Today also started out a little iffy. We were all gassed up and down at the marina, ready to rock 'n' roll, when we realized we'd left the ice on the floor of Masa's house. Raced back for that, wondering what else would go wrong. As it turned out, the rest of the day was excellent, if you can call a day without catching any fish excellent. What we had instead was the kind of photo opportunities that remind us why we live in Kona, and why we work for SeaPics.com. It was also notable for another reason; it was the first time on the water for my new puppy, Sugar. She's a Tibetan Spaniel, and quite possibly the cutest dog in the world. We'd get to see what kind of sea legs she had, and because I have photos to capture the moment, so will you!
As we got a late start, we decided to go straight to C buoy without trolling. About 5 miles from Keauhou Bay, we spotted a pod of pilot whales, probably 50 or 60 of them! The light was perfect, so we went in their direction for some pix. As we approached, we encountered some other visitors: a small pod of bottlenose dolphins had converged on the same spot. There must have been some baitfish there, as the dolphins were swimming frantically in circles. The pilot whales were there, too, and they didn't seem happy to have the dolphins mixed in with their pod. The biggest bull, probably the leader of the pod, seemed very agitated. He was launching his body out of the water and slamming on the surface, in some kind of threat display to the dolphins. While all this was going on, a couple of oceanic whitetip sharks came into view. I mentioned in my previous blogs how oceanic whitetips are often in the vicinity of pilot whales, and here they were, right on schedule. This was clearly going to be an amazing day. How often do we get an opportunity to try and get dolphins, whales and sharks in the same shot? And as we got our gear ready for the big moment, of course, they all disappeared! Poof. Gone. Hasta la vista.
It was then that we noticed Sugar was gone, too, I panicked for a moment, wondering if she'd been on the oceanic whitetips' menu. We scrambled around the boat, calling her name. It's a small 19 foot boat, so to not see her was scary. Fortunately, we found her, wedged between the cooler and the side of the boat. She found the most comfortable spot by herself. Smart dog!
We thought the pilot whales had gone north, so we slowly went that way, back in the direction we came from this morning. We soon came across them again, and they appeared much more relaxed now. We've seen pilot whales often, and it's always hard to know what kind of behavior to expect. Sometimes they leave as fast as they can, sometimes they stick around to see what's up. This time, fortunately for us, it was the latter. We watched the pilot whales "logging" for a while. This is an observable behavior where they line up in a row, right next to each other, rubbing skin, in some kind of socializing activity. As our boat approached, they didn't make a move to leave. They stuck around, curious, and started spy-hopping, a behavior common to all intelligent marine mammals. One will pop its head out of the water, straight up, and watch us. Then another one did it, and another. Soon all around us was this whole pod of pilot whales spyhopping like crazy. It was a little surreal, and not unlike a game of whack-a-mole, with their heads bobbing up and down, randomly on all sides of our boat. It was an amazing display, as we hadn't ever seen this many "pops" before. We just stared at them, clicking off shot after shot.As we were enjoying the show, two oceanic whitetips approached the boat. Now we knew we had to get into the water, if only to get the whitetips and pilot whales in the same photograph. As Masa prepared to enter the water, he fretted about what camera gear to take. The dilemma in this situation is always the same, and it's a catch-22. To take good pictures of the whitetips, you need a bulky two strobe setup complete with long strobe arms. However, to get the pilot whales, it's better if you can swim freely at their pace, which is hard to do with all that equipment. Take the strobe and risk not getting the whales; go light and forget about the sharks. It's a roll of the dice.
Masa decided to take the strobes, as he was sure the sharks would approach him. One of the whitetips was big, probably 9 feet or so, and usually, the bigger the shark is, the closer Masa can get to it. Large sharks aren't afraid of anything, particularly something Masa's size. Past experience told him that if he left his strobes behind, the shark was going to approach and pose for him inches from his dome port, so he took them with him.
He got into the water, and sure enough, that big whitetip rolled right up to him. This species will often do that, as they're curious to see what you are. They'll come right in for a bump to see if you're edible, so it's nice to have a camera housing between you and them. With the adrenalin rush of that big whitetip coming in, Masa waited and waited till the last second and snapped the shot. He got it nicely, and the shark veered off when the strobes flashed. Check out the shot to the right, as well as this nice profile shot of an oceanic whitetip.Later on, he also got some pics of the smaller shark and a rare shot of a whitetip with some schoolies, which are juvenile mahi mahi. Click on this link to see the shot: oceanic whitetip with schoolies
While we were focusing on the oceanic whitetips, the pilot whales continued heading north. Masa got back in the boat, and we followed them for another go. Masa kept shooting the oceanic whitetip sharks, but he also had a good opportunity to observe a mother and calf pilot whale pair. This is not easy to do, as the mother is protective of her offspring, just like human mothers. Invariably she keeps the calf on the far side of her, away from strangers, which means she's usually blocking the shot. She kept nudging the calf away, but at one point, the calf, like a typical teenage, ignored Mom's warning, and slid under her for a better view of Masa. The shot here on the left is the result of that episode of misbehavior.
We caught no fish on this day, but it was awesome photo-wise. There's actually a lot more to write about, but I'm going to save if for another day. As a final shot, though, here's Sugar, expressing her feelings about today's experience on the water. Don't worry viewers; after two minutes on dry land, she stopped drooling and was feeling just like normal!http://www.SeaPics.com
SeaPics.com Blog
All pix from today's excursion!
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in today's blog (please be patient!-10 seconds to load):
bottlenose dolphins
pilot whales
oceanic whitetip sharks
mahi mahi
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