Things get heated! Humpback competitions and more…
Humpback season isn’t over yet! Today’s private charter had a mission to see whales and boy did they get their wish… The trip started with a large pod of spinner dolphins just outside of the marina, a perfect start to an early morning wake-up with the wildlife. We turned our engines off and drifted with the dolphins while watching the sun rise over Hualalai.
The encounters continued farther north with simultaneous humpback whale and bottlenose dolphin sightings near the airport. With the dolphins focused on fish, we cruised north with a humpback and were able to take some ID-photos of the underside of its flukes. We submitted these photos, and others collected on today’s adventure, to Happy Whale in hopes of confirming an ID.
As we approached the shallows of Kukio we spotted breaches in the distance and crossed our fingers the activity would continue. As we arrived on scene, it became clear there was not just one whale present, but four! A mom and calf pair surfaced first, to the delight of both crew and guests. Then it got interesting. The water began to churn, and two fired-up males emerged amidst mom and calf. Mom was working to keep her baby out of the fray, but the males kept close, battering each other as they went. A closer look at photos of the males revealed numerous bloody wounds on both, further confirming the competitive nature of the encounter. All four whales dove deep, the males angling towards us as they did so. We held our breath as we waited to see where they would surface, and nearly jumped when one of the males surfaced just of the starboard side of our idle boat. Talk about a close encounter! Was he sizing us up to see if we too were competition? If so, he must have quickly decided we were no threat for he promptly resumed the chase, breathing heavily as he swam away. We sat in awe for some time as we continued to watch the drama unfold.
Later in the morning we found another large group of spinner dolphins, these deciding to come over and say hello. We perched on the bow as one after another hopped in to bow-ride, every detail of their physic visible through the crystal-clear water. A suitable opportunity arose to slip into the water and float amongst them, an experience made even more memorable for the humpback song that rang clear beneath the surface.
The journey home brought several more humpback whale encounters, including meeting back up with the mom and calf pair who had been so relentlessly pursued. It appeared they’d given the boys the slip, as they were peacefully resting in deeper water. With yet another spinner dolphin encounter as we returned to the marina, our eventful cetacean-filled morning came to an end.
What a morning!
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