Whale of a Time

Excuse the cheesy title...(I obviously didn't quite get the creative juices flowing adequately this morning), but I HAD to share an amazing experience from our trip to Maui.


Whales


Humpback whales in fact





During the summer they spend their time off the coast of Alaska, feasting on all the Pacific goodies up there. Then once the winter hits they migrate south to warmer waters to breed. They come to the shallow waters off Maui...up to 3,000 each winter and put on a display that will take your breath away.





{ a mother and newborn baby...Mom is spouting the water...you can see her dorsal fin and her baby's next to her}

 Now keep in mind that these things are huge...the newborn babies are 1.5 tons. The adults can be up to 50 or 60 feet and about as many tons. CRAZY BIG. And yet they can propel themselves out of the water at incredible speeds and produce a spectacular breach and dive back down again. And the wonderful thing is you can sit on the beach at this time of year and see this happen all the time. You can see them spout water out of their blowholes and slap their tails on the water. SHOWOFFS. But seriously, this is so much better than any aquarium or zoo you can imagine.




{these whales came up to us in the boat...they we so close you could have leaned over and touched then}


Another very cool thing is being able to hear the whales calling and singing to each other when you are swimming under the water. This is a video Matt took while he was snorkelling. He didn't film any whales but if you listen to the audio you will hear the whales singing.