Humpback Spy Hop

    Winter is an exciting time here in Maui. Humpback whales are showing up in increasing numbers every winter to mate and have babies. While the humpbacks are here they perform incredible acrobatics, the males will fight to impress the females, and the mysterious whale song can be heard from miles away if you dunk your head just a bit under the ocean.
  One behavior that I rarely see is called a spy hop. This is where the whale slowly rises its rostrum (head) out of the water. Scientists presume it is for the whale to look around at their surroundings hence the name 'spy hop.' It is a rare behavior here in Hawaii. In fact in all my time with these whales over the past three winters I have only seen this a handful of times. That was until these two whales pictured here.

  On a special day out on the water in Maui you may have a chance to be mugged by a humpback whale. This is when a whale swims towards the boat and comes within the 100 yard zone. It is unlawful to approach the whales this close, but if they approach you then the boat must be put into neutral until the whale has left the 100 yard zone. Usually it's a quick swim by but on this occasion this pair of whales stayed next tothe boat for over an hour. It was a beautiful calm day, and these whale spy hopped over twenty times!

   The water being exceptionally calm allowed us to view the whales even when they were underwater. While we never saw any actual mating going on these two whales seemed very amorous towards each other.  There was a lot of touching and at one point both whales rose up out of the water for a double spy hop. Once, two other whales joined our two and the whales sped off. But shortly after our two whales swam back over and continued their antics right next to the boat. People would run from one side to the other as the whales slowly swam right under our boat. Everyone on board was shocked that the whales would stick with our boat for so long. We were all a bit sad when the whales finally swam away but the uniqueness of this encounter will stay with all of us for much longer.