We are ringing in the new year with rare sightings of offshore odontocetes, or toothed whales, here in Hawaii. Some, like the short fin pilot whale can only be seen in water that is thousands of feet deep, while spinner dolphins and bottlenose can be seen closer to shore. With this in mind I like to check both areas to set up some fun photo encounters with these rare animals.
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| Short Fin Pilot Whale |
The short fin pilot whale (
Globicephala macrorhynchus) is found all around the worlds tropical seas, however there are several resident pods here in Hawaii that live here year round. They are most often spotted off the deep coast of the Big Island, where the volcanoes plummet down to a depth of around 15,000ft. We finally found the resident pod cruising near the surface a few miles offshore. They are readily identifiable with the wide dorsal fin of the males. I have
swam with them before but it can be risky as they are top of the level predators, and they often have an
oceanic white tip reef shark hanging out with them.
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| False Killer Whale |
An even rarer sighting occurred this week in waters between Maui and Lanai when I spotted a large dolphin type dorsal fin that was too big to be a bottlenose. It turned out to be an exciting encounter with a false killer whale (
Pseudorca crassidens). This individual led us to a small group of the false killers that was spread out over a large area. They are similar in body shape, size, and color to pilot whales but lack the wide dorsal fin. Also the behavior is often quite different between the two species.
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| Spotted Dolphin |
Pantropical Spotted Dolphins, (
Stenella attenuata), were the third of the charismatic offshore megafauna that we came across over the last seven days here in Hawaii. These playful dolphins zipped over to the big boat for a bit of bowriding and also put on tremendous jumping acrobatic displays. I always tell my guest that if they look out of their second deck stateroom and find themselves eye-level with a dolphin that it is probably a spotted dolphin. A trained spotted dolphin was clocked at 21mph after only 2 seconds.
An even rarer sighting occurred this week in waters between Maui and Lanai when I spotted a large dolphin type dorsal fin that was too big to be a bottlenose. It turned out to be an exciting encounter with a false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens). This individual led us to a small group of the false killers that was spread out over a large area. They are similar in body shape, size, and color to pilot whales but lack the wide dorsal fin. Also the behavior is often quite different between the two species.
Pantropical Spotted Dolphins, (Stenella attenuata), were the third of the charismatic offshore megafauna that we came across over the last seven days here in Hawaii. These playful dolphins zipped over to the big boat for a bit of bowriding and also put on tremendous jumping acrobatic displays. I always tell my guest that if they look out of their second deck stateroom and find themselves eye-level with a dolphin that it is probably a spotted dolphin. A trained spotted dolphin was clocked at 21mph after only 2 seconds. 
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