WHALE TALES

Baby humpback whale breaching with Lanai in the distance.

Mama whale is the dark spot to it's left...almost in the center of the pic.

Friday morning were up not so bright but very early to make it to Lahaina by 8:00AM for our whale cruise with PACIFIC WHALE FOUNDATION. It was a picture perfect day and within 5 minutes of sailing out of the dock Mom, Nick, Brandon, Heather, John and myself were treated to a mother and baby humpback whale (above). This time of year, most whales have already started their long journey back to Alaska to feed for the summer, so we were lucky to have any sightings at all. Along with the whales we also saw a few bottle nose dolphins who were taking it easy just swimming along as though they were out for an afternoon stroll. The other great thing about taking the boat is the view you get of the islands from the water. It's always nice to get another perspective of Maui other than the highway view.

I picked up a new 250mm zoom lens with image stabilizer the day before in hopes of getting "the shot". Problem with the zoom lens, other than me not having time to adjust to it, is that it is much more sensitive to motion and the images are not super crisp. The use of a tripod would help that. I have 90 days to try it out... so I'll be shooting and posting away during that time to see if we think it's a keeper or not.

This is a shot from the top deck of the boat looking directly down into the water.
It looked exactly like this... NO LIE. Water can look different colors depending on which way you look and where the sun is at that particular moment.

A deep valley on Maui's West side.
You can actually see all the way through to the East or Wailuku side.

An adult ding a "spy hop". Who's watching who?

An adult breach and splashdown.

The fluke or horizontal tail fins of whales, dolphins, and porpoises are unique to each with no two having the same markings or ridges on the tail edge. This helps to identify whales for research purposes.

Bottle Nose Dolphins

Mother and baby with another adult in the distance.

(detail)

The slow rise of the hump then tail before the whale descends.