Whale & Wildlife Report | October 22-28, 2023
Highlights
Short-finned pilot whales
Reef manta rays
Oceanic whitetip sharks
Bottlenose dolphins
Hawaiian spinner dolphins
Rough-toothed dolphins
Sea turtles
Two glass balls!
Whale & Wildlife Report | October 22-28, 2023
We enjoyed some spectacular conditions this week. Our highlight encounter had to be with a playful pod of pilot whales! Our crew dropped our hydrophone and sure enough, the group was incredibly vocal! It’s thrilling to glimpse into the communications of these creatures, and our guests loved hearing them through our speakers onboard. With our scientific-grade hydrophone and boat-wide sound system, we can’t wait to utilize it during the upcoming humpbacks season to hear underwater songs!
We had the pleasure of spending time with a rare dolphin species this week… rough-toothed dolphins! This species is considered a pelagic one, meaning they prefer deeper waters vs shallow coastlines. The Kona Coast is a great spot to search for them, as our coastline drops off dramatically. Kona’s deep waters welcome an array of pelagic life, and we often find ourselves in water thousands of feet deep!
We do appreciate the shallow areas however, and the northern manta site this week was a hot spot! We had lots of barrel rolling and close encounters on our manta trips. And even more excitedly, almost all first-time guests! The night manta experience is hard to imagine until you’re in a snorkel, and guests were over the moon when they saw the gentle giants for themselves!
With a great forecast and lots of wildlife in the area, we’re looking forward to our whale watch and manta adventures this week!
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