Oahu, Hawaii: Humpback Whale Watching

Whale watching was one of my favorite things that we did in Hawaii. Hands down. Apparently every year between January and March humpback whales come to the waters surrounding the Hawaiian islands to have babies (whale calves)! We went whale watching with an incredible company. The captain of the ship reminded me of Matthew McConaughey from the movie "Gold Rush." He was super fun. He would have his whole body, minus his foot, hanging out of the cabin window looking forward and all around for whales, and with his one foot, he drove the boat. After we had all seen a plethora of whales, he would walk around the boat talking to people and then all the sudden he would be running into the cabin to veer the boat in a proper direction. He definitely made it a fun/unique experience.

Another thing that I loved about this particular company is that they have an underwater microphone that they dropped into the water and we were able to hear whales talk - it was incredible. We were able to hear whales from 3 to 5 miles away, so there really was quite a bit of talking.

I recorded it with my phone, but apparently lost the file. So here is a portion of the talking from someone we went with...
We saw the humpback whales, their spouts, and humpback whale tails over the place. I can't imagine how many were actually surrounding us in the waters. But I had three distinct favorite experiences from the trip:

Favorite Experience #1: The first whale we spotted was off to the right of the boat. Of course everyone was excited. So when the humpback whale dove down and flashed its tail at us, everyone got antsy to see more. They asked the captain to start driving elsewhere. He said, "We wait 8 minutes to see if they will surface again." Although we don't know if it was the same whale or not, a few minutes later the captain's helper, who was assisting in spotting whales from the top of the boat, shouted, "THERE IT IS!" and pointed directly to the side of the boat. Sure enough, the (or a) whale was swimming under our boat, close enough to the surface that we could see it through the water. So awesome!

Favorite Experience #2: We were watching some whale spouts off in the distance. There was at least two of them, and then a smaller one (not so high) in the middle. Others told the captain, "Drive closer!" He said, "They are coming towards us. Within minutes the whales surfaced approx 50 feet from our boat. I tried so hard to get photos of all of them swimming, but I couldn't zoom my camera out enough to capture all of them in one shot so I just had to take pictures of each one separately. But seeing them so close was so amazing! We all got "whale spit" on us coming from the whales spouts.

Mike watching the humpback whales (loving every minute):

Me photographing the humpback whales... well that's my arm...:

Watching the whale spouts in the background and waiting for them to come closer to our boat:

Favorite Experience #3: This one is my ultimate favorite. The boat was moving forward, almost time to call it a night, so everyone was looking forward. I was standing on the right side of the boat and all of the sudden I heard something so I looked over. About 75 feet away from our boat was a whole entire humpback whale out of the water! It was mid-jump and I felt like time was standing still, like I was looking at a picture. But all of the sudden the whale crashed into the water, and it was gone. Everyone else was like, "Did you get a photo? Did you get a photo?" Only one other man saw it. Everyone else only heard the splash. Darn that all I got was the water remnants of the whale crashing back into the water. It truly was one of the most amazing things in the world though, and something I don't think I will ever forget.
The Humpback Whale I saw looked something like this, but since I didn't get a photo, this one is from Holualoa Inn's Blog:

Humpback Whale Facts (from Wikipedia):
*The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary was designated by congress November 4, 1992 to protect the endangered humpback whale and its habitat.
*Almost 2/3 of the North Pacific humpback whales (Wikipedia estimates between 4,000 and 10,000) migrate to Hawaii each year to mate, have babies, and begin nursing those babies.
*Compared to other whales, the humpback whale has extremely long flippers which reach up to 30 percent of its length of up to 40 feet (12 m). At their full grown length they can reach up to 55 feet long, and weighs about one ton for every square foot.
*Humpback whales are air breathers, rising to the surface every thirty or so minutes. Their exhale can rise up to 15 feet into the air, clocking at a speed of 300 mph(the human sneeze at its fastest is about 100 mph).
*When born, calfs are generally 10 to 15 feet long. They feed off their mothers milk, which is produced and fed to their calfs through mammary gland slits. The calf is able to roll its tongue into a tube and siphon in the milk that is ejected into the water. Occasionally pods of dolphins are found trailing mothers and their calves, and it has been speculated that they are consuming be leftover milk that the calf does not eat.
*All efforts to attach tracking devices to these whales have failed because of their constant movement. These whales are known for "breaching", in which they throw their body out of the water. Scientists have only been able to speculate as to why they do this, theories include using the motion to knock barnacles off, show of dominance, mark personal space etc. There is generally a lot action when there are groupings of males, anywhere from two to ten whales, that come together in what's known as a competition pod. In these groupings the males are showing off and sometimes fighting over the position of being a females escort for the season. Many times the whales will use their pectoral fins and flukes to slam each other, leavening bruises and cuts from the barnacles attached to their skin.
*Male humpback whales produce vocalizations described as "songs" over 10–20 minute periods. Whales in different areas of the world sing different songs, but those in the same area sing the same song. A song can be repeated for hours. They change slightly from year to year.

Loved this little diagram on the right of the whale positions and the whale size facts. This photo is from the Maui Information Guide on Whale Watching:

I loved being so close to these huge creatures. I think the only things I want now is to be scuba diving and to happen upon a family of them. (Humpbacks are supposed to be nice, and not hurt humans.) That and they said that sometimes they actually see the whale calves nursing. We, unfortunately were not able to, but I guess that leaves something to be desired for another trip. We saw so many though. It was a very worthwhile trip and I am afraid every other whale watching trip after this will pale in comparison. The captain and his assistant were even raving because apparently this is the closest the whales have ever come to the boat.
It was a beautiful sunset boat ride back to the island as we spotted more whales off in the distance.

Definitely a night for the books.