“A soup of whales”

Feb 27 – Kihei

800 humpback whales, over 100 volunteer citizen scientists at 12 sites on Maui, 4 hours of counting whales and tracking whales behavior: another successful annual whale count.  Thirty years of the annual count still going strong.

We woke up before the sun at 6 am and were out the door at 7 am to arrive at our site, the humpback whale center just before 8 am for final training and instructions.  Sue, the group leader with over 20 years of experience and  Ursula the more recent transplant from Michigan, walked us through the schedule and expectations.  We had all read the 7-page handout (which caused some anxiety amongst our friends – will I be able to tell the difference between a tail slap and a peduncle throw?)  We found out we were the eyes for the group leaders to actually tally our results.  Whew! There is going to be some quality control here.

At 8:30 am sharp we start our shifts.  Scanning our 1/3 of the area to the horizon.  We switch sections every 15 to 30 minutes and then switch between counting whales and their direction of travel (was that mom and calf goung north?) Or types of behaviors (fortunately it was only breach slap, blow or dive.) We would scan with our eyes first then foist the binoculars on, catch the whales in action and yell out “blow!” “breach!” “slap!” And not try to look at what the other groups were seeing. 

It was exhilarating to see these enormous mammals right in front of us.  We had heard that the recent storms had decreased whale sighting this past week so we were legitimately concerned that it might be a bust.  When we saw our first whale breach just off the shore while listening to the training talk (didn’t even get to record it) we knew it was a good omen.

Our eyes got tired from the constant looking in the shimmering ocean and then adjusting from binocular to scanning the horizon.  I had to keep closing one eye because I could never get how to look through both parts of the binoculars.  They whales seem to come in waves.  Sometimes there would be four or more breaching together and slapping their fins and tales, then nothing for 30 minutes.  During the down times we get to learn more about our fellow volunteers. One is from Pennsylvania.  A few, like us have traveled here to volunteer at this time.  We find out later that about 25% are new volunteers each year.  Many are locals who do this every year.  Julie, orignally from Mount Vernon, WA relocated here five years ago and never looked back.  She is an adept whale spotter.  Her and Ursula are the ringers in the bunch. 

We do find that we get better as the morning progresses.  Our eyes can start to spot the black dorsal fins and the blows that shoot up 40 feet into the air.  We finish up just before noon and catch up with our friends who were on another beach and also saw lots of whales – breaching, slapping and diving.

We head to the lunch pizza party with all of the other volunteers and get to swap stories of our morning sightings.  We meet new friends who have been on island for 5 to 10 years.  One is your typical surfer with tattoos fown both arms wearing a tie dye shirt.  He tells us he was a stock broker and used to wear suit and ties.  He went all in after the great recession and now lives on his investments.

We ask one of the organizers where are the best spots to watch whales and he tells us that almost anywhere, “It is soup of whales out there right now.”  He says he drinks coffee off his lanai each morning and watches them from there.

We head out back to our condo after a full morning. 

I am thinking I might be back next year to count again.