Short-finned Pilot Whales

 
Pilot Whales in Hawaii have long been seen by mariners sailing along the off shore island shelf as it quickly descends thousands of feet into the deep Pacific Ocean plain. Here in Maui it is very hard to find them because of the shallow water shelf that extends out past several of our neighboring islands. Humpback whales, bottlenose, and spinner dolphins love these shallow Maui waters but it tends to keep the deep offshore species farther out. Many people in Hawaii don't realize we have so many cetaceans here like melon headed whales, false killer whales, pilot whales, pygmy sperm whales, rough tooth dolphins, spotted dolphins, beaked whales, and even resident sperm whales! The fact that we see these species so rarely on Maui, or not at all, makes a trip to the Big Island a little more special for people like Heidi and myself. In fact Heidi heads up the Pilot Whale research catalog at Pacific Whale Foundation but had never seen one...until now.
As we trolled some mahi lures behind our private fishing boat off the Kona coast our captain spotted some kind of cetacean. Heidi and I got very excited to find out it was a pod of short finned pilot whales! With females in the 12ft range and males up to 18ft these were not something to take lightly. I had seen video of an encounter with a pilot whale grabbing a lady and taking her under, but in a playful and gentle way. But I was too excited to think about that and they seemed very calm, just logging at the surface. So when the captain asked if we wanted to jump in I was ready in a flash.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Several pilot whales slowly swimming up to breathe. As I got closer I could see the pictures getting better and better. One whale did get curious and swam beneath us rolling on its side looking up with one big eye. It was about this time I heard Heidi exclaim, 'Shark!'. But I will leave that for the next post...