Speaking Humpback

I went whale watching with the fantastic crew on the Spirit of Lahaina, and we were absolutely mobbed by Humpback Whales yesterday. It was fantastic!

I have to include a little Finding Nemo clip of Dory "speaking whale."

The first whale sighting was a mama and baby traveling together. The baby was having a blast breaching out of the water. Look at how white his belly is!

Then we were ambushed by a pair of larger adult whales. One of them took off for waters unknown, but this guy stuck with us.

He was so curious! He kept "spy hopping" or sticking his out of the water to get a better look at us.

And then he came right up to the boat. The white rounded edge in the photo below is the bow of the boat I was riding.

Lots more spy hops from this big fella:

Full-grown Humpback Whales are about the size of a school bus.

He was having so much fun with us! He kept swimming around and under our boat making us run from side to side so we could keep watching him. He also rolled over and laid on is back.

Look how close he got to us! He flicked his tail up out of the water, and if any one of us were brave enough, we could have touched him!

Here he is lifting his pectoral fin out of the water. It's almost as if he is waving hello!

Every year, Humpbacks migrate from their feeding grounds in Alaska to the warmer waters of Hawaii to breed and give birth. While in Hawaii, the grown Humpbacks don't eat since the warmer waters here are sparse on their meal of choice: krill.

The only whales eating in Hawaii are the babies (or calves) since they are still drinking their mothers' milk.

The baby whales always travel with their mother, and the mother will often stay very close to her calf--often touching it with their flippers (possibly a sign of affection) as they swim.

It seems that every time I blog about whale watching, I'm always saying "best whale watch ever!" It's amazing that every time I go out, I manage to see them so close and capture some great whale behavior on camera.

This last trip out was definitely the BEST whale watch yet. The whales are here through April, so I hope you don't get tired of whale photos because there are more to come!