Whale watching!

Tuesday 21 February
We had a whale watching trip booked today at 1pm, with lunch served on board, so that gave us a couple of hours by the pool, before we had to leave to drive to the marina. Seeing the whales was our reason for visiting at this time of year. Every year, Humpback whales migrate to the Hawaiian Islands during the winter months, November through March. While in Hawaii’s warm waters, they don’t feed, as the primary reason for their journey is to mate and for mother whales to give birth and raise their young. Their epic voyage from Alaska to Hawaii spans approximately 3,000 miles, and is one of the longest journeys taken by any land or sea animal. North Pacific humpback whales are the fifth largest whale species and can weigh anywhere between 25-40 tons (50,000 - 80,000 lbs), while the newborns weigh in at approximately 1 ton (2,000 lbs). We have seen them almost every day out at sea, close enough to see with the naked eye, but we have been looking forward to seeing them closer. We saw several mothers with their baby alongside, and we got to see a “competition pod”, that is a group of whales consisting of one sexually receptive female being pursued by a group of males, in this case the naturalist estimated about six or seven. Competition among the males for the female sometimes involves some intense surface activity as each male tries to gain the position closest to her to become the “primary escort”. We saw their backs and tails as they prepared to dive, and numerous flipper slaps, and a few breaches. However, I found them very frustrating and difficult to photograph, as you would see the blow, and so know the area they were in, but you still didn’t know exactly when and where they would pop up. At one point for example, I was trying to photograph a mother and baby alongside the boat, when another whale breached right ahead of the boat. The photos in my collage are actually a mixture of my photos on my camera, and Roger using my phone.
So it was a great trip, but I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get better photos
Step count: 6,633