinctive tail - or fluke. It's like the whale's fingerprint, if you will. Marine biologists in Hawaii have taken thousands of pictures of whales flukes over the years and compare them to check to see if the same whales come back to the Hawaiian waters each winter. I understand that many of them do.
As I said earlier, we had a number of different whale watching charters to choose from when we were on Maui. In talking to the bartender at the Bistro Molokini at the Grand Wailea, she told us the most popular one - Pacific Whale Foundation - was generally a large boat stuffed with as many people as possible, including a lot of kids at times. She said, "You want to go with the smaller charters. Yeah, they're more expensive, but you can move about the boat a lot more easily. And you don't have to deal with the screaming and whiny kids." She gave us the name of a guy who did the smaller charters and she told us to use her name when we talked to him.
We considered doing that until we got to talking to some other people who had done the Pacific Whale Foundation's charter. Cindy didn't feel comfortable calling someone up and scheduling a charter. We decided to go ahead and make reservations for a morning charter on one of the Pacific Whale Foundation's boats that were based out of a harbor in Ma'alaea. The price of the charter was $28.75 per person. We found out later that many smaller charters would be twice or more the amount we paid. Cindy also felt, the bigger the boat, the better.
It was a cool morning when we set out for the Ma'alaea harbor. 20 minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot near where the Pacific Whale Foundation's boats waited to take people out to see the whales up close. The process was a little confusing for us - we'd paid on line for the charter and there was a boat that was loading passengers when we showed up. We went up to one of the PWF's people who was checking tickets and he told us that we needed to go across the street to the foundation's store to check in and they'd give us our tickets. (see map)
The Pacific Whale Foundation is a non-profit organization that has studied humpback whales for nearly 30 years. Their charter tours are conducted by two naturalists who give a running commentary of the whale's habits and rituals during the two hour cruise. The PWF also has charters to take people to see schools of dolphins and also have boats that go out to the Molokini crater for snorkeling excursions.
After getting checked in and getting our tickets, we had about a 20 minute wait until a guide came to gather the group of about 60 people - people of all ages - in the courtyard in front of the store. She gave a quick talk about the foundation, their mission and what to expect on the tour. After that, we walked back over to the harbor across the road. Turned out that we could have left our car at the lot at the harbor marina instead of driving it over to the lot in the strip mall where the foundation's store was located.
The person conducting the tour was Patrick, who said he has been studying whales for about 11 years; and the captain of the boat - Captain Timmy - had been in Hawaii for about 13 years, but had been piloting boat charters for about 20 years. Both of them looked like they were in their mid-30's. And both were pretty good guys.
Cindy and I found a spot in the upper deck of the boat - a catamaran-style boat that was pretty stable, even in rough waters. We were very fortunate that morning because all week long while we were in Maui, the wind howled. But for some reason, the ocean was calm and the winds were very light when we went out that morning. We noticed later in the day the wind had picked back up and the sea had turned choppy, even in the bays around the island.
As we were leaving the harbor, Patrick asked the people on the boat for a show of hands of people who were on a whale watching tour for the first time. The majority of people put their hands up. He asked to see the hands of people who had gone on a tour between two and five times. A few hands went up. He then asked to see the hands of people who had gone on the tour over five times. A few more hands went up. He finally asked if there was anyone who had been on a tour more than 10 times. About six or seven hands shot up, including a lady seated next to us. She said, "I think this is my 20th-something time I've been out on a charter to see the whales. Honestly, I've lost count."
We got off shore by about a mile and Captain Timmy started to steer toward a group of whales that he spotted off in the distance. By law, a boat cannot come within 100 yards of a whale. That's not to say that they haven't been surprised by an occasional whale that somewhat sidles up to the side of the boat. Patrick told us that sometimes a female with a calf will use the boat as a barrier between her and an aggressive male "escort". I asked Captain Timmy if he'd ever been bumped by a whale. "Oh, yeah," he shot back. I asked him what it felt like and he said, "It feels like getting bumped by a 60 ton whale. It can be a jolt and it can scare the heck out of some folks."
Now, we just got a new Panasonic camera before we went on vacation. It has more pixels than the older Panasonic we had and was more compact for easier storage and carrying around. I was manning that camera and Cindy had her little "point and shoot" camera. The biggest mistake I made with the new Panasonic camera was that I did not activate the "rapid fire" feature that would take up to seven pictures with the click of the button. Of course, Cindy was on the ball and had that feature activated on her camera. She would take six or seven pictures of a whale breaching - the process when the whale shoots straight up out of the water. Five of the pictures might be blurry, but one would be perfect. But she did get this pretty spectacular breach shown above. I know I missed some great shots without having that feature activated.
Nonetheless, we did manage to get some excellent pictures of whales cavorting around us. At one point, a whale breached not more than 40 yards off the port bough of the boat. Patrick and Captain Timmy both went "WHOA!!!" when it did that. I was late on the switch to get a good picture, looking off in another direction when I caught the breach out of the corner of my eye. The sound of the upper body of the whale hitting the water sounded like the most intense "cannon-ball" dive I'd ever heard. It was way cool. The same whale did about four or five more breaches and each time I was late on the switch, but I was able to at the very least get this shot of him.
About halfway through the charter tour, Patrick and Captain Timmy spied what appeared to be two calves swimming with a mother. I don't know if they were naturally astounded by this, or putting on a show for the tourists, but they were both excited to see that. Apparently, female whales will give birth to twins, but it's a very rare event. However, with the fortunate sighting of two calves with a mother came the revelation that one of the calves was doomed. Patrick said, "The mother doesn't have enough milk to feed both calves, so she'll pick the one that she wants to live and let the other one die off."
When asked how long the doomed calf would be able to sustain, he said, "Boy, maybe a month at the most." He said it could also be that the second calf could have come from another mother who abandoned it or possibly died in the process. "Either way," he said, "it's not going to make it for very long."
There was certainly a lot of activity that morning. Once again, I couldn't tell if the enthusiasm both Patrick and Captain Timmy showed was sincere or if it was a show for the tourists to entice them to come out on the boat again. But they were excited for the amount of sightings we had as we cruised around the bay just off Ma'alaea and Kihei. And for a novice first-timer like me, it was pretty impressive. Seriously, after a while, I was sort of getting bored by the whole thing. Cindy, though, thoroughly dug the experience. "I didn't want to go back in (to port)," she told me afterward.
For our first excursion to see humpback whales I was pretty impressed. It was a pretty fun experience going on the Pacific Whale Foundation boat. I'm glad we went in the morning when it was more calm. And while there was a screaming kid on the boat, he settled down when we got out in to the bay, so it wasn't all that bad. It was money well spent on a tour that was not only exciting, but I certainly learned a lot more about the nature of humpback whales. It's a must-do if you go to Hawaii in the late winter months.
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Posted by: FishingCharte | February 03, 2013 at 01:22 AM
Maui sounds similar to Margaret River. We have whale and dolphin watching season too!
Posted by: Luanne | February 05, 2013 at 04:02 AM