Whale & Wildlife Report | August 25-31, 2024
PC: Andrew Aggergaard
Highlights
Short-finned pilot whales
Cuvier’s & Blainville’s beaked whales
Reef manta rays
Oceanic white-tip sharks
Tiger sharks
Pantropical spotted dolphins
Hawaiian spinner dolphins
Sea turtles
Whale & Wildlife Report | August 25-31, 2024
A wide variety of marine life this week! To keep up with our awesome encounters, make sure you’re following Hawaiian Adventures Kona on our socials. Not only are we posting our favorite photos, but we also announce our latest discounts! Hint hint… use discount code “NM824” for $30 off our night manta snorkel tickets!
September is an amazing month to join us, especially on a night manta snorkel. This past week we had some amazing encounters with Kona’s reef manta rays. We ventured to the northern manta sight where we were treated to clear and calm conditions! Everyone was excited to see a massive baitball of larval fish below our light board. They were feasting on plankton and there had to be hundreds if not thousands of them! Quickly the mantas joined in on the fun and started eating the fish! They were barrel rolling so fast and absolutely gorging. Our guests were in awe and it was one of the coolest interactions that we’ve had! We can’t wait to get back in the water this coming Friday, September 6th for more manta action.
PC: Olivia Miller
Honokohau Harbor is our homeport and a hotspot for wildlife sightings. We spotted a few green sea turtles on the rocks enjoying the summer sunshine. From the moment we leave the dock, we are scanning the waters and we always encourage our guests to look below. This week we had multiple tiger shark sightings with one cruising closer the surface alongside us for a few minutes! Such a cool sight and a great opportunity to educate our guests about this species’ importance and role in our ecosystem on the Kona Coast!
PC: Olivia Miller
Offshore in Kona’s deeper waters we spent time with short-finned pilot whale pods. We encountered a big group with lots of curious juveniles who were spy-hopping! There was also an oceanic white-tip shark trailing the pod that we also got a glimpse of. On another tour we found ourselves surrounded by three pods of pilot whales within just a few miles. The first group was especially friendly and approached Artemis giving everyone an up-close and personal experience. The second pod was exhibiting more resting behavior and the third was traveling south at high speed. It was fun to show our guests their variety of behaviors!
Further south we got some brief looks at two of the coolest species around… Blainville’s beaked whales and Cuvier’s beaked whales! Both of these pelagic whales are deep divers with Cuvier’s having the deepest recorded dive of any whale species in the world. After spotting them, they had just a few brief surface intervals before diving down out of sight. Any encounter with these whales is an exciting one!
PC: Andrew Aggergaard
Our cetacean sightings continued with a number of dolphin pods. Offshore we found a huge group of Pantropical spotted dolphins! They were in a social mood riding our bow, surfing our wake, and leaping at impressive heights (Naturalist Olivia estimated one jump to push 20ft vertical). We found pods of Hawaiian spinner dolphins along the coastline with a larger group outside the downtown Kona area. Another smaller pod had two energetic mom and calf pairs that were very interested in us! We got some nice looks and our guests were delighted to see this iconic species.
PC: Olivia Miller
Interested in experiencing these tours?
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