14th annual guess the first humpback whale sighting in Hawaii

Hawaii’s humpback whale season will be here soon. Thousands of whales migrate to Hawaii to give birth and mate.

Though the peak of the season usually starts in January, some whales arrive a little earlier. From recent history, here are the dates of the first humpback whale sightings in Hawaii.

2006 – October 11
2007 – October 7
2008 – October 8
2009 – October 20
2010 – October 20
2011 — September 26
2012 — August  30
2013 — October 5
2014 — September 16
2015 — September 29
2016 – August 25
2017 — October 10
2018 — October 8
2019 — October 1
2020 — October 8
2021 — September 29
2022 – September 14

When will the first sighting be for the new season? For a bit of fun, let’s have a little contest to see who correctly guesses the first arrival.

14th Annual Hawaii Humpback Whale First-Sighting Contest

Here’s how this contest will work.

• Pick the earliest date you think the first whale sighting will be this coming season.  Enter your prediction in the comment section, which is at the bottom of this post. (Sorry, but we can’t accept guesses emailed to us or comments on Facebook. If you are reading this article on email, go to this post page to enter your comment.)
  • When entering your comment, you must use a valid email address in the email field so that we can contact you when/if your prediction is correct. Note that your email address will not be publicly visible with your comment.
  • When entering your comment, you can leave the URL/website field empty. That’s an optional field for you to use if you have your own website.
  • Note: if you are a first-time commenter, your comment will first go into moderation. It may up to 12 hours for us to be alerted. Once we’re alerted to it, we will approve it, then it will display.

• The closest prediction without going over will win bragging rights and a copy of Fascinating Facts About Hawaii by Jim Loomis.
• We’ll use Hawaii newspapers and news stations as our sources to determine the first whale sighting of this season.
• One entry per person will be accepted.
• Anyone from around the world is eligible to enter. We have a two-time winner from Italy.
• Entries will be accepted through September 8, 2023.  In the event that the first whale sighting is before September 8, valid entries will be accepted through the day before the reported sighting.

This year’s prize is a book of Fascinating Facts About Hawaii by Jim Loomis. Here’s the image of the front cover.

Alright, it’s time now to enter your guess in the comment section.