OnBoard Tours Whales

Thank you to all who follow my blog, and have been waiting to read about the creatures in Hawaii! I am on Maui and have seen Green Sea Turtles, birds, fish and invertebrates, from the beaches! The Humpbacks, “Koholas”, are still migrating from Alaska, so I was thrilled to go out on a respectful boat and see them for a few hours.

On Friday afternoon, December 30, 2011, we came across a mother and calf in Ma’alaea Bay. They were ‘logging’, resting at the surface. The calf looked really small, fairly recently born? The calf was draped across mom’s back, easier for it to surface and breath. The calves do have to surface much more than the juveniles and adults. There were also 5 to 8 Bottlenose Dolphins surfacing very close to the whales, not active in behavior, travel or direction changes as though they were resting too. We headed further south and saw a mom-calf pair with an ‘escort’; another whale with them. They were awake, swimming, and one pectoral fin slapped the water! This calf was bigger and breached twice!! A Green Sea Turtle popped up to the west of us. A wonderful day of seeing endangered wild animals in their natural habitat, part of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Hope to share photos of my future sightings!