This entry was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 5:04 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.
Photo Courtesy Katie Grove-Velasquez
Although it is the end of the season, there are still many humpback whales around the Hawaiian islands looking to mate. This very large male escort traveling next to a lovely female appeared to be very agitated. There were at least six other males behind him trying to take his place, something he was trying to prevent with every ounce of his strength. Fighting males not only impress females, but whale watchers never get enough. The above move is called a head slap. Looking at the second picture you may notice some water spewing out of the slightly opened mouth. He did this several times. One reason, according to researchers, could be male dominance. As the primary escort, he and the female could already have mated, so he is trying to prevent others from doing the same so he can sire the offspring. Although the male and female connection is very short, researchers believe the primary escort may spend several hours with one female for selfish reasons. They are promiscuous, we are told, so mating as often as situations allow makes perfect sense. Time is running out for all humpbacks. Mother, calf pairs are still easily found, but the singletons are becoming scarce. Today, we were fortunate. This small female (about 40 feet long) had six going after her escort, and as we watched for over one hour, two more males came speeding in. What happened after we left them is up to the imagination. It does seem that the competitions we find are more in earnest than ones we were watching last month. Perhaps they are feeling the desperation of their situation. We also watch competitions begin around mother, calf pairs. Do the mothers mate while lactating? Researchers tell us they do, in fact some females are known for that, being seen several years in a row with little ones, then not showing up in Hawaiian waters for two to three years apparently taking a ‘break’ from mating.
Whales we were watching weeks ago are long gone and back up in Alaskan, Canadian, and Aleutian waters feasting on the fish they favor. Tomorrow we head out again, anxious to find any animals not minding being watched. I can hardly wait!
