The whales are frisky this year....

[Lopaka]

Driving home around Koko Crater a few days ago, just happened to glance makai to see one of the big guys leap into the air and crash back down in that signature splash. Cool, I thought, never saw that from boat or shore before.

Then yesterday, my wife saw two of them do it, one right after the other, just off Lanai Lookout. She stopped to watch, and the whales played around on their sides doing the flipper in the air thing for a while.

Are they more numerous this year, or were we just lucky to look out at the right time?

 

[kidspot]

This is a common sight on Maui where we have a lot more than you do on Oahu, but always amazing to see. I've been told there are more this year than any other on record. One estimate I heard was 5000 visiting Maui (dunno about Oahu)

We get lots of traffic Jams during whale season as people hit their brakes in the middle of the highway to watch a whale breach. Gotta pay close attention while driving along the beaches for sudden stops

Aloha, Tim

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

I wonder why there are so many whales off Maui and not so many off Oahu? It's not so far away...
I have heard that over 10k whales visit Hawaii each year with a 7% population increase per year..
I have seen several breaching from shore and a few while boat diving.. Pretty amazing stuff! If you go to Tonga you can snorkel and dive with them... that would be amazing!!

Sean

 

[Lopaka]

I wonder why there are so many whales off Maui and not so many off Oahu?

IIRC, the large bank within Molokai-Lanai-Maui is the attraction and breeding ground. I recall those island are the remnants of a huge cauldera, hence the somewhat shallow bank within.

But what do I know...........

 

[kidspot]

that's what I was told as well. The area between those islands is shallow, protected and calm, making it a perfect place for them to raise their young. Then again maybe it's just the great diving

 

[DiveWestOahu]

saw 42 whales during a Makapu'u hike 2 days ago 8)

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Check out this whale footage.. I'm sure we'd have a lot more if we didn't have that law about approaching the whales but I fully understand and agree with the law...

Anyway here is the video I found:

http://www.divefilmhd.com/podcasts/episode1hd.mov (whales a little into movie)

Sean

 

[sea nmf]

I stayed at the Maalaea Banyans when I was on Maui a couple of weekends ago. That place is just the front row seat! The baby's do a bunch of breaching, for some reason. There were a couple of complete flips by the big ones. I counted one whale fin slapping 32 times.

I noticed that when I was coming back from the Uhamehame Park dive, that people were pulling over (barely) to watch the show.

Tim, I think you should plan a dive to just hang out there over the edge and you have a good chance of being blessed with an underwater sighting. If only you had a rebreather that didn't produce bubbles.

I did notice that the bubbles did not seem to be a concern for the one Manta we saw. Well, maybe they did because it didn't stick around after checking each of us out. Maybe it was noisy and it wanted piece & quiet.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Many whale researchers theorize that the baby breaching is strength training for the arduous trip to Alaska. The adults may breach for other reasons, but sometimes probably to show babies how. It is likely the young think of it more as play, but mom wants them to play enough to get strong.

A picture or video of a flip by a humpback would mean retirement for the photographer/videographer, as to my knowledge there is no image(s) of a baleen whale landing significantly more than horizontal. Spinning/twisting during the breach is common.

Maui Nui is the term for the entire mountain of Maui County, which was likely one Island during Ice Ages where sea level was >300 feet lower than today. There is no evidence of a large cauldera to my knowledge; it would have been a large island with multiple volcanoes, certainly not all active at the same time. As stated by Tim, the protected shallow waters are considered a perfect crib for the babies.

Penguin Bank extends WSW off Molokai and is not necessarily birthing/breeding grounds, but does have more humpbacks at any given time than anywhere else in the Islands. Many think it has to do with the fact that Penguin Bank is the main fishery in the main Islands and there may be opportunistic feeding going on there. To my knowledge, the mother-calf pairs do not spend significant time there. So, mothers may be the only ones truley fasting here in Hawaii.