Whale Watching In Hawaii

Published by aloha at 9:29 pm under Activities

On Thursday the 28th of February my daughter's elementary school went on the best field trip of the year!

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We went on a two hour Whale Watching cruise off the coast of Honolulu.

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At 9 am we boarded the Navatek I, which is docked in the Harbor near Aloha Tower.

It only took about 15-20 minutes to reach our destination about 1/2 a mile out from Sand Island at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor. When the first spray from a blow hole was spotted, everybody found a good spot on the observation decks, and got their cameras ready.

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The first real glimpse of what we came to see was the fluke of an adult Humpback Whale, just a couple hundred yards off shore, with downtown Honolulu, and Aloha Tower in the background.

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It was only a few minutes later that the real fun started. A Baby Humpback Whale ... possibly the calf of the adult who's tail we'd just seen ... started jumping out of the water. Over the course of the next hour, this particular baby whale breached over 50 times. The kids definitely got their money's worth.

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On the way in, Carly, the cruises' whale expert commented to a few of the girls that this baby whale was by far the most active that she's ever seen.

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We ended the day back at Aloha Tower, where of course we had to stop and feed the fish swimming in the boat harbor.

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Finally, I found this site with a link to a Live Whale Watching Cam ... check it out, maybe you'll see some whales too.

6 responses so far

6 Responses to “Whale Watching In Hawaii”

  1. Mike Olbinskion 03 Mar 2008 at 2:07 pm

    Awesome pics Todd! You know I worked for Hawaii.com for two years, visited Waikiki about 6 times and never was there for the whale season…makes me sad :(

    Mike Olbinski’s last blog post..New ?Wall-E? Poster Cuter Than All Other ?Wall-E? Posters Combined

  2. toddon 03 Mar 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Hi Mike,

    This is my 11th year in Hawaii (between the 3 times either I or my dad have been stationed here), and Thursday was my first whale watching trip. I’m just happy we actually got to see something :D

  3. Tim E.on 08 Mar 2008 at 5:10 pm

    Whale watching is on my ‘things to do in the next five years’ list.

    Tim E.’s last blog post..The Donut Mill, Gasoline Alley, Red Deer

  4. Mikeon 09 Mar 2008 at 2:07 pm

    Great photos, and cool boat. Looks ideal design for it’s purpose.

    Mike’s last blog post..Daylight Savings Time Is A Waste

  5. Thomon 21 Mar 2008 at 9:40 pm

    The only whales we have around here are some of those 70s Cadillacs and the like. The pics are awesome and looks like a great thing to add to my ‘things to do in the next five years’ list. It’ll have to be number 2 though, right behind, ‘write a things to do in the next five years list’ ! LOL

    Thanks for sharing.

    - Thom

    Thom’s last blog post..Have You Gotten A Traffic Ticket?

  6. Guson 24 Mar 2008 at 8:10 am

    Great pics.

    I love whales. They’re beautiful.

    I have been living in Japan for the last couple of years and talking with Japanese people about whales and how we should protect them is like talking to a brick wall. They can’t understand why Australia and other countries are so angry with them.

    The say eating whale meat is part of their culture and after WWII whale was the only source of meat that provided them with nourishment. They served whale meat to the children during school lunch break.

    What irks me is the Japanese continue to hunt whales and claim it’s for scientific purposes. Some restaurants still secretly serve and have whale on the menu.

    Anyway, sorry for the rant. I really enjoyed this post.

    Gus

    Gus’s last blog post..Top 10 Real Estate Agents in Oakville

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