The Whales Are Here!
The whales are here. That's what the newspaper said. Having just moved to the island this was one of the things I had looked forward to doing, whale watching. But where to find them was my question. I decided to go to the experts. The paper said the Marine Society or NOAA, for short, wanted volunteers to count whales. They station volunteers at various points around the island to count whales each month. This was perfect. I was in the hands of experts while volunteering. I quickly signed up and soon found myself sitting with a group of people at sunrise off Waimanalo Beach with my whale counting material in hand, and my trusty whale watching guide leading me to what was to be truly exciting experience. Four hours later of tireless whale counting my experience ended. I counted exactly zero whales. I can safely say there are no whales off Waimanalo. Apparently, it's just as important to get the count of zero in the books so they know where the whales are and are not. They are not at Waimanalo.
I'm no quitter, I wasn't going to let this minor set back get me down. I decided I didn't need the experts, I needed the pros. A whale watching tour. Of course, I should have thought of that in the first place. They have boats and ships that actually go out to the whales. I booked a ticket on the Star of Honolulu which goes out along the Waikiki coast up to Diamond Head and back to Honolulu Harbor. After boarding I quickly bolted out of the main dinning area where we were all packed in like sheep to skip listening to the Captain's annoucements and headed up to the top observation deck. As the ship pulled out to sea it was clear we were in for a bumpy ride or should I say a rollar coaster ride. Two and a half hours later I still hadn't seen one single whale. What I did see was a ship-load of sea sick tourists. I won't go into details but let's say I had plenty of elbow room at the buffet line. Well, last announcement, the Captain said it was time to head in. I can say I enjoyed the beautiful coastline and a fabulous buffet so the cruise was worth my money even if I came up empty handed finding a whale. Suddenly, a blow of air right off the bow, then another. There were whales out there. Son of a gun. Well, that was all I saw, two blows of whale snot. At least it was something.
I decided I had been going about this all wrong. Too high tech. So I decided to just asked a local, where can I find the whales? The answer, the Blow Hole off the south shore. So I got in the car and to the Blow Hole it was. I pulled in and sure enough there they were. Pods of them. I not only saw whale snot but I got to see whales actually coming out of the water and even slapping fins. Over the course of two hours I must have seen at least 25 whales. I went back the next day, same thing. More whales. This is it, where the whales are.
I decided to wrap up my pursuit of the ultimate whale quest and at least give the north shore a try. I headed up to Laie Point. A beautiful spot, surely there would be whales there. There wasn't but the fishermen there told my friend that they see pods of whales come by twice a day, morning and evening. We were there at the wrong time. So it might be a good spot. The beauty of the Point is worth the trip alone. Thus ends my whale blog. Maybe next I'll look for sea turtles. Now where do those little buggers hang out?
