Whales--Up Close and Personal!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did! Today we were actually held captive by three whales. Federal regulations in the basin between Maui, Molokai, and Lanai require a boat to cut their engines if a whale is within a hundred yards. This helps to avoid a whale being injured by a turning propeller. Just as we were ready to head back from our whale watching, three whales approached our boat and dove under it. We stopped and they turned around and circled our boat, diving under and surfacing right next to it.

We were so close, we got sprayed twice from their blow holes. I think they were having as much fun with us as we were with them. I hope the next boat load of watchers got as good a view. They had to wait an extra hour for us to return.

The pictures at the right show a behavior called a spy hop. The whale pokes its head up long enough to take a look around and then pops back down under the water.