The Truth About Whales

    Just lately, say over the past two weeks, the whale action has picked up here on the Kona Coast.  Prior to the middle of February, everyone who loves the humpback whales was a bit down in the mouth.  Of course, almost everyone here loves the humpbacks, with
the possible exception of some Scandinavians and Japanese who still enjoy dining upon them.   There simply had not been very many whale sightings.  Up until the second week of February, Sandra and I had seen a total of four whales.  And all those had been well off shore...a distant spout and a glimpse of a fluke.

   Having had the recent opportunity to read about the humpbacks in John Hoover's book, I would like to reveal what had been my misconception, which is widely shared here in Kona.  A very few humpback whales may live here all year.  The vast majority of the population summers in the waters off Alaska and begins to return to Hawaii in November.  The widely held misconception is that the peak humpback whale presence should coincide with that of the Canadian tourists.  The  latter species descends upon our rocky shores in the first week of January.  Their stay often lasts a mere six weeks.   On the other hand, the number of whales in

I know who I'm gonna boo!

Hawaii peaks in February or March, by which time the Canadians are back in Victoria, Vancouver or Calgary, shoveling snow, watching hockey on TV and saying, "How aboot that f-ckin' Trump, Eh?"  This year, the migration was a bit later than usual, but don't despair, you wily Canucks, the whales did return and I have a couple short stories to relate about my recent experiences.

   About two weeks ago, I went down to Kahalu'u for a swim.  The water was rough and, wouldn't you know it, I forgot my fins.  Before heading back up the hill with my tail between my legs, I decided to hang out on the deck created by the removal of the signature wooden lifeguard tower.  Immediately I spotted the Bodyglove maintaining position just off shore, less than fifty yards outside the Menehune Breakwater.  I watched it for a few minutes and came to the conclusion that there must be something there.  My curiosity piqued, I asked a couple other deck hands if they had seen any evidence of a whale.  In the spirit of kanichiwa, I chose attractive Asian girls for my jury.  None of these lovelies had seen a whale, but they all seemed to know what a whale was and one of them clicked her chop sticks in anticipation.

   My big worry was that there might be a whale shark under the Bodyglove.  Would that not be so cruel, to

Whale Breaching off Alii Villas  2013  Photo by Verna Slater

be so close to a whale shark and never see it?

   About ten minutes later a small whale, probably a year old, leaped from the water.  And then he did it again and again.  Seven breeches in a few minutes!   Soo goi! (Or so I am told.)  I happened to see one of my jurors taking a picture of two older adults.  figuring that they might be her parents (I so smaht), I asked if I could take a picture of all three.  They agreed and I got a couple shots of the proud parents and the pretty daughter with the Kona shoreline in the background.

    Following the photos, I asked the girls if they were from China.  In fact, they lived in a city in Northern China, 6 hours by car north of Beijing.  "But," she said, "I go to school in Minnesota."

   "Well, " I replied, "Minnesota is sort of like Hawaii." and we both got a good laugh over that.      
                          

Courting Ornate Butterflies

      As you may know, last week I was blessed with another birthday.  And I was triply blessed as my son James came to visit, followed in a few days by my nephew Andrew and his partner, Shawn.  James and I went snorkeling a few times before the others arrived.   You have already seen the reticulated butterflies we saw on our first day.  The second day we went iwih Sandra to Kahalu'u and saw a pair of ornate butterflies circling one another, as if courting.

    Andy and Shawn were delayed a day because of the rain in California, so James and I squeezed in one more day of snorkel on Paul Allen's Reef, where the best thing we saw was a a quartet of Thompson's butterflies.  But more importantly, from the standpoint of this tale, we heard whales singing on both our outings by the pier.  Luckily, when we took Shawn out on the PAR, we heard whales singing that day, too.

   The day before the Dynamic Duo was due to depart, we decided to go down to Alii Villas and call the eels.   Shawn was holding a small plastic container full of chicken skin (well known to be a favorite among the Muraenidae.    As we made the turn down by the ocean, I saw two couples

standing at the railing pointing out to sea.  Suffice it to say, I parked quickly and got us down to the sea wall..

    Sure enough, there was a whale about 100 yards off shore.  We watched for a long time, maybe fifteen minutes.  During this time the whale did multiple fin displays, waving the long pectoral fins that give the humpback its species name, rolling over and slapping the long pectorals against the water and lunging out of the water time and again.  For several minutes he went face down and slapped his flukes against the water, a boom resonating over the sea after each slap.

James, Andrew and Shawn On the Kailua Pier

    This couldn't last forever and sure enough a boat with sight seekers pulled within thirty yards or so of the whale.  He turned and swam away, stopped for about a minute and then swam straight towards us.  His
approach ended perhaps ten yards from where the reef drops off in front of Alii Villas, a stretch of water that I have swum many times.  At this point he may have been only fifty yards from where we stood.  Although he did not repeat the fluke slaps, he did wave his pectoral fins time and again.  He rolled on his side showing a pectoral and his flukes simultaneously.  All this was accompanied by a pod of bottle nose dolphins, large black beasts.  I hope you enjoy the accompanying video of  taken by Shawn on his phone.  I don't know which is more amazing, Shawn's photography or me, in my dotage, getting the video into the blog. 

    So there you have it.  As we say in the whale watching business, better late than never.  The whales are back and we're loving it.

jeff

 A Fitting Birthday Greeting from Cousin Don