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Fair Wind II Photo Gallery
2007 Whale Photos - 2/23/07
Photos from the Hula Kai Whale Watch - Friday
Photos by CJ Kale Photography | visit website |
02/23/07 (Friday)
Aloha and welcome aboard,
If I had to describe Friday's whale watch with two words, they would be “delayed gratification”. Don't get me wrong…we had an exhilarating experience - it's just that the whales kept the best till the end of our trip. What I'm trying to say is usually we arrive on the 'Lek' and there are whales in every direction, however today they were few and far between. Thoughts went through my mind, like "I know they are still here, but where are they hiding"? Even as they began to show themselves the numbers were still down compared to previous trips...hhmmm - then at last we had groupings of 2 then 3 and so on. It seemed like things were getting back to normal, or so we thought. Then once again the humpbacks would disappear with no trace that they were ever there, except for a rapidly dissipating 'Footprint'. At this point we decided to continue to head north in search of more cetaceans, we found a very large pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins (Stenella Longirostris), and they seemed playful enough - riding our bow wave and surfing our stern wake. After a few runs with these guys we saw 2 whales fairly close to the boat so we decided to deploy the hydro-phone at this time. Then things started to happen, it seemed that most of the action was under water. There were a multitude of Humpbacks (Megaptera Novaeangliae) between 60’ to 100’ below our boat just going at it. Way to many to try and count, in fact the many voices began to blend into one with the primary goal of being chosen by a female for courtship and mating. This went on for some time, before we moved on because we saw a breaching whale in the distance. We were not to be disappointed, it was a mother whale teaching her calf how to breach. Once we shut down and became silent, the excitement began to build anticipating something spectacular. All of a sudden the water began to boil, and 50’ of whale launched itself towards the heavens...and right at the apex she arched her back to prepare for what was to be a thunderous explosion of white water!!! Then it was the calf’s turn...the little guy got high marks for effort, but didn't get much altitude. But then after several attempts he was breaching like you'd expect to see from these gentile giants. Mom went on to breach 9 more times, as well as the calf before they quit and swam off into the setting sun, leaving us dazed and amazed and wanting more!!! But by then it was time to begin the trip home. Needless to say we were all quite pleased. It just goes to show with wild animals you never know what to expect, or what they’re going to do next. Be sure to join us for another awesome adventure aboard the Hula Kai! ‘Till then, Aloha, jonathan
| email Jonathan |
Reservations / Info:
808-345-0268
800-677-9461
------------------------------
Hula Kai Photo Gallery
