Maui Whale Watching
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Maui Whale Watch Tours
Maui County is world famous as the destination for the Pacific Northwest humpback whales. Their migration crosses 3,100 miles of ocean each season. The humpback whale season in Maui lasts from November to May of every year. These huge mammals travel between 3 and 9 mph at over 1,000 miles per month without stopping. Humpbacks make this journey in groups called pods that congregate for a couple days at a time. The pods stay together loosely and break apart, with the exception of the calves and mothers.
If you're interested in whale watching in Maui, choose from this Maui Whale Watching Directory. When whale watching in Kauai, use Hawaii Whale Watching Tours.
The exciting surface behaviors of Humpback whales draw scores of whale watchers every year to Maui. From lobtailing, head slapping, spyhopping, and pectoral slaps, Humpbacks are well known for giving us all a show. The most spectacular of whale activity in the winter months around Maui is the whale breach.
A whale breach is when the Humpback launches 3/4 of the way out of the water and comes back down with an enormous crash. Some believe that they do this to knock off surface skin parasites, and others believe it's a social behavior.
The most common belief is that they breach for fun. This is obviously the best answer when you see how often the newborn Humpback calves partake in the activity. If you plan on going on a whale watch tour in Maui, you most likely will see a breaching whale. At the very least you'll witness some other exciting surface activity. See our recommended tour for whale watching in Maui.
Dr. Adam Pack recently proved that Humpback whales can dive depths of 1,000 feet, depths that they reach even in Maui. The longest down time was clocked at 55 minutes in Southeast Alaska. Competitive groups have been observed at 21 knots in 2007 for more than 20 minutes. The North Pacific humpback whale population is estimated at more than 20,000. Globally, the estimate was around 100,000 until whalers dramatically lowered the numbers. They reside in the North Pacific, Southern Hemisphere and North Atlantic. With such small numbers, the humpback is endangered and has special laws to protect its species from extinction. You'll notice these laws in effect when on a boat in season around Maui. Boats are not allowed within 100 yards of any humpback whales. The only exception is if the boats engine is turned off, and the whale comes to the boat. Some vessels have been known to be stuck for hours in one spot due to a curious humpback whale. This can be an incredible experience, unless you're in a hurry. But if you're in a hurry, you came to the wrong island.
Humpback Whales are known as some of the most fascinating of all the whales worldwide. They live on average 45-50 years and can give birth every 1-3 years. The gestation period lasts from 11-12 months long, making the annual migration to Maui, Hawaii perfectly timed. They travel to Maui County to give birth or mate. The newborn calf can swim in the first 30 minutes after being born. The calves are the length of their mother's head when born. Big mom, big calf. Big Momma, on Lahaina side is nearly 60 feet long. Her calf would be 20 feet (length of her head, also long as her tail is wide) at birth and would weigh 2 tons (the same as her tongue). Calves are seen as small as just over 10 feet with a young mother. Those babies would weight approximately 1 ton. After it's birth, the calf will stay with its mother somtimes for around a year while drinking over 100-130 gallons of thick whale milk per day gaining about 100 pounds daily. Weaning from the mother begins around 6 months after birth. Humpback Whale Calves reach fluke maturity at around 1 year of age, sexual maturity around 5 years if female and 7 years if male. The birthing process is somewhat of a mystery to us because no human has ever witnessed it. Whale life span is really unknown, though a new study on Bowhead whales proved that they can live more than 200 years. (That is of course if whalers and fast boats don't get them first.) 
These highly developed creatures have elaborate songs that evolve from year to year. Each year, the male whales will sing the songs all over the world. Each population sings their own song. North Pacific, Southern Hemisphere, and Eastern seaboard humpback whales all sing their OWN songs. But all whales within their group sing the same song.
See: Dr. Jim Darling, Maui studies.
When the next year comes, the humpbacks will have created a new song. Humpback whales are the most imaginative, loudest and hold the largest range of frequencies with their music than any other whale species, even topping Mariah Carey.
Maui Humpback whales hunt together with different strategies of rounding up plankton. They eat around 5000 lbs of krill, plankton, and small fish per day. According to Dr. Fred Sharpe, the large whales in the North consume about 1-2 tons daily of capelin, sandlance, herring, scad, sardines, small salmon. The smaller animals eat krill (Euphausid shrimp). When in cold waters, humpbacks eat seasonally for approximately 120 days of each year. In Maui, the warm waters do not allow for this type of prey to live. This being said, with Maui's shallow warm waters, it's a possibility that humpback whales would be permanent residents if it weren't for the lack of food. Can you blame them?
Special thanks to Katie Grove-Velasquez for her research and educated insight.
For more humpback information and whale photos, go to Maui Whale Watching.
Whale Photography by Natalie Brown Photography. All Rights Reserved.