Once he got the new boat, though, a nice twin-engine, catamaran style Glacier Bay, we were out almost every day, testing the equipment and checking out the wildlife. We’ve been so busy out on the water, that I haven’t had much time to write it all down. Finally, though, I’ve managed to process some great new humpback whales shots and create this blog entry.On Feb. 21, Masa, me, and Steve Drogin were out on the water for a full day of whale watching. I wrote about Steve in my blog called Dinner with Some Giants in the Industry 11/30/07. He’s one of our SeaPics.com photographers, and he has many great images of sharks, rays, monk seals and more on our site. Check them out if you have a chance.
Anyway, Steve was with us, enjoying Masa’s new boat and checking out the humpback whales. The whales were incredible that day, breaching all around us. It was really a photographer’s dream. Most days are not like this, as it’s not possible to predict where and when a whale will breach, so you have to be vigilant and a little lucky to get a great shot. On this day, though, getting the money shot was like rolling over in bed. The light was great and the whales kept breaching over and over, so we could position ourselves perfectly and get the shots we wanted.One of the great things about living in Hawaii is being able to see these amazing humpback whale breaches. If you live on the west coast of the U.S., you may be able to see gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), but they aren’t known for the breaches and other above water activities performed by the humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae).
The playful behavior of humpback whales is well known and has even been mentioned in classic American literature. Herman Melville, using the character Ishmael as his narrator in Moby-Dick, said of the humpbacks that they are "the most gamesome of species and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water than any other."He certainly got that right. Humpbacks must think they’re dolphins, a distant relative, though they’re at least 110 times heavier. They launch themselves out of the water, nearly clearing it, and flop onto the surface, usually on their back or side, creating a minor tsunami for nearby boats. They’re also known for tail slapping, pec slapping, peduncle throws, spy hopping and other behaviors.
Here’s a quick glossary of humpback whale behaviors, with links to images of the behavior on our SeaPics.com site:
breach – the whale launches most of its body out of the water and crashes onto the surface
lunge – a shallow breach where a male lunges aggressively towards a competitor
tail slap – the whale, with its body nearly vertical, facing down, slaps its tail repeatedly onto the surface of the water
pec slap – the whale, lying on its side, slaps its pectoral fin repeatedly against the surface of the water
peduncle throw – a powerful spin move where the whale thrusts its tail and lower body area across the surface of the water, throwing up a big spray
spy hop – the whale, curious about activity above the surface, assumes a vertical position with it’s head and eye above water so it can view the whale watchers!
Why do they do these behaviors? While we can’t interpret each behavior precisely, many of the slapping and lunging behaviors are presumed to be competitive displays by males, used to signal each other as they vie for the attention of females. Breaching, however, is performed by whales of both sexes and all ages, whether they’re alone or with others. It may have the practical use of shaking off barnacles, or it may be that the whales just like the sensation of leaving the water and crashing onto the surface. The image above left is of a peduncle throw.For me, personally, this was one of my best days ever for humpback whale photography. The reason for my confidence is that Steve Drogin lent me his telephoto lens, as he was trying out another one. For the first time, I was able to use an 80-400 vibration reduction lens, which made a huge difference in the kind of shots I could get.
Normally, when I’m out on the boat with Masa, his shots are always so much better than mine. Masa uses a 70-200/2.8 L Canon with a teleconverter, which makes it more than twice as powerful as the lens I own. At the safe distance we must maintain from the whales, his whale shots have always filled the frame and been beautifully in focus, while mine have been way too small. On this day, though, with Steve’s great lens, my shots were nearly filling the frame! The light was great, and the whales breached straight in front of us, over and over. At least on this occasion, my breaching whale shots are good enough to post on my blog. I still can’t compete with the world class photographers I represent at SeaPics.com, but I was really stoked to get some decent shots, as those of you who take photos for enjoyment can readily understand! Thanks, Steve, for the assist!That’s it for now, but I’ll have another blog up soon about more humpback whale excursions. I expect you’ll see that in a week or so.
Kona Sue
http://www.seapics.com
Masa Ushioda’s humpback whale photos at SeaPics.com
All humpback whale photos at SeaPics.com
Wikipedia entry on humpback whales
Links to stock photos of species mentioned in this blog. Please be patient! 10 seconds to load:
humpback whale
gray whale
After a marathon day with Wyland, the Artist, where we boated, swam and snorkeled all day, followed by an artist's reception at Wyland Galleries in the evening, Wyland was up and ready for more the next day! Wyland is a machine!
Dean's story of why he no longer lives in the Turks & Caicos, and how he ended up in Kona, Hawaii is a little long and personal, so I won't go into detail. I will say, however, that the story involves a stopover in Crete, where sirens sing to you and cure whatever ails you. Enough about that, and on to our adventures with Wyland!
As we headed north, Wyland said he wanted to stop and check out Turtle Pinnacle, one of Kona's better known dive sites. SeaPics.com has many photos of green sea turtles being cleaned by yellow tang and other reef fish, and most of them are from this spot. We have so many of these nice shots that divers visiting Kona tend to think sea turtles are always getting cleaned somewhere, waiting to be photographed. Well, the key to getting these great shots is to be at Turtle Pinnacle, a time-honored cleaning station. If you look for this anywhere else, you'll likely be disappointed.
As we searched the area, we stumbled upon a huge fishing net drifting in the ocean. The net was so large, we couldn't even attempt to retrieve it. Like an iceberg, the tip of it was at the surface, and the rest of it hung down, down, down, fading into the blue.
Finally, we spotted it and Masa dropped a line and caught a mahi mahi right away. When you catch a mahi mahi, it's common to leave the first one on the hook for a while, as strangely, the other mahi mahi will congregate around it. This happened in textbook fashion, and within minutes we had our second mahi mahi.
Steve Drogin is first and foremost, a fantastic photographer, and 
Steve was in town after a visit to Easter Island. Before that, he had been in Costa Rica at Cocos Island, where he actually has a submarine that can take passengers to depths of 1,500 feet. Now many of us dream of having a nice boat to cruise the world, but Steve has his own submarine! Of course, it's a commercial operation, so he doesn't really have unlimited use of it, but still… What undersea photographer wouldn't love to have their own submarine? Anyway, if you are ever interested in going 457 meters deep off the coast of Cocos Island, and you've got about $2,500 to spare for a ticket, then consider the Deep See excursion. Prices actually start at about US $600 for a 100-meter dive. Check out the 
Besides Bob Talbot (center) in this photo, there are some other people of note. Masa, the 
Down at the beach at Kaloko-Honokohau National Park, near the Honokohau Marina, a large tent was set up for the all-day tagging event. George Balazs, a prominent sea turtle researcher with the National Marine Fisheries Service (he was largely responsible for getting the green sea turtle listed as an endangered species), and Marc Rice, a teacher at Hawaii Preparatory Academy were in charge. They were being assisted by students from HPA, and by a few specially chosen volunteers, including Christine and Lynn, my two SeaPics.com employees. Christine and Lynn were able to participate because of their work with ReefTeach, a volunteer group on the Big Island. It is due to their efforts that the Reef Teachers were educated on sea turtles and now pass that information on to visitors at Kahulu'u Beach Park.
The procedure was for a group of researchers and student volunteers to go out with nets and large inner tubes to find sea turtles on the beach and in the shallows. Once found, the turtles are carefully placed into the inner tube, which has an attached bottom, then transferred to a crate on the beach for weighing. 
After weighing, each turtle is placed on a table for examination by George Balazs. The turtles are examined for injuries, disease and parasites, and they are all scanned for microchips which may have been inserted into the turtle's flipper at a previous tagging event. If no microchip is found, one is inserted. If they have a sonic transmitter attached to the shell, this is also scanned. George then measures and records the turtle's length, width and girth. The purpose of all of this is to help researchers understand the general condition of the turtles, and to see whether they are growing well and getting enough food.
I have lived in Kona, Hawaii for 12 years, and seen hundreds of sea turtles. To see them up close like this, and to learn about the turtle tagging effort, was a unique and valuable experience. Sea turtles are one of the symbols of Hawaii, and it's important for this type of research to take place. Sea turtles are endangered the world over (you can see the IUCN status on our 
We left the boat launch at 10:45 and headed out to the FADs (Fish Aggregation Devices), as we usually do, but we hadn't even left Keauhou Bay when we came across a huge baitball of akule (bigeye scad). 
At one point, two large mahi mahi circled our boat and investigated Masa's lure. One of them grabbed it just underneath the boat, and leaped 15 feet out of the water! It's always exciting when a mahi mahi takes your lure and leaps so high up - the very behavior that led them to be called dolphin fish! That long, green fish ended up breaking off the hook, and making a clean get-away. It's odd that he managed to break off the hook, as it was on a 60lb wire leader, so we speculated on what other toothy fish (wahoo, barracuda or shark) was down there that may have done the job before him. We hung there for a while, but came up empty.
About two weeks ago, we came across a large plastic bag trailing a long monofilament line in the ocean. I had so much to write about that day (see Oct. 25 blog!), that I couldn't make room to discuss it. Near South Point on the Big Island, where a strong wind blows almost everyday, many shore fishermen use plastic garbage bags in a fishing technique called "kite fishing." They blow the bag up with air, tie it closed, and attach their fishing line to it. They then launch the improvised "kite" in a windy area and let the wind and water currents pull their fishing lines out to sea. In this way, they can get their fishing lines out to much deeper water where they have a chance of catching some offshore species like ahi (yellowfin or bigeye tunas), aku, ono (wahoo), mahi mahi and even marlin. For people who can't afford a boat, this may be their best chance of landing those excellent eating fish. On the other hand, predictably enough, plastic bags end up getting lost at sea. It's deplorable, but it happens.
By the end of the day, we had managed to catch a couple of good sized aku for our dinner out at UU buoy, and we headed home. It wasn't a great day for photography, so I'll just post a nice sunset, which is what we saw as we ended our day on the water off the Kona coast! Mahalo for checking out the blog!
