This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 11:39 pm and is filed under About, Adventure Cruises, History, Information, Migration, Sites, Snorkeling, Snuba, Watching, Whales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
He was a beautiful male! Look at that pectoral fin. It is brilliant white on the underside, but what was amazing was the fin was nearly equally white on the upper side. The turquoise glow below the fin is his very white belly. If you look closely at the picture you can see a barnacle with feeding arms fully flared on the tip of the fin.
This male was the primary escort in the middle of a battle that included at least five other males. The reason for the vagueness is because no one really knows how many whales are in the competitions. As these amazing animals come up for air, there could be many below. Since they are capable of breath holding for a very long time (45 minutes approx.), so much depends on what is happening below the surface. The primary escort stays with the female, usually right by her side, for a period of time. Whether or not they have mated no one can tell, not even the researchers, but we do know that this male is the ‘chosen’ one — for now. The other males are interested, very interested. Is it because she has been mating? Possibly. Is it because she releases pheromones in the water to let males know she is available for mating? Very likely. However, there is some sort of selection process these males must endure, so the battles can be very intense.
For whale watchers, these battles are definitely a favorite, and vessel captains are always looking for them. From a distance the best way is to look for multiple blows in a very tight area. The more blows, the more may be going on! Whale watching in Hawaii is a wonderful way to better understand the life cycles of the endangered humpback whale. If you are coming to Hawaii, don’t miss out!
