Whale & Wildlife Report | June 9-15, 2024
PC: Andrew Aggergaard
Highlights
Whale shark
Blainville’s beaked whales
Short-finned pilot whales
Rough-toothed dolphins
Hawaiian spinner dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins
Reef manta rays
Mako shark
Oceanic white-tip shark
Whale & Wildlife Report | June 9-15, 2024
What a wonderful week on the Kona Coast! We had a blast sharing our adventures with our guests, and after rescuing multiple balloons and pool floaties from the ocean, Mother Nature rewarded us with some spectacular wildlife encounters on our tours.
PC: Andrew Aggergaard
We’re dubbing this past week the week of the pilot whales! It had to have been a record number of sightings for us, and one trip even had 7 pods in one day! There was a wide variety of pod size from just a few traveling together to massive groups of 60+ individuals. We spotted subadults, big male bulls, and tiny calves! We recognized one of the little calves, as we have encountered them a few times on our recent trips. During one particular encounter, the calf was very curious about us and did lots of spy hops (with mom close by of course). We also got some spy hops from the bigger bulls, and it was cool to see their size difference! We witnessed one pod hunting which is pretty rare to see. It started when two bulls suddenly sped up, the entire pod started circling, and the whales converged diving down together towards their prey. How cool!
PC: Olivia Miller
On the way back from watching one of the pilot whale pods, we spotted a couple of Blainville’s beaked whales! This elusive species gave us just enough looks to confirm what they were before disappearing beneath the waves. Our team also noted that one of them was a big bull with erupted teeth. Definitely one of the more interesting looking features that a Blainville’s beaked whale can have!
We spent time with some playful pods of Hawaiian spinner dolphins near the harbor and a big group of bottlenose dolphins outside the downtown Kona area. Our guests were treated to lots of bow riding and surface action! Offshore we found a group of rough-toothed dolphins near C-bouy, and we had a brief encounter with Pantropical spotted dolphins benefore they did a deep dive to hunt. We also had some bottlenose sightings during our night manta snorkel tours, and a few gave us some passes as we were watching the manta rays!
PC: Andrew Aggergaard
Our ocean karma continued with our highlight encounter of the week… a whale shark! This species is a favorite of one of our naturalists, and we are always on the search for these gentle giants. This whale shark was only about 10-12 ft long, so it was likely a younger individual! It approached us and everyone onboard got some amazing looks. We spent a good amount of time with it as it circled Artemis and enjoyed some bubbles. Our crew got some ID photos and we said goodbye to our adorable small friend!
PC: Olivia Miller
We concluded our week with a wild sight… an 800+lb marlin! As we were returning from a trip, one of the fishermen in the harbor had a massive marlin on the scale. As the only offshore focused whale watching company, we often find ourselves amidst the many talented fishermen in Kona’s deeper waters. As fellow offshore enthusiasts, congratulations!
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