Aloha Maui Fans.
So okay, the quality of this video I uploaded to YouTube isn’t the greatest. It doesn’t look as bad on my PC, so I just need to consult a few folks when I get home on what I’m doing wrong.
Anyway, this was shot from the lanai of our room at the Sheraton. It was shot on Saturday, April 19th, which is technically 4 days after the official end of whale watching season (according to the Pacific Whale Foundation). Apparently, no one told this group of whales.
To set the scene a little bit, there were about 3 or 4 sail boats out on the water, including the Teralani 3, Kapulua Kai and the Trilogy VI. They were sailing around in the area, chasing individual whales here and there. All of a sudden, a group of four whales (possibly three adults and one calf) emerged and starting heading north from Black Rock (left to right from our view on the lanai). They all starting swimming in one direction as a pack, taking turns rising up to the surface of the water and blowing water from their spouts.
About 2:30 minutes into the video, two of them simultaneously raise up with their flukes (aka tales) and dive into the water. It was truly amazing.
I took a boat load of photos, too, which I’ll go through later in the week or next, as well as one or two other videos. For all the activity we’ve seen here in mid-April, we can’t wait for what we’ll see on our next trip in February.
Tags: whales
Kris – Thank you for sharing your video. The whales just look so graceful out there. I don’t think I’ve seen that many spend that long swimming along the surface like that.
Though you couldn’t hear the whales in the video, I still enjoyed the sound effects of the waves, breezes, and birds. I think I was transported to Kaanapali for a moment there. I also got a kick out of your “Oh, wow!” I must have said that many times while watching whales, too.
Thanks, I know I’ll be “listening” to this video for a while in the upcoming weeks, just for those wonderful sounds of Maui from our lanai.
As for the “Oh, wow!”, I normally end up focusing too much on just getting the shot right rather than enjoying the moment, so I’m normally quiet on these things. But when I saw both of those whales dive at the same time and their flukes going up together, I couldn’t hold back.
[...] That last photo of the group of whales was pretty thrilling to see in person. You can view the somewhat shaky video I was able to shoot and the story of how it happened over at my Maui blog. [...]