Whale & Wildlife Report | March 26 - April 1, 2023
Highlights
Sperm whales
Tiger sharks
Short-finned pilot whales
Mola mola
Reef manta rays
Humpback whales
Whale & Wildlife Report | March 26 - April 1, 2023
This week we cruised a few miles offshore and found a group of 4-5 sperm whales! Captain Andrew noticed the blows when we were a few miles off, and upon arrival on the scene, one was logging at the surface! We spent a good amount of time with the group and had some great looks at their flukes as they took deeper dives. We also encountered pilot whales this week; one of the species we see fairly often.
Our crew was thrilled to spot a few humpbacks still in the area. Although the humpback migration season is concluding, we saw multiple active humpbacks on our dolphin and whale-watching trips. A few lucky tours saw humpbacks breaching (Naturalist Kelsi counted one breaching over 6 times)! Humpbacks weren’t the only breaches however, as we also watched a massive mola mola leap from the waves off the bow of our boat! It’s not very often we get to see ocean sunfish breaching!
We had a pretty epic week up north for manta sightings! During one of our tours, we witnessed manta mating behavior and identified manta ray “Delaney” as the leading female! We watched in amazement as she trailed a chain of 9 male mantas behind her. We also had a report from the fire pit that Big Bertha was exhibiting the same behavior with 2 male mantas following behind. There was no shortage of mantas during our trips, and guests got up close and personal with lots of swoops, barrel rolls, and fly-bys right beneath the board!
Our manta highlight of the week was witnessed by none other than Captain Andrew as he saw a manta fully breach out of the water! We can’t wait for our upcoming night manta tours this week, and if you haven’t already booked your trip, we highly recommend booking soon. Join us to experience Kona’s wild nightlife!
We spotted quite a few dolphins this week both offshore and right outside the harbor mouth. Our 8:30 AM departure is a great opportunity to encounter Hawaiian spinner dolphins as they make their way inshore from their evening hunt. Yesterday we also witnessed a few spotted dolphins interacting with bottlenose dolphins. The bottlenose later mingled with a humpback whale just inshore off Ali’i Drive! Downtown Kona had a front-row view of a pretty exciting wildlife interaction!
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