Increasing whale visits give tourism a boost
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
After a late start, the winter whale-watching season is on in earnest in Hawai'i, with visitors expected to spend more than $20 million to get up close and nautical with as many as 5,000 humpbacks arriving here to breed and calve.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser Advertiser library photo
And with their numbers increasing by about 7 percent a year, the total in Hawaiian waters could double in a decade, experts said yesterday.
After having their photo taken at a whale mural near Aloha Tower, tourists head for the Navatek vessel for a whale-viewing ride off southern O'ahu, between Maunalua Bay and Honolulu airport's reef runway.
The surge in numbers of visiting whales will bring more opportunities for viewing and research, but will also increase the risk of whales striking boats or becoming tangled in marine debris.
"I can imagine a day when beachgoers at Ka'anapali will see whales 100 yards away, and so will surfers and ferryboat passengers and people out for day fishing," said Greg Kaufman, president of the Pacific Whale Foundation.
The cetacean population explosion will create more opportunities for visitors and residents to not only watch whales from shore or a boat, but also participate in whale research experiences offered on "whale-friendly" vessels.
Daily sightings off Maui this year will extend to April but started three weeks later in the season than is typical. The late start, around Nov. 22, delayed some companies' whale-watching business operations.
But Trilogy Excursions executive Jim Coon, who is chairman of the Marine Sanctuary Council, said that "our boats already are reporting some of the most spectacular watching they have seen."
The surge in whale numbers will create more challenges as well, according to Jeff Walters, Hawai'i's co-manager of the 10-year-old Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
Whales, like Yellowstone's bears, have become savvy about spectators. The whales are increasingly "mugging" viewers aboard boats, passing repeatedly under vessels so the boats can't move.
"As numbers increase, whales become more prone to vessel strikes, and when a boat hits a 40-ton animal both the boat and the whale lose," Walters said.
"Becoming fatally entangled in marine debris, such as rubbish and discarded fishing gear, is still a real and present danger."
Another outcome of increased numbers, Walters said, will be higher mortality among baby whales. "You will see more dead and injured and malformed baby whales, and we will have to look at how we manage stranding (of whales on shorelines)."
Kaufman said accidental or intentional human contacts with whales will become so frequent that it will be only a matter of time until a human is killed.
"Two years ago we had a calf that breached onto a catamaran on Kaua'i and broke a woman's leg," Kaufman said. "When something the size of a Toyota breaches on you and you get only a broken leg, you can count your blessings.
The 2003 Ocean Count by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary will begin Saturday morning with whale observations from shore by hundreds of volunteers. More volunteers are needed for the count when it continues on Feb. 22 and March 29 at selected sites on O'ahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island. The educational program obtains a rough series of "snapshots" of the animals' numbers, distribution and behavior, and raises public awareness of whales in Hawai'i. To register, call 397-2656 for O'ahu, 246-2860 for Kaua'i and (888) 55-WHALE for the Big Island.
"It's not that you will have 'rogue' or 'killer' humpbacks, but when you are 6 months old and weigh a couple of tons, you may not have perfect control of your body when you leap out of the water."
Count to begin
David Matila, science coordinator for the sanctuary,said the number of humpback whales is gradually increasing. No one can be sure if the total will come back from an estimated low of 1,200 to 1,400 to the 15,000 some scholars believe to have flourished before commercial whaling began, he said.
But Walters said some government officials are beginning to talk about possibly listing the humpback as a threatened species rather than an endangered species.
"I argue that the sanctuary role changes somewhat, that you focus on making the interaction between whales and people mostly positive," Walters said.
And the success of the humpback could promote and free up money for helping other species, he said.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
