Breaching Humpback Whales!

Wow, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Part of the reason for the gap is that Masa got a new boat, so we had some down time between saying goodbye to the old boat and getting the new one shipped over from Oahu. Masa felt pretty sad about seeing his old friend go, a boat on which he’s had many memories and taken so many amazing, award-winning shots over 10 years in Hawaii.

Once he got the new boat, though, a nice twin-engine, catamaran style Glacier Bay, we were out almost every day, testing the equipment and checking out the wildlife. We’ve been so busy out on the water, that I haven’t had much time to write it all down.

On Feb. 21, Masa, me, and Steve Drogin were out on the water for a full day of whale watching. I wrote about Steve in my blog called Steve Drogin's Party 11/30/07. He’s one of our SeaPics.com photographers, and he has many great images of sharks, rays, monk seals and more on our site.

Anyway, Steve was with us, enjoying Masa’s new boat and checking out the humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae. The whales were incredible that day, breaching all around us. It was really a photographer’s dream. Most days are not like this, as it’s not possible to predict where and when a whale will breach, so you have to be vigilant and a little lucky to t a reat shot. On this day, though, getting the money shot was like rolling over in bed. The light was great and the whales kept breaching over and over, so we could position ourselves perfectly and get the shots we wanted.

One of the great things about living in Hawaii is being able to see these amazing humpback whale breaches. If you live on the west coast of the U.S., you may be able to see blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, or gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, but they aren’t known for the breaches and other above water activities performed by the humpback whales.

The playful behavior of humpback whales is well known and has even been mentioned in classic American literature. Herman Melville, using the character Ishmael as his narrator in Moby-Dick, said of the humpbacks that they are "the most gamesome of species and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water than any other."

He certainly got that right. Humpbacks must think they’re dolphins, a distant relative, though they’re at least 110 times heavier. They launch themselves out of the water, nearly clearing it, and flop onto the surface, usually on their back or side, creating a minor tsunami for nearby boats. They’re also known for tail slapping, pec slapping, peduncle throws, spy hopping and other behaviors.

Here’s a quick glossary of humpback whale behaviors, with links to images of the behavior on our site:

breaching – the whale launches most of its body out of the water and crashes onto the surface. Masa call this spectacular breach an "epic breach" (this is not a scientific term!). However, 90% of the breaches we see, are those only the half of their bodies break out of the water at best. It's still quite impressive, and he call it a "lazy breach or tired breach" (again please note that these are not scientific terms of the behavior if anybody cares).

lobtailing or tail-slapping – the whale, with its body nearly vertical, facing down, slaps its tail repeatedly onto the surface of the water. This behavior creates loud sound which can travel miles in open ocean, above and underwater.

lunging (head lunge) – a shallow breach where a male lunges aggressively towards competing other male, in many case, it ends up head-butting others by doing so. In addition to the sound of the sudden water breaks, the aggressor usually creates loud and scary, whistling sound.

Sometimes it also makes a loud clapping sound by using its jaws (jaw-clapping). Other times it slaps its chin to the water surface to create a loud sound (chin-slapping).

pec-slapping – the whale, lying on its side or rolling its body, slaps its pectoral fin repeatedly against the surface of the water. It can create a similar effect to lobtailing.

peduncle throw – a powerful and quickest move where the whale thrusts its tail and lower body area (caudal peduncle) across the surface of the water, throwing up a big spray. Most of the time it happens so quickly and unexpectedly, thus, it is one of the most difficult humpback behaviors to phtoograph besides an "epic breach".

spyhopping – the whale, curious about activity above the water surface, assuming a vertical position, pokes it’s head out of the water. Humpback whale's head are covered with many lumpy, sonsory organs, called nodules, so it can sense the whale watchers!

singing - only mature male humpback whales sing by suspending his body vertically underwater about 50 t0 100 feet deep. It is known to sing the same "whale song" each season and also known to only sing at their breeding ground such as Hawaii. The singing sound is so lound and it can reach 100 miles away. If you have ever submerged yourself underwater during the whale season in Hawaii, you will most likely hear their singing. If you would like to hear such whale songs, visit Jupiter Research Foundation web site. They recorded and collected many songs at Puako Bay, Big Island where we regularly go whale watching.

Why do they do these behaviors? The breaching behavior may have the practical use of shaking off barnacles, or it may be that the whales just like the sensation of leaving the water and crashing onto the surface...just for the fun. A whale calf can do most of the tricks except singing. When a baby goes off, usually its mom goes off, too as if she's trying to teach her baby how to do.

While we can’t interpret each behavior precisely, many of their behaviors are believed to be related to breeding and thus, most often seen while observing competitive groups. As such groups are also called "heat run" and their behavioral displays sometime get really wild and violent. Other times, though, their behavioral displays are simply spectacular and graceful.

For me, personally, this was one of my best days ever for humpback whale photography. The reason for my confidence is that Steve Drogin lent me his telephoto lens, as he was trying out another one. For the first time, I was able to use an 80-400 vibration reduction lens, which made a huge difference in the kind of shots I could get.

Normally, when I’m out on the boat with Masa, his shots are always so much better than mine as he uses longer, superior lens. At the safe distance we must maintain from the whales, his whale shots have always filled the frame and been beautifully in focus, while mine have been way too small. On this day, though, with Steve’s great lens, my shots were nearly filling the frame! The light was great, and the whales breached straight in front of us, over and over. At least on this occasion, my breaching whale shots are good enough to beat my own previous best. I still can’t compete with the world class photographers I represent at SeaPics.com, but I was really stoked to get some decent shots, as those of you who take photos for enjoyment can readily understand! Thanks, Steve, for the assist!

That’s it for now, but I’ll have another blog up soon about more humpback whale excursions. I expect you’ll see that in a week or so. And don’t forget to check out my album, or better yet, go to the SeaPics.com site for all of my pix!