Whales, Whales, Whales

March has been a fantastic month for whale watching. Any time you look at the ocean you see a big splash or a spout. Last Friday off Polo Beach in Wailea, while snorkeling we could hear high pitched whale noise. On coming ashore were a mom and baby heading south along the coast. The baby was breaching. Mom would stick her fin out of the water. Much further off shore was a tail slapping Humpback with the sound of the impact reaching ous just after we would see the splah. On Tuesday in La Peruse Bay there was a pod of 3 adult Humpback's and a baby heading toward the Big Island at a good clip. Suddenly the lead whale decelerates quickly, floats for a few seconds and turns around. Soon the pod is circling. The Baby spy hops in the middle of the circle. They do this for approximately 30-40 minutes. Staying in the same spot. Circling and diving. We saw this same thing on Wed out off Kanaio in the Alinuinuihaha channel between Maui and the Big Island. This time the pod was the largest I have ever seen. The channel was unusually calm, no white caps and you could see the current lines. A large pod was heading north toward Hana when suddenly they stopped and started circling. You could see light blue bubbles forming in a circle against the dark cobalt blue background. The whales circled and then disappeared for a few minutes and would all break back on the surface at the same time. There were 12 adults counted all together. Further south approximately 1 mile away was a smaller pod of 2-3. Then 2 miles off shore you could see a large splash.