Read our review of 'Sharks and Rays of Hawaii'
on our blog post 'Ocean
Life in Hawaii'.
Big Game Fishing in Hawaii. Learn more on our blog post 'Hawaii
Game Fishing'.
Read more about Humpback
whales. The Humpback whales are back by
Jennifer Crites.
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Our friend Jennifer Crites is a Honolulu-based
photographer and writer whose work covers a wide range of subjects
from island culture and traditions to contemporary lifestyles
and science. Her words and images have appeared in Hawaii, Honolulu
and Islands magazines, like Hawaii magazine, Islands magazine,
Honolulu magazine, Island Home, Island Scene, Malamalama (University
of Hawaii), Hana Hou! (Hawaiian Airlines), Hawaii Parent magazine,
among other publications. Jennifer is the co-author and photographer
of a nature book 'Sharks and Rays of Hawaii' (Mutual Pub. 2002). |
Enjoy this Humpback
whale story told by 'Blackie' the Blacktip Reef shark alias
Jennifer
Crites, Oahu photographer:
"Ok, ok, the humpback whales are here. Big deal as far as I'm
concerned. Every week you see something in the newspaper about volunteers
wanted to count the beasts and record their behavior. I see you
humans up there on hilltops with your binoculars watching for flukes
or spouts or tail slaps. I think you should be watching shark behavior.
We're much more interesting. But if you must know about whales,
just ask me. I live down here with them, after all.
Maybe they fascinate you because they're not
here all year round. Like snowbirds, they arrive for winter - between
November and April, roughly - then take off back to Alaska or wherever
else they came from. What gets me is that they don't eat the whole
time they're here. I mean, that's fine with me - less competition
for food. And I guess they have plenty of blubber to keep them going.
But you've got to admit, swimming thousands of miles to get here,
birthing their calves and providing milk for them, and then swimming
all the way back without eating. That's got to take a lot out of
anybody, even a whale.
Actually, the humpbacks don't bother me too much.
I stay pretty much over the nearshore reef and they frolic around
in somewhat deeper water. Sometimes they actually provide food for
sharks. Did you hear about that dead whale that washed up on one
of your beaches recently? It was surrounded by hungry sharks - probably
tiger sharks as they're gluttons anyway. Sad to say, I didn't get
a piece of the action. I heard about it too late.
But enough about me. You want to hear about whales.
Ok. Well, first off, if we're talking humpbacks, they're big. Betcha
didn't know there are other kinds of whales in Hawaii, too, like
pilot whales - they're pretty common around the Big Island; a few
sperm whales [of Moby Dick fame] off the Kona coast in spring. There
are melon-headed whales and pygmy sperm whales, both small - about
7.5 to 10 feet long, respectively. Both types are seen mostly when
they strand themselves on a beach. Occasionally you may see a killer
whale (also known as orca, as in the movie "Free Willy")
off Molokai or the Big Island, but it's pretty rare. More common
are false killer whales, but they're in pretty deep water (or at
Sea Life Park). I have another surprise for you about types of whales,
but I'm saving that for later.
So back to humpbacks and their voluminous (dictionary
time?) size. To me they look like ungainly submarines. Adults are
about 45-feet long and weigh roughly 35 tons. Tons! Each ton is
2,000 pounds. That's like, 2 times 35 is 70, carry the zeroes...
70,000 pounds. Whoa! Just the tongue of an adult humpback weighs
two tons all by itself. Even the newborns are whoppers. Imagine
giving birth to a 3,000-pound baby.
You'd think all that mass would have to have
some pretty heavy-duty bones to hold the whole thing together. But
no. A humpback's bones are very light. It's skeleton is only 15%
of its total body weight. Probably because buoyant sea water does
most of the heavy lifting. in contrast, a land mammal's bones make
up 50% of its total body weight.
And you've heard about what humpbacks eat, right?
Krill. Pretty much the tiniest creatures in the ocean. And a few
other small fish. And get this... they have no teeth. They don't
really need ‘em with the small size of their prey. Just swallowing
whole works fine. But they do have a kind of feeding apparatus called
baleen, which strains the ocean water flooding into their mouths
and traps the food. It works like a filter on your kitchen sink
faucet. Only instead of catching microbes, chemicals or grit, the
baleen catches food.
Not to get too carried away with this, but just
so you get the picture, hundreds of rigid strips of baleen hang
down from the upper jaw around the inside edges of the mouth. The
edges of this baleen are kind of bristly and frayed (all the better
to trap stuff with), and all these frayed edges crisscross each
other for maximum trapping effectiveness.
Seeing as how feeding is a major part of my life
(as it is for any animal), I'm going to dwell on this a little longer.
There are three types of filter-feeding whales: skimmers, gulpers
and suckers. Skimmers cruise along slowly at the surface, through
dense concentrations of food, with their mouths wide open. Gulpers,
including humpbacks, rush at their food from the side or below.
And suckers create a vacuum-cleaner effect with the tongue and palate
to suck water and food in and over the baleen.
Humpbacks aren't as dumb as they look. Actually,
they can be pretty clever about approaching their prey, especially
if they use the bubblenet strategy. Say the whale finds a big school
of small fish, it dives down underneath them and swims in a circle,
releasing bubbles from its blowhole. As the bubbles rise, they form
a noisy ring (you've heard bubbles underwater, right? like from
a scuba diver's tank) or, in other words, a bubblenet, around the
fish, which confuses and disorients them and kind'a pushes them
towards the surface. The bubblenet closes in, and the fish huddle
together, not knowing what's going on but making a more compact
target. Then the whale shoots up with its mouth open, still pumping
out bubbles. Result: snack. They can eat nearly a ton of food a
day.
Now let's settle something about whales right
off. They are not fish, like me. They are air-breathing mammals,
like you. That means they have to come up to the surface to breathe..."
Find more ocean life stories in ‘Sharks
and Rays of Hawaii’ by Gerald Crow & Jennifer Crites.
The Kohala Coast on the Big Island features an
abundance of tropical ocean life, which one can experience first
hand when going snorkeling or scuba diving on any of our Kohala
Coast beaches or with one of the Kohala Coast boat activities. See
Kohala Coast Ocean activities
on our Vacation Guide. However, even for Kohala Coast visitors who
are afraid of the ocean, there are plenty of opportunities of viewing
lots of tropical sea life without having to dive.
"...and that brings me to the
subject of the month - stingrays. Well, actually, all 9 types of
rays in Hawaiian waters, including manta rays, devil rays and electric
rays. Even though most people lump them all together as "stingrays,"
each one is unique.
Take electric rays, for example. That's just a
nickname. Their actual name is torpedo ray. Don't ask me why; they
don't look anything like a torpedo, and they're not stingrays either.
But I'll tell you one thing - don't ever make 'em mad. They have
organs in their bodies that can send out an electric shock if you
touch 'em. Talk about getting zapped! Mostly they use it to protect
themselves or stun their food. Kind of gives them an unfair advantage
if you ask me. When you go for a swim in the ocean, don't worry
about bumping into one, though - they live pretty deep: 300 to 1,500
feet down.
Ok, how about manta rays. They're not stingrays
either, but you're gonna love these guys. They're one critter down
here that isn't dangerous. First of all, they have no teeth to speak
of. You know what they eat? Plankton. Can you believe it? I mean,
manta rays are huge. Even when they're born, their wingspan is about
3 feet from tip to tip. 'Course, right before they make their entry
into the world they don't look that big because their wings are
folded around their bodies. Makes 'em look like big bats (without
the teeth, of course). Anyway, just digesting tiny plankton, they
can grow to a whopping 22-foot wingspan.
There's a story in Jennifer's book about a human
on the Big Island who went out on his boat to do a little fishing.
He dropped his anchor at Kealakekua Bay and was about to go for
a dive to check out the big manta he'd just seen, when the boat
started moving. I mean, it took off fast forward, then sideways,
tilting over at a scary angle. He was hanging on for dear life but
glad he hadn't gotten in the water because then he'd be watching
his boat take off for China. Anyway, after being thrown around awhile,
he was finally able to cut the anchor line. But not before he saw
a big blip on the fish finder and figured out that the manta had
somehow gotten caught up in the anchor and was dragging the boat
around. Talk about your incredible hulk!
Personally, I think the anchor got caught in the
manta's mouth like a hook. I mean, how else could it have happened?
They do have pretty big mouths - all the better to inhale the tons
of plankton they need to survive. Speaking of that, have you ever
seen them feeding. They're almost as graceful as a shark - doing
loop-de-loops over and over with their mouths agape (I love those
fancy words), scooping up the plankton.
If you're ever over on the Big Island, you can
probably see them from the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's
oceanside terrace. Those hotel people are pretty tricky. They shine
lights on the ocean at night. The lights lure the plankton, and
following the plankton are, guess what? Manta rays.
Some of the dive shops over there will even take you out at night
to dive with the mantas. Don't worry about getting in the water
with them - they're very gentle, and so absorbed in feeding, they
don't pay much attention to humans.
Maybe you'll even see Lefty. Mantas have two big
flaps, called cephalic horns, on either side of their mouths. These
cephalic horns help guide the plankton into the mouth. Lefty has
one cephalic horn (the left one) that droops. You can't miss her.
Mantas aren't the only rays you can see up close
on the Big Island. The Four Seasons Hualalai Resort
has a ray lagoon inhabited by several spotted eagle rays.
You can go swimming in the lagoon (call them first for rules and
regs), and at certain times of day you can hand feed the rays (with
the help of a resort employee, of course)."
Read more about Kohala
Coast Ocean Activities
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Hawaii Ferienwohnung
Big Island 