Capturing the Moment

  Whale watching in Prince William Sound has been interesting to say the least. The humpback whales seem to be far and few between. Maybe it is still early in the season. Maybe there just aren't that many ever here. We have been hearing sightings of bubble net feeding humpbacks from Southeast Alaska and even some from Resurrection Bay near Seward, but have yet to see it here. In fact, we havn't seen much more than slow traveling humpbacks whales, when we've seen them at all. But that is just the humpbacks... The killer whale sightings have been plentiful. We encountered at least four different pods of orcas here this past week. One encounter must have included over twenty orca. It was so amazing to see that many orca all surfacing at once. They were a bit feisty as well, with some sideways belly-to-belly swimming, tail slaps, and quick direction changes. They are always such a pleasure to watch. This part of Alaska has some of the most researched orca in the world. While on...

  Every winter, Humpback Whales arrive around the Hawaiian Islands for their breeding and calving season. If you get a chance to go out on the water and do some whale watching, you could be rewarded with some very interesting behaviors. I tell people there are three big goals while whale watching here; seeing a brand new baby whale, seeing a competition pod, and see a breaching humpback whale. Whale watching has been heating up here in Hawaii. The Humpback Whale migration is on in full force. One way to see it is to head out in a small boat from Honokahau Harbor near Kona, Hawaii. Babies are about the size of a small pickup truck, and they are born right here. The momma whales like the clear, calm, warm waters around the islands. The draw to Hawaiian waters must be pretty big, since the adult whales have no food here. They fast the entire time, and then head back to the food rich waters of Alaska when the need to feed outweighs the need to breed. Even though the babies are quite la...

  Incredible whale breach coming right at us! Look closely, this is the pectoral fin of the mama whale, and the tail of the baby, up in the air at the same time. It was a wonderful week out here in Hawaii. After all the wind and rain of this past month, we finally got a week of no wind, beautiful sunshine, calm seas, clear waters, and plenty of wildlife. One morning, I decided to offer an early, sunrise whale watch to the guests. There had been plenty of whales around and I wanted to maximize their time out here. I wasn't too surprised when every single guests signed up. We were right off of Lahaina town on Maui, which coincidentally enough, was the whaling capital of Hawaii back in the 1800's. This is where hundreds of whaling ships would overwinter, before heading up to the North pacific to hunt whales. Now it is all about whale watching as hunting whales is illegal here. Breaching baby whale! Water cascading off the 15ft wide tail of a humpback whale. Our whale watch started...

Peak Whale Season in Maui  Mom and newborn Calf   The group this week has seen bow riding dolphins, an underwater ballet of manta rays, and swimming sea turtles…but the wildlife highlight of the week may have been the amazing humpback whales. February Hawaii is humpback whale central. Nearly 60% of the 23,000 North Pacific Humpback Whales are estimated to travel here to the Hawaiian islands during the winter. And while each individual whale may only stay a month or two, the most overlapping are here right now.   The guests saw whales from the hospitality suite on Molokai, and the sightings just never stopped from there. I told the guests to look for the 3 holy grails of whale watching here in Hawaii… a breaching whale, a brand new baby whale, and a competition pod. Breaching Whale!    Breaching means the whale is launching its 80,000lbs body out of the water.    Babies are born right here in the near shore waters and are about...

Breach of massive proportions   The humpback whales are here in force right now in Southeast Alaska. Frederick Sound seems to be the place to find them. These past two weeks have seen us skiffing with the giants, as well as getting breaches and bubble net feeding encounters as well.    It is so much fun to think that I may have seen these 40+ft whales back when they were tiny newborn babies in Hawaii. And by 'tiny' I of course mean the size of a pickup truck. If you like whale watching then August in SE Alaska is a great time and place to do it.  Bubble Net Feeding Close encounter on the skiff