1st Kauai Humpback Whale Sighting
Tuesday, October 1st: Captain Aaron and crew on Holo Holo Charters’ Adventurer II spotted the first humpback whale of the season about a mile off Ke’e Beach. The vessel was carrying 24 passengers who all witnessed the whale leaping out of the water, which allowed the Captain to properly identify the animal as a humpback whale. “No doubt about it, it was an adolescent humpback whale and it breached three or four times” said, Captain Aaron. It’s official, Humpback whale season in Hawaii is here!
During the fall, the Northern Pacific Humpback Whales, known as Koholā in Hawaiian, embark on an impressive journey from Alaska to Hawaii. They travel non-stop for one month, cruising at approximately three to seven miles per hour, powered by their massive tail fins. They depart their feeding grounds in the frigid waters off of the Gulf of Alaska, making it the longest migration of any mammal, to their annual breeding areas in Hawaii. The total round-trip journey is about 5,000 miles, the same distance as crossing the United States twice!
Once arriving in Hawaii’s warm, shallow waters, they will mate, give birth and care for their newborn calves. A humpback whales gestation period lasts eleven months, so the whales will breed one year, and typically return to the same waters the following year to give birth. The mother will nurse and care for her new calf in the warm and safe waters of Hawaii until it is strong enough to make the journey back to Alaska. There is no food for the whales in Hawaii, so they must eat enough during their summer to sustain them through this whole process.
One of the most captivating mysteries about humpback whales is their songs. Only the males are known to sing. The humpback’s evocative songs are among the most complex animal vocalizations; they sing units of sound that together form a phrase. Each song is composed of anywhere from two to nine themes, and the themes are sung in a specific order. Some of their phrases sound like the low moan of a cello and others are more like the chirping of a songbird.