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Big Island Visitors Information - Humpback Whales in Hawaii

Big Island whale watch - Whale watch on the Kohala Coast, Big Island
Kohala Divers and Mauna Kea Divers, located in Kawaihae Habor & Marina on the Big Island, about 10-min drive from our Aloha Vacation Cottages, offer a wide variety for ocean activities like whale watch, snorkel & scuba diving, & sunset cruises on the Kohala Coast. Sail Hawaii the Big Island for adventure with Maile Charters from Kawaihae Marina.
Find more Big Island ocean activities including whale watch on our links page under Big Island ocean activities.

Enjoy this Humpback whale story told by ‘Blackie’ the Blacktip Reef shark alias Jennifer Crites, Oahu photographer.

The Humpback whales are back
"Ok, ok, the humpback whales are here. Big deal as far as I'm concerned. Every week you see something in the newspaper about volunteers wanted to count the beasts and record their behavior. I see you humans up there on hilltops with your binoculars watching for flukes or spouts or tail slaps. I think you should be watching shark behavior. We're much more interesting. But if you must know about whales, just ask me. I live down here with them, after all.

Maybe they fascinate you because they're not here all year round. Like snowbirds, they arrive for winter - between November and April, roughly - then take off back to Alaska or wherever else they came from. What gets me is that they don't eat the whole time they're here. I mean, that's fine with me - less competition for food. And I guess they have plenty of blubber to keep them going. But you've got to admit, swimming thousands of miles to get here, birthing their calves and providing milk for them, and then swimming all the way back without eating. That's got to take a lot out of anybody, even a whale.

Actually, the humpbacks don't bother me too much. I stay pretty much over the nearshore reef and they frolic around in somewhat deeper water. Sometimes they actually provide food for sharks. Did you hear about that dead whale that washed up on one of your beaches recently? It was surrounded by hungry sharks - probably tiger sharks as they're gluttons anyway. Sad to say, I didn't get a piece of the action. I heard about it too late.

But enough about me. You want to hear about whales. Ok. Well, first off, if we're talking humpbacks, they're big. Betcha didn't know there are other kinds of whales in Hawaii, too, like pilot whales - they're pretty common around the Big Island; a few sperm whales [of Moby Dick fame] off the Kona coast in spring. There are melon-headed whales and pygmy sperm whales, both small - about 7.5 to 10 feet long, respectively. Both types are seen mostly when they strand themselves on a beach. Occasionally you may see a killer whale (also known as orca, as in the movie "Free Willy") off Molokai or the Big Island, but it's pretty rare. More common are false killer whales, but they're in pretty deep water (or at Sea Life Park). I have another surprise for you about types of whales, but I'm saving that for later.

So back to humpbacks and their voluminous (dictionary time?) size. To me they look like ungainly submarines. Adults are about 45-feet long and weigh roughly 35 tons. Tons! Each ton is 2,000 pounds. That's like, 2 times 35 is 70, carry the zeroes... 70,000 pounds. Whoa! Just the tongue of an adult humpback weighs two tons all by itself. Even the newborns are whoppers. Imagine giving birth to a 3,000-pound baby.

You'd think all that mass would have to have some pretty heavy-duty bones to hold the whole thing together. But no. A humpback's bones are very light. It's skeleton is only 15% of its total body weight. Probably because buoyant sea water does most of the heavy lifting. in contrast, a land mammal's bones make up 50% of its total body weight.

And you've heard about what humpbacks eat, right? Krill. Pretty much the tiniest creatures in the ocean. And a few other small fish. And get this... they have no teeth. They don't really need ‘em with the small size of their prey. Just swallowing whole works fine. But they do have a kind of feeding apparatus called baleen, which strains the ocean water flooding into their mouths and traps the food. It works like a filter on your kitchen sink faucet. Only instead of catching microbes, chemicals or grit, the baleen catches food.

Not to get too carried away with this, but just so you get the picture, hundreds of rigid strips of baleen hang down from the upper jaw around the inside edges of the mouth. The edges of this baleen are kind of bristly and frayed (all the better to trap stuff with), and all these frayed edges crisscross each other for maximum trapping effectiveness.

Seeing as how feeding is a major part of my life (as it is for any animal), I'm going to dwell on this a little longer. There are three types of filter-feeding whales: skimmers, gulpers and suckers. Skimmers cruise along slowly at the surface, through dense concentrations of food, with their mouths wide open. Gulpers, including humpbacks, rush at their food from the side or below. And suckers create a vacuum-cleaner effect with the tongue and palate to suck water and food in and over the baleen.

Humpbacks aren't as dumb as they look. Actually, they can be pretty clever about approaching their prey, especially if they use the bubblenet strategy. Say the whale finds a big school of small fish, it dives down underneath them and swims in a circle, releasing bubbles from its blowhole. As the bubbles rise, they form a noisy ring (you've heard bubbles underwater, right? like from a scuba diver's tank) or, in other words, a bubblenet, around the fish, which confuses and disorients them and kind'a pushes them towards the surface. The bubblenet closes in, and the fish huddle together, not knowing what's going on but making a more compact target. Then the whale shoots up with its mouth open, still pumping out bubbles. Result: snack. They can eat nearly a ton of food a day.

Now let's settle something about whales right off. They are not fish, like me. They are air-breathing mammals, like you. That means they have to come up to the surface to breathe..."

Here is another exciting story by 'Blackie the Blacktip Reef' shark told to Jennifer Crites...
Stingray Safari written by Jennifer Crites, Oahu photographer and writer

At the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort on the Big Island, visitors to the resort can view and feed these very shy spotted eagle rays at the ray lagoon...this spectacular event takes place daily in the afternoons

Stingray Safari by Jennifer Crites
"...and that brings me to the subject of the month - stingrays. Well, actually, all 9 types of rays in Hawaiian waters, including manta rays, devil rays and electric rays. Even though most people lump them all together as "stingrays," each one is unique.

Take electric rays, for example. That's just a nickname. Their actual name is torpedo ray. Don't ask me why; they don't look anything like a torpedo, and they're not stingrays either. But I'll tell you one thing - don't ever make 'em mad. They have organs in their bodies that can send out an electric shock if you touch 'em. Talk about getting zapped! Mostly they use it to protect themselves or stun their food. Kind of gives them an unfair advantage if you ask me. When you go for a swim in the ocean, don't worry about bumping into one, though - they live pretty deep: 300 to 1,500 feet down.

Ok, how about manta rays. They're not stingrays either, but you're gonna love these guys. They're one critter down here that isn't dangerous. First of all, they have no teeth to speak of. You know what they eat? Plankton. Can you believe it? I mean, manta rays are huge. Even when they're born, their wingspan is about 3 feet from tip to tip. 'Course, right before they make their entry into the world they don't look that big because their wings are folded around their bodies. Makes 'em look like big bats (without the teeth, of course). Anyway, just digesting tiny plankton, they can grow to a whopping 22-foot wingspan.

There's a story in Jennifer's book about a human on the Big Island who went out on his boat to do a little fishing. He dropped his anchor at Kealakekua Bay and was about to go for a dive to check out the big manta he'd just seen, when the boat started moving. I mean, it took off fast forward, then sideways, tilting over at a scary angle. He was hanging on for dear life but glad he hadn't gotten in the water because then he'd be watching his boat take off for China. Anyway, after being thrown around awhile, he was finally able to cut the anchor line. But not before he saw a big blip on the fish finder and figured out that the manta had somehow gotten caught up in the anchor and was dragging the boat around. Talk about your incredible hulk!

Personally, I think the anchor got caught in the manta's mouth like a hook. I mean, how else could it have happened? They do have pretty big mouths - all the better to inhale the tons of plankton they need to survive. Speaking of that, have you ever seen them feeding. They're almost as graceful as a shark - doing loop-de-loops over and over with their mouths agape (I love those fancy words), scooping up the plankton.

If you're ever over on the Big Island, you can probably see them from the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's oceanside terrace. Those hotel people are pretty tricky. They shine lights on the ocean at night. The lights lure the plankton, and following the plankton are, guess what? Manta rays. Some of the dive shops over there will even take you out at night to dive with the mantas. Don't worry about getting in the water with them - they're very gentle, and so absorbed in feeding, they don't pay much attention to humans.

Maybe you'll even see Lefty. Mantas have two big flaps, called cephalic horns, on either side of their mouths. These cephalic horns help guide the plankton into the mouth. Lefty has one cephalic horn (the left one) that droops. You can't miss her.

Mantas aren't the only rays you can see up close on the Big Island. The Four Seasons Hualalai Resort has a ray lagoon inhabited by several spotted eagle rays. You can go swimming in the lagoon (call them first for rules and regs), and at certain times of day you can hand feed the rays (with the help of a resort employee, of course)."

Sharks and Rays of Hawai'i – by Gerald L. Crow and Jennifer Crites – is easy to read and packed with everything you've ever wanted to know about these amazing animals: In-depth fact sheets covering 40 species of sharks and 9 species of rays; chapters on anatomy and senses, feeding habits and reproduction, a shark's-eye view of how volcanic islands are formed, the importance of sharks in Hawaiian culture, first-person stories of encounters with sharks and rays, and hundreds of never-before-published photographs. Makes a great gift for divers, students and anyone from 8 to 80 who is fascinated by the ocean and its inhabitants.

Find more detailed information about the Oahu based photographer Jennifer Crites, her book and her beautiful photographs - including Hawaiian wedding photos www.jennifercrites.com.
Read more of Jennifer's stories:

Octopus Garden

Jellyfish Jamboree