On October 20th, the StarAdvertiser reported the first humpback whale sighting of the season.
Megan Haertling, spokeswoman for the Pacific Whale Foundation, said that Capt. Chris Howard, skipper of the catamaran Alii Nui, reported seeing a single young male whale at 9:35 a.m.
This “single young male whale” was spotted about 2.3 miles off the west coast of Maui. I bet he’s waiting for the “single young females” to swim on over. 😉
If you’re going to Hawaii between now and May, keep your eyes peeled for humpbacks — especially if you’re going on a sailing excursion.
Even though I’m almost 5,000 miles away from Hawaii, I am thrilled to hear the humpbacks are back in Hawaii. Whale watching is one of my favorite things to do when I visit the islands of Aloha.
As you may recall, we had a little whale arrival prediction contest. . The winner predicted the arrival with uncanny accuracy. On October 1st, Jerry Sullivan said, “[T]he whales will show up off of Maui at 8:26 am October 20th, 2010”. Jerry’s prediction was only 69 minutes early. Wowza! Congratulations, Jerry.
Sheila Beal
5 comments
Some of you might have seen the video going around about the rescued Humpback. If not she was tangled in fishing lines and had to be cut out by divers. Once freed she swam in joyous circles then she swam off.
She soon came back and went to each and every diver and gave them each a very gentle nudge as though to say thank you.
I find that so beautiful and a testament to those who have taken the side of the whale in bringing them back from almost extinction.
Hi Sheila, I can’t believe I missed it by 69 minutes. I will try to get better information for next year! regards jerry
Wow congratulations Jerry! That was awesome predicting.
Karen after reading your story I did a search, as I hadn’t heard of that story before, and found the article which was written by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Here is that link (for readers curious about the story):
http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-12-14/news/17403910_1_humpback-crab-pots-whale
Boy Jerry, you have decent sources! :>)
Janet- with the humpbacks here in Hawaii- you have to dive deep to get to the source! 😉 jerry