Pygmy Killer Whales off Big Island

Pygmy Killer Whale Encounter

Written By Jessika Pacinich

Photos by Dai Mar Tamarack

 

We were on the hunt. All eyes fixed on the rolling swell, everyone’s attention bent to a singular end: to find the pod of short finned pilot whales rumored to be hanging out in our location in the deep water off the Big Island of Hawaii. Short finned pilot whales are a rare sight and it’s a special moment when we spot them.

A radio call comes through, “Dai Mar, something’s out there.”

The Safari Explorer slows and turns. We all rush out on deck.

“What is it? What is it?”

Guests and crew peer into the water but we’re dumbfounded. Ahead of the ship, basking in the sun bob roughly 15 cetaceans. I have no idea what they are. I’ve never seen anything that looks like these animals. Highly curved dorsal fins slice through the waves and a blunt head glistens in the sunlight as they surface to breathe. We all stare at them in wonder. Then an individual lifts its head out of the water to get a better look at us and Dai Mar yells, “Pygmy Killer Whales!”

Pygmy what? I’d never seen them. Never heard of anyone seeing them in fact. Their tell-tale white lipstick markings around their mouths confirms the identification, and we all stare in wonder.

First discovered in the 1950’s, these creatures have evaded human notice for a long time. They are rarely seen and prefer deep waters but researchers have managed to identify three different social groups living among the Hawaiian Islands. They encounter this elusive species the least often of the eleven resident species of delphinids, with sightings representing less than 2 percent of odontocetes seen. Researchers don’t know what these creatures eat but we do know that they feed at night.  Just like our sighting, they are only ever spotted at the surface during the day while resting. Little to nothing is known about their life history while mating behaviors are a complete mystery. It seems we stumbled on a creature no one ever gets to see. Lucky indeed.

We took all the photos we could, trying to focus on identifying markings and close-ups of dorsal fins. After uploading the photos and sending an excited email to Cascadia Research Organization, we anxiously awaited their reply. 

Sabre Mahaffy, a researcher with Cascadia, got back to us right away saying, "The pilot whale group and the pygmy killer whale group are both long term residents of the Island of Hawaii. The last encounter with this group of pygmy killer whales was on January 1st of this year, so it's great to have another sighting!"

Everyone aboard congratulated one another. Just another day at the office.  Citizen scientists doing our part to further the study of the most rare whale species in all of Hawaii.