Whales, Whales, and Wildlife in Maui
Humpback whales migrate in the winter to warmer waters for birthing and I thought they might be on to something. Opting to travel for a vacation and not birthing I just got back from a vacation to Maui, Hawaii. While there I was able to enjoy dozens of whale encounters it was truly amazing and I could have spent my entire vacation on the water with PacWhale or watching them from a lookout point. As good of a vacation as that would have been I opted to squeeze in a few other activities and was able to spend most mornings in the water snorkeling. While snorkeling a few times actually I caught notes of Humpback whale song which was really a fun surprise to hear. This post would be a novel if I listed off all the types of fish I encountered but sufficient to say it was a colorful aquarium full of many many fish and sea creatures.
I was able to get out on the water three times while in Hawaii the first time was an actual whale watching trip with PacWhale Eco-Adventures. This experience was completely different than what I was used to there were whales all around and just spotting whales in the distance was not a reason to go say hi to them because likely in a few minutes you would be able to find whales even closer. While on this trip we got mugged by two Humpbacks who were likely males fooling around right off the stern of the boat. They were so close that pictures were not working out too well even on my long lens. As we drifted a little away from them we could watch them surface and move about. The second encounter we had on this trip was a mom and a calf with a male escort. This encounter was a treat because the male escort was swimming pretty aggressively and lifting his rostrum and ventral plates (his head) out of the water with each cycle. At one point while these whales were swimming around we even had a curious dolphin show up to the party. Our second trip was a snorkel/dolphin trip also with PacWhale. The snorkeling was to be honest pretty poor compared to what I found off shore but the wildlife encounters made the trip completely worth it. After snorkeling we found a pod of Spinner Dolphins who came over to check us out and I even got to see a few spin! After we parted way with the Dolphins we encountered a mother and calf humpback and the calf was having the time of it’s life with its tail splashing and waving it around. I was able to get a great photo of it’s fluke but unfortunately mom was absolutely over it all and never fluked or did anything more than keep up with her kid so I won’t be able to ID the baby. The third trip was another snorkeling trip out to Molokini Crater, decent snorkeling and a few generic Humpbacks spotted on the way back in but nothing like the other trips.
Apart from Humpbacks by boat I was also able to spot Humpbacks a few times from shore, the best spot was certainly Papawai Scenic Lookout where we could stand and watch and spot a whale every 10-15 minutes probably often more frequently. From land the other wildlife that I encountered of note were a whole bunch of turtles and the gem or it all a Hawaiian Monk Seal! Overall I had a fantastic trip and I will certainly have to make another visit another year during Humpback season to see some more of these whales.
