Hawaii—We had a Whale of a Time

One time in Sunday School we were having a lesson on the Creation. A very interesting man in our class made a comment that was different than anything I had ever heard. He suggested that perhaps we had each helped God in the creation of some part of the earth. He went on to say that maybe that was the reason that we each have a special affinity for different parts of creation.

I of course have no idea whether or not that's true. But what I do know is that I love the ocean and the things that are in it in a way I can't explain. For many years I said that I love the beach, but I have come to realize in the last few years that that's not exactly true. I love the beach in that it is the springboard into the ocean. But what I really love is the ocean, being in the ocean, and the things that live in the ocean; the fish, the turtles, the dolphins, and the whales. (Not so much the sharks!)

When Russ & I went to the Big Island we went on a whale watch excursion. It was wonderful, and cost almost $100 each. I thought that was just par for the whale watch course, and so I was amazed when I went to Maui with Cindy Lynn to find that we could do a whale watch there for around $30 each. (Less gas needed to get the boat to good watching location, I'd guess.)

I was having a hard time deciding what kind of whale watch boat to go on this time; finally I solved the dilemma by deciding to go twice. Once by ourselves, and another time after Gary & Susan joined us.

On Monday Russ and I went on a whale watch trip with a company called Blue Water Rafting.
This company specializes in "adventure" excursions, and it was indeed an adventure. We sat on the sides of the raft with one foot wrapped under a rope along the floor and both hands holding onto a rope on the side. It was pretty windy the whole week we were in Maui, so the ocean was quite choppy. This meant that it was harder to take pictures than it would have been from a big boat. On the other hand, it was really cool to be right down on the same level as the whales.

When we went with Gary & Susan on Saturday we went on a bigger boat. It was supposed to be a dolphin/whale watch, but because of the wind we only saw whales and no dolphins.

It was still pretty excellent.

When you're watching for whales typically the first thing you see is the blow. The "blow" is a cloud of vapor that shoots into the air when the whale breaks the surface to breathe.

After the blow the whale's dorsal fin breaks the surface,

it's tail is usually the last thing you see. A humpback's tail is like a fingerprint; each is unique.


Because humpback whales are an endangered species, there are restrictions on how close you can get to them--no closer than 100 yards. Apparently someone had not notified this whale of those restrictions:

He surfaced about 20-30 yards from our raft, and then went almost under it! Another whale did go under our raft, but that picture didn't turn out as well.

Here you can see the whale swim just past our boat--it is under the water and there is another one just out of the water. They have a lot of white markings on their sides, bellies, and fins. Because the water is so clear you can see those markings in the water--although they look a little turquoise.

Here's a shot of a different whale swimming just past the other boat we went out on.



The whales migrate every year from Alaska to Hawaii, a distance of 3500 miles. They travel alone (are whales introverts??) and it takes them 4-8 weeks. The whales apparently come to Hawaii to breed and give birth, and stay for only 6-8 weeks. That's probably because the food prices are so high!

Sometimes the whales slap the water with their pectoral fins, which can be 15 feet long.

When the baby whales are born they are 12-15 feet in length and weigh 1-2 tons already. The mother's milk is 60% fat and is the consistency of yogurt, and she provides up to 100 gallons each day for the baby. The adult whales don't eat at all while they are in Hawaii--the reason that the Hawaiian ocean is so clear is that it doesn't have nutrients in it to sustain the kind of food that the humpbacks need. So they have to head back to Alaska so that they can eat again. They are probably the only Hawaiian tourists that lose weight while in Maui.

The mother whales and their babies hang out near the surface because the babies need to breathe much more often. They usually have a male escort with them. The assumption is that the male escort is hoping that the female will be interested in him at some point.

I'm always fascinated to see how much of a difference the position of the sun makes in a picture. If the sun is in one place, the water looks blue. If it's in another place, totally gray!

Sometimes a group of male whales will follow a mother & calf around, competing to be the escort. These groups are called competition pods and can get pretty wild. We saw one whale repeatedly thrusting his head up out of the water to land on the back of another whale.

I always think that the whale's snout (called a rostrum) looks like a giant cucumber.

Sadly, we did not see any breaches while on our whale watch trips. We saw them at other times in the distance, but never close enough or at the right moment to take a picture. But I will tell you about breaches anyway. Scientists think that perhaps the whale's peduncle muscle is the strongest muscle in all of the animal kingdom. The whale can propel it's entire body out of the water with just a couple of thrusts of the peduncle muscle. That's 35-45 tons of whale!

Here are two of Susan's great pictures for you.

I sure wanted to be on this raft.

How a whale says goodbye!