Our guest experienced great sightings on our 9AM and 1:30PM excursions today! Risso’s dolphins, blue whales and humpback whales were seen today, both trips got some close encounters with the larger whales.
The highlight for today had to have been the super active humpback whales during our 1:30PM trip. Three humpback whales breached, tail slapped and did tail throws close to our boat. Many of these behaviors are still a mystery of the whale world, we don’t really know why whales do them. Some researchers have looked into certain behaviors like breaching and think that it could be a type of communication. Humpbacks can vocalize and be heard a great distance but certain factors like wind and swell can cut down the range of the vocalizations. Researchers noticed that when weather and sea conditions were poor, breaching was seen more frequently than in good weather and sea conditions. They also noted that when one whale breached, sometimes in the distance another would breach. This led researchers to think the second breach could possibly be a response. Some like to say the loud splash created by a breach is whale yelling. We might never know the real reason but it is an amazing moment to experience.