November thru April is Humpback Whale season in Hawai'i...specifically, Maui.
The whales migrate from up around Alaska, down to Hawai'i for birthing and breeding.
The majority of the whales are found off the western coasts of Maui because it is more shallow, and therefore the waters are probably even warmer.
February is the peak month for the whales so we were super lucky to be able to go on a whale watching trip at this time!
We chose to go on the first trip of the morning so the waters would be calm and the whales easier to spot. At the end of our excursion, the captain of the boat told us our trip that morning had the most whales they'd spotted since season started...we saw about 30 whales!
By law, boats have to stay 100 yards away from the whales -so all these photos were taken with our high zoom lens....but they were still very easy to see with the naked eye.
February is the peak month for the whales so we were super lucky to be able to go on a whale watching trip at this time!
We chose to go on the first trip of the morning so the waters would be calm and the whales easier to spot. At the end of our excursion, the captain of the boat told us our trip that morning had the most whales they'd spotted since season started...we saw about 30 whales!
By law, boats have to stay 100 yards away from the whales -so all these photos were taken with our high zoom lens....but they were still very easy to see with the naked eye.
on the left, obviously a mother and on the right, the puff of water is the baby breathingthose puffs of water were often the easiest things to see and then we'd be able to keep our eyes out for the actual whale surfacing.
3 whales in this shot -on the left there are 2 whales, probably a mama and baby -you just see their backs, on the right a tail fluke
tail fluke in the background and 1 in the foreground getting ready to dive down
I can't believe we caught this -a whale breaching!!Our guides told us it's actually pretty rare to get to see a whale breaching!
we left the harbor well before the sun came up -so we were privileged to get to watch the sun riseover beautiful Maui while out on the water
our guides told us whales tails are kinda like our fingerprints -that's how they tell them apart
you can see these 2 whale's tails are different.
probably about 7 or 8 whales in this shot -2 are visible and the others you can just see their puffs of water from their breathingAfter whale watching we decided to do some driving up the western coast of Maui -absolutely stunning.
we found this one spot off a hiking trail ~we sat for quite awhile just watching the waves come crashing in.....mesmerizing.
it's hard to sit and watch the ocean roll and NOT be in awe of God and His creation
after driving around for a few hours and a picnic lunch (by the ocean of course!) we headed back to our condo so we could hang out on our beach.
As we were in the condo gathering our things, I looked out our patio window and saw WHALES playing in the harbor right in front of our condo!!
I raced down to our beach to get better shots!
you can barely see the one on the left but the one on the right was putting on quite the show!
we couldn't tell if it was a mama and baby or possibly a male and female maybe in some sort of mating ritual...but for about 15 minutes they were slapping at the water with their fins, tails coming up, and even at one point one of them breached completely out of the water.
They were close enough we could hear the water being slapped!
we found this one spot off a hiking trail ~we sat for quite awhile just watching the waves come crashing in.....mesmerizing.
it's hard to sit and watch the ocean roll and NOT be in awe of God and His creation
after driving around for a few hours and a picnic lunch (by the ocean of course!) we headed back to our condo so we could hang out on our beach.
As we were in the condo gathering our things, I looked out our patio window and saw WHALES playing in the harbor right in front of our condo!!
I raced down to our beach to get better shots!
you can barely see the one on the left but the one on the right was putting on quite the show!
we couldn't tell if it was a mama and baby or possibly a male and female maybe in some sort of mating ritual...but for about 15 minutes they were slapping at the water with their fins, tails coming up, and even at one point one of them breached completely out of the water.
They were close enough we could hear the water being slapped!
a beautiful end to an amazing day
1 comment:
So glad you made it and had fun! When we were there (15 yrs. ago), we were also told to take the road to Hana, but got so bored half way there, that we turned around, lol!
Post a Comment