Maui #11 - Zodiac Whale Watching

Member of a close-range competition pod

I have already posted a pretty extensive blog about Humpback Whales because Maui is one of the best places to see the giant beasts in the winter. During the course of my two visits, I went on six whale watches and two snorkeling trips that also had a whale-watching component.

Distant breach from a big boat trip

Six of my trips were with the Pacific Whale Foundation, the organization with which I also went whale-watching in 2014. These are on large boats with up to 150 passengers. You watch the whales from the decks, where you stay dry and can use your big lenses and expensive cameras with little fear.

Two of the trips were a new experience for me – whale watching on a small raft.

The Ultimate Trip

Both were with Ultimate Whale Watch & Snorkel out of Lahaina.

The company we went out with

These rafts are Coast Guard-grade Zodiac inflatable rafts. One trip had a boat that could hold about 26 people (our trip was not full) and the second, smaller boat holds about 14.

The concept is that, even though these boats have to (and willingly) abide by the do-not-approach-closer-than-100-feet rule, they still can give you a closer view of whales. That is for two reasons:

#1 You are closer to the water; there is simply less boat between you and the wildlife.

A Humpback Whale at close range

#2 Whales more frequently approach the smaller, quieter boats.

A whale approaches a Zodiac near Molokini

So-So Whales

We were really pumped because we read lots of reviews and saw lots of pictures pointing to an AMAZING experience. 

Photo: Ultimate Whale Watch & Snorkel

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Fluke dive taken at close range

Now, I can’t put all the blame on Ultimate. Whale-watching is a gamble. Sometimes you get great whales and sometimes you don’t. We didn’t. Yeah, we're a little spoiled; many other people would think we had great whales.

Before I go into detail, I need to explain one thing that helped form my opinion. Because we were anticipating and wanted to capture close action, we brought mid-range rather than long lenses. 

So, even though some whales were actually closer than what we had seen on the big boat, the shorter lenses rendered photos that looked approximately the same as the long lens photos from the larger boats. 

Had the whales been exceptionally close, the long lenses would have cropped too tight. So, it was the right camera decision; it just didn’t render the results we wanted. And both Caty and I suffer from a typical photographer malady: the remembered action is what you see through your camera rather than what actually happened. Thus, we were closer but didn't feel closer.

Whale blow

We did have a mother and calf approach fairly close, but they did nothing interesting. And, this is my beef with that whale watch. I believe we spent too much time with some of these boring whales. Once we established their lackadaisical behavior, we should have gone in search of something more exciting.

Mama and baby

Nothing drove that home more than seeing other whales doing all kinds of fun things in the distance – breaching, tail-slapping and fin-slapping. So, we puttered around without a great deal to photograph.

Two Humpbacks

As we were heading back to Lahaina, we did see a whale repeatedly breaching right in front of several whale-watch boats right outside the harbor. We sped in that direction, thinking we’d finally get a chance to see something up close. But, I guess we were late, so we sped by. That was very depressing.

Dolphins!

Now, during this trip, we did have some excitement – a close encounter with some Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins. This was pretty exciting because:

First, they were very close

The one above-surface shot I got of a Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin on the first trip

Second, dolphins aren’t all that common a sighting on a whale watch

Spinner Dolphin pod taken from a big boat trip

Third, we had already had a close encounter with Spinner Dolphins on our big-boat snorkel trip.

Spinner Dolphins from the big boat

I am going to do a separate blog specifically about these two types of dolphins next, but seeing them was incredibly important to our decision to go on a second small-boat whale watch.

Photo: Ultimate Whale Watch & Snorkel

Now, one of the things I really wanted to do on the small raft that CANNOT be done on a big boat is take underwater videos of whales. I saw some spectacular photos and videos online, so that’s what I wanted.

I had both my GoPro and our two underwater cameras on selfie sticks and I was ready.  

We never got that close to whales, but I took some video just in case (I mean, they could swim by without us knowing) and I purposefully videotaped when the Bottlenose Dolphins swam by.

While I wasn’t confident I had gotten much, when I got back to the hotel, I downloaded the videos and I had captured some Bottlenose Dolphins! On the boat, I hadn't taken time to look at what I was getting; I wish I had because I would have tried to aim the camera a bit lower. I missed a few great shots because I was aimed at bit at the surface. But, if I had been looking at videos, I probably would have missed other shots!

Pulled from my video

But, the video was cool enough that Caty and I decided it would be worth a second shot on our last day in Maui. I mean, if you can get dolphins, maybe you can get whales.

Taking another trip was a great decision. No, we still didn’t have a whale swim under our boat and no whales breached right next to us. But, we did have better encounters on the second trip.

Humpback Whale dorsal fin

We had some Spinner Dolphins come at close range and we were able to get great photos above water. I also captured some underwater Spinner action; although not quite as good as the Bottlenose stuff.

Spinner Dolphin spinning

To see a video of the underwater dolphin captured from both trips, click here.

One of the interesting things this video did was explain a puzzling action we had encountered. The Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins were swimming normally, when suddenly one charged directly at our boat, splashing loudly and then diving beneath us. We thought it was an act of aggression toward our boat.

But, the video clearly showed that we had nothing to do with the action; the dolphin was chasing a fish. And, as you can see in the video and photos, there aren’t many fish in that water. He was just going for a snack.

Bottlenose Dolphin chasing a fish

Caty got some good video, too. I will share hers in my dolphin post.

Now, although the whale encounters weren’t SPECTACULAR, there were a few cool things.

Video Revelations

First, I took some underwater video when we got close to a few whales and I didn’t have time to look at it until I got home to Colorado (the second Ultimate trip was on the day we flew home; so we didn't get to view any video before the long flight). I was blown away – not by the video – but by the audio. I got some fantastic whale songs. This was so exciting to listen to.

Click here to hear.

Fluke dive

Second, we did see a behavior that we had not witnessed on any other trip: a competition pod. This is basically a bunch of boy whales rumbling as they vie for a female’s attention. The resulting activity produced a lot of splashing and several times when the whales raised their heads farther out of the water than you normally see. It gives you a much better picture of what a whale face looks like (yes, I did use these photos in my Humpback Whales post, but they were just too cool not too).

A great view of a competition pod at close range

I could have gotten some better pictures had we not had as many cell phone photographers on board and I will talk about that in a moment.

Competition Pod

And, third, in addition to the whale sounds and dolphin video I got, I had some footage that initially appeared boring: nothing in the foreground and not much sound. But, back in the back was a thin line of white on the surface, the kind of white you see when a dolphin – or whale – breaks the surface. I zoomed in and was floored. While not real clear and not real pronounced, it was unmistakable: I videotaped a Humpback Whale underwater. 

I did. 

Whoa!

My underwater shot

Now, full disclosure before you watch the video. The audio on the original was boring: mainly water slapping the boat and some boat noise. So, I overlaid it with the whale song you already listened to. It’s real whales and real sound; they just didn’t actually occur at the same time.

Click here for the video.

Cameras and Photographers

Ok, so let’s talk about iPhone photography. iPhones are small, so you would think that they would be less disruptive to fellow spectators than the big honkin’ cameras Caty and I carry. But, that has not been my experience. There a several reasons.

Photo: Creative Market

Experienced photographers using long lenses know that one of the most critical ingredients to a good hand-held photo, especially of moving wildlife or from a moving boat, is to hold the camera as steady as you can. You do that by tucking your elbows into your chest, steadying them against your ribs to minimize shake. 

This also minimizes your footprint for others. You don’t have elbows sticking out, blocking everyone else’s view. Plus, you look through the viewfinder rather than the live view panel; thus pulling the camera in tight to your face. 

Your camera may be big, but the space it takes up I in front of you; just a narrow slice. Unfortunately, iPhone photographers tend to hold their phones differently. The phones are light, so they tend to put their elbows out and hold the phone above their heads. And, because they are looking at a screen (and may be farsighted), they tend to hold the phones far out. They take up more space than a single person’s footprint.

And, selfies .... Don't get me started ....

You need a clean view to get a good picture

Now, that wouldn't be so bad except for my second point. Experienced wildlife photographers are used to taking pictures in the company of other photographers. We tend to be exceptionally aware of our fellow shooters. We are careful not to block other cameras and we don’t suddenly step in front of our fellow photogs. Alas, iPhone “photographers” haven’t seemed to learn this. They are constantly moving in front, blocking views and generally being clueless that others would like the shot as well.

An arm discolored my photo

So, on this whale watch, we had four very loud Millennials who managed to get an elbow, shoulder, back or head in every photo I took of the competition pod. 

Every freakin’ one. 

I probably should have just shouted, “Get out of the way,” but I sensed they didn’t care that they were blocking us. 

Now, when you are using a telephoto lens and something gets in the way, you still get the shot; it’s just not sharp and it can be discolored. A lot of my pictures had a pink hue picked up from an arm.

So, if you are an iPhone photographer, think about what you are doing.

One other thing about cameras: part of my reluctance to do Zodiac or Kayak trips is concern about getting my cameras wet. Yes, I have a waterproof camera, but it doesn’t have the range or quality of my Canons. And, I have protective sleeves, but they only do so much. And, I do have a dry sack that is good if it gets too wet to shoot. Bt, I once put a camera out of commission shooting in the rain. So, I worry.

I am happy to report that the Zodiac was fairly dry and that I was able to protect my camera with the sleeve and my rain jacket.

These trips were quite useful because Scott and I are going on a trip to Svalbard (“The Realm of the Polar Bear”) this June and we will be touring on Zodiacs. And, then, in December, we are going to the U.S. Virgin Islands, where we plan to snorkel. I gained a lot of experience that I can put to good use. Since I got home, I have already bought some better and longer selfie sticks.

Pulled from my video

Birds!

One other cool thing about the second Ultimate trip was that we saw some birds! Really!

A nice profile

I mentioned before that seabirds are pretty few and far between. On one whale watch I had gotten a picture of some distant birds speeding by, but I hadn’t had a chance to figure out what they were.

On this trip, we saw a female Great Frigatebird, which I actually recognized immediately (in Florida, I have seen Magnificent Frigatebirds, which are just slightly larger than the Great ones). With major nesting populations in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans and a tiny population in the South Atlantic, Hawai’i is the northernmost extent of their range in the Pacific Ocean, with about 10,000 nesting pairs.

Female Great Frigatebird

The Great Frigatebird is about 30 to 40 inches long and has a wingspan of 80-90 inches. Males are smaller than females, but the extent of the variation varies geographically.

They have highest ratio of wing area to body mass and the lowest wing loading of any bird, which enables them to use marine thermals for soaring (allegedly sometimes sleeping while soaring).

Photo: Wikipedia

They feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface, which means that they love Flying Fish. 

They generally feed within 50 miles of their breeding colonies or roosting areas. They also hunt seabird chicks at breeding colonies, taking mostly Tern and Noddy chicks. 

Both sexes have a patch of skin at the throat called a “gular sac.” In male Great Frigatebirds, the gular sac is red and can be inflated to attract a mate. That is something I would like to see.

So, that was cool.

Then, we saw an even cooler bird, a Brown Booby.

A male Brown Booby

Is it a bird? Is it a duck? Is it a cartoon? It certainly is a strange-looking bird.

Brown Booby using a whale to stir up fish

The most common Booby, the Brown's a pantropical range overlaps with other Booby species.  

Spectacular divers, Brown Boobies plunge into the ocean at high speed to catch small fish or squid that gather in groups near the surface. Like the Great Frigatebird, they also catch leaping fish (especially Flying Fish) while skimming the surface. 

After we saw the initial Brown Booby (a male based upon its blue orbital rings; females have yellow rings), it was joined by two more and they capitalized on a whale fluking down to stir up prey.

The female Brown Booby grows to about 31 inches long with a wingspan of up to 4.9 feet. Males are usually about an inch shorter with a three-inch-shorter wingspan.

Three Brown Boobies flying over the channel

Their beaks are quite sharp and contain many jagged edges. They have fairly short wings resulting in a fast flap rate, but long, tapered tails. While these birds are typically silent, but occasionally make sounds similar to grunting or quacking.

Although they are powerful and agile fliers, they are particularly clumsy in takeoffs and landings; using wind and high perches to assist their takeoffs. This clumsiness is what gave them their name.

Male Brown Booby

We were fortunate that one flew directly over the boat and then, we saw the three of them flying around the diving whale and across the channel. I also realized that the birds I had seen in the distance on an earlier whale watch were also Brown Boobies.

Research

A great trip

I said in an earlier post that we like to go whale-watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation because they do research and offer education programs. Ultimate Whale Watch & Snorkel also participates by donating vessels, captains and crew to transport researchers and by financially supporting education and additional research around the world.

They also participate in the Rescue Entanglement Network as first responders to rescue Humpback Whales that have become entangled in fishing nets. Obviously, Zodiacs are an ideal vessel for this type of activity. We heard a rumor that there was a rescue going on while we were there, but never heard any details.

And, another cool thing I noticed about Ultimate; almost all (if not all) of their captains and mates are women.

A Good Alternative

Now that I have done a Zodiac trip, I am hooked. I will make it part of the mix going forward.

Humpback Whale dive near the shore

Trip 1 date: January 31-February 8, 2019

Trip 2 date: February 25-March 2, 2019