Some call it “whale soup.” For me, it was simply the most impressive display of these massive marine mammals that I have ever experienced. I’ve encountered them around the world, from Antarctica to the Azores. Belugas, blues, sei whales, minkes, orcas, narwhals—you name it.
But there’s nothing like whale season in Maui. While staying in West Maui, I had watched them from shore for days. Often, a sighting wasn’t even intentional. You didn’t need to spend hours squinting into a pair of binoculars in order to catch an elusive puff from a blowhole on the horizon. No, when you visit this part of Hawaii in March, all you’ve got to do is look toward the water every once in awhile, and you’ll see wonders.
And rolling out on a catamaran from the harbor at Maalaea, things quickly got a whole lot better than that. “The whales are here to have babies,” a guide shared as we rounded the breakwater and steamed for the Pacific.
I was in the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Every year, thousands of these animals migrate here. If you visit between November and April, you have a great chance of spotting these majestic creatures. But why do they come all the way here, way out in the middle of the world’s largest ocean?
“The shelf, especially between Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe, is shallow, explained the guide. “The warm waters are perfect for spawning, and they don’t have any predators here.” The trip, to say the least, isn’t easy. These humpbacks come from Alaska and annually travel more than 6,000 miles round-trip.
Within minutes, the whole boat was filled with the sounds of awe—literally, with ooohs and ahhhs. One after another, humpbacks began breaching all around us. A little later, two males slapped their huge pectoral fins on the water, splashing to attract the attention of a female.
The Magic of Whales
And not just predictions. The truth is, we’ve only just begun to understand these magnificent beasts. This is despite the fact that they’re nearly ubiquitous, found in every ocean and off every continent. One thing we know for sure: humpbacks are intelligent creatures. And fascinating ones, at that.Their brains weigh up to a ton. They remember places and return to them. They’re capable of protecting other species. They show emotion. Humpback calves whisper to their mothers. Adults have social systems that are complete and complex. They communicate in both social calls and songs—something I heard on the catamaran when the guide dropped a hydrophone into the water. A cacophony of cool, alien noises from the sea played out over a speaker.
Humpbacks follow a predictable annual pattern. In the summer, they feed, preparing for a long fast in the winter. One single animal can consume up to 1.5 tons every day. They are baleen whales, meaning they filter their preferred form of food, often a small crustacean called krill, through plates in their mouths, which act as a sieve. The baleen is made of keratin, similar to the material in human fingernails.
One of the most memorable phenomena I’ve ever seen, and a sure sign of their intelligence, is bubble-net feeding. Most dramatically, I witnessed it once from a helicopter in Antarctica. A white ring would appear on the top of the greenish sea. Then a bunch of wide-open mouths would surface, taking in gallons of water and thousands of fish.
How does this happen? A group of whales communicates and works together. First, they swim below a big school of fish. Then one, the leader, sends bubbles out of his blowhole to stun and entrap them. Finally, the group, in a coordinated action, surface to feed on the maximum amount of food.
Amazing, but a behavior we mostly understand. Other things whales do are far less clear. Take, for example, breaching.
This is truly one of nature’s most wondrous sights. Fully grown, humpback whales can stretch to more than 50 feet long and weigh up to 80,000 pounds. When it breaches, this huge animal launches itself clear out of the water, and then lands with a spectacular, white splash.
But why do they do it? Well, we’re not fully certain. Experts posit a number of theories. It may be a way to communicate—perhaps send a message to a wayward member of the pod to return. Because it’s often synchronized among multiple members of a group, the behavior may also serve some sort of social function. It may be a mating ritual, with the male demonstrating his strength and abilities to potential female partners.
A Mystery of the Sea
After watching this aquatic show for awhile longer, things went quiet. The pod waved farewell with their flukes—those iconic tails—and dove underneath. “They can hold their breath for up to 26 minutes,” the guide told us. “For millions of years, whales have been perfecting life beneath the waves.”What were they doing down there? Just another mystery for me to reflect upon as we cut through the calm Pacific and returned back to the dock.
- Humpback whales can live a long time, up to around 90 years
- They’re fast—humpbacks make their 3,000-miles migration from Alaska to Hawaii in as few as 36 days
- While humpbacks were once hunted almost to extinction, with as few as 5,000 in the world in the 1960s, they have rebounded mightily, and are no longer considered an endangered species
- Males sing songs for females as part of their mating ritual, and these complex ditties can last more than half an hour
- Each tail/fluke pattern is unique, and they are used to identify and track specific whales
