1,300 sightings reported by whale watchers
| • | Gigantic visitors always good for a fascinating show |
| • | Typical humpback behaviors: breaching, slapping and singing (Flash player required) |
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Volunteer whale spotters across the state kept their eyes peeled and their pencils sharp yesterday morning, tallying Hawai'i's annual influx of humpback visitors.
• Two more counts will be conducted this year: midseason, on Feb. 22 and a final count on March 29. • For information on becoming a whale counter, call the sanctuary on O'ahu at 397-2656; on the Big Island at 1 (888) 55-WHALE and on Kaua'i at (808) 246-2860.
More than 500 volunteers stood watch at 63 sites on O'ahu, the Big Island, Kaua'i and — for the first time — Kaho'olawe, said Christine Brammer, ocean count coordinator for the National Marine Sanctuaries' annual Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Count.
Whale counting
A similar count on Maui will be conducted by the Pacific Whale Foundation in February.
The sanctuary volunteers reported 1,300 whale sightings, Brammer said, about 100 more than at this time last year. The number of sightings does not necessarily correspond to the number of whales in an area, she said, as volunteers in different locations may see the same whale.
The highest number of sightings came from the Big Island, where watchers saw an average of seven whales every 15 minutes islandwide.
On O'ahu, the hot spots seemed to be along the southern shore, from Portlock to Makapu'u Point, where the whales seemed particularly high-spirited.
La Pietra schoolgirls standing watch at Makapu'u Point reported seeing a whale calf slap its tail 17 times in a row.
The waters around the Hawai'ian Islands serve as winter breeding habitat for about 5,000 whales, a total that has been growing by about 7 percent a year during the past 10 years, according to scientific studies.
About two-thirds of North Pacific humpbacks winter in Hawai'i.
The count is conducted to provide corroboratory information for scientists and as part of the sanctuary's education outreach program. Final results will be posted online this fall.
