Amazing time for whale watching in Maui! Check out this breaching humpback whale!
Mom and newborn Calf
Happy new year everyone! Onboard my expedition cruise ship, the group this week has seen bow riding dolphins, an underwater ballet of manta rays, and swimming sea turtles…but the wildlife highlight of the week may have been the amazing humpback whales. January in Hawaii is humpback whale central. Nearly 60% of the 23,000 North Pacific Humpback Whales are estimated to travel here to the Hawaiian islands during the winter. And while each individual whale may only stay a month or two, the most overlapping are here right now.
The guests saw whales from the hospitality suite on Molokai, and the sightings just never stopped from there. I told the guests to look for the 3 holy grails of whale watching here in Hawaii… a breaching whale, a brand new baby whale, and a competition pod.
Breaching Whale!
Breaching means the whale is launching its 80,000lbs body out of the water.
Babies are born right here in the near shore waters and are about the size of a small pickup truck. They do look pretty adorable next to mom though who happens to be about the size of a city schoolbus. It wasn't until very recently that someone finally caught a humpback whale giving birth on film. We knew it happened right here in Hawaii, but it is a hard thing to witness. But we do see the babies shortly after they are born.
Competition at Sunset
Competition pods entail multiple male whales fighting over one female. We think this leads to her picking a mate although they have kept the act of mating a secret up to this point so we can’t say for sure. All I know is that watching these behemoths bash into each other and jockey for position is something to behold. I once saw 19 male whales fighting over 1 female.
We got all the highlights this week including being able to hear the whales singing underwater with our hydrophone.
Here is to peak whale season in Maui!
Check out the location of Maalaea harbor here, the best place to take a whale watching trip out of here on Maui! - [//]:# (!pinmapple 20.79090 lat -156.51276 long Whale Watching d3scr)
And as always... keep traveling!
-Dai Mar