You’ll see advertisements for whale watching all over Kona (mostly on Alii drive where the tourists hang out). The guidebook that I’ve highly recommended, “Hawaii, The Big Island Revealed” put out by Wizard Publications recommends a couple of professionals. I think the main difference between the ones in the guidebook and the ones on the street (besides prices) is that the two recommended in the book go farther, and do it all the time. Their experience means you have a better chance of seeing whales.

We went with Captain Tom of Living Ocean Adventures. He had a smaller boat than the other recommendation in the book, only taking out six people at at time. The other recommendation from the book takes out up to 40 but is about 10 bucks cheaper. In general you get about 3.5 hours out on the water.

The first thing we saw as we pulled out of the marina was a pod of spinner dolphins. They didn’t jump or play for us, but it was still a thrill to see them skimming along. These creatures are works of art; sleek, efficient and totally at home in their environment. (Click on the pictures for larger image.)

As for the whales, Humpbacks are in Hawaii from sometime in December to late March. Captain Tom advised that January 15 to about March 15 is the best time. While trying to figure out his prices, I got rather confused about whether it was worth paying extra to throw fishing lines out. After two phone calls and back and forth, I never really understood just what we were paying for but I thought we were paying an extra 100 dollars to fish. Turns out (I think) we were paying for a private charter so there were only us four on board.

As for the fishing, I’d advise against paying extra for it, if fishing is the goal. For one, I think the captain probably throws the lines out anyway, at least during the time the boat isn’t in the whale sanctuary. For two, if you really want to fish, I suspect the best way to do it is to troll specific waters where your chances are better. As with any fishing, there are always favorite places and the fisherman know and check these places. The humpbacks are not actively feeding in Hawaii–they are there to birth their calves, so don’t assume that where they are, so are the fish! And last, but not least, if you really want to fish, go to the marina FIRST and check to see how many of the boats have flags flying. Every time a fish was caught on a particular outing, a small, colored flag is raised on the boat and left until the next trip out–the major fishes each have a specific colored flag! If a lot of flags are flying, you probably have a better chance of catching something. On the day we went, I think I counted maybe four flags–and there were a LOT of boats.

Fishing aside, there were specific bonuses in going with Living Ocean Adventures. Captain Tom spends a great deal of time training you how to spot the whales. The most important lesson is that once the whales dive, they stay down about 7 to 9 minutes. This helps tremendously when you are trying to spot them, and we used these lessons later when we spotted whales from the shoreline. As with any wildlife, patience is key.

Captain Tom covered the obvious lessons, which included watching for the “blow,” watching for more than one whale, and watching for a baby whale. He discussed swimming patterns such as “blow, back/fin and then tail” before the whale dove again. Of course, as with all animals, the whales do not follow this pattern all the time, but it’s a good rule of thumb.
	Out on the boat, we did not get to see the whales “playing” but we were well-educated enough that we knew to look for “tail slaps” and “breaching.” From the shore on our last day, a whale gave us three tail slaps visible with the naked eye.

During a drive up the coast past Kohala, at the Lapakahi State Historical Park we saw whales breaching and tail slapping galore. The groups were far enough offshore that we had to use binoculars most of the time. Only one group was close enough to the shore for us to watch with the naked eye although we could see the blows all over without the binoculars.

As Captain Tom had told us, once one group started an activity, other groups in the area mimicked the actions. When the tail slapping started, it seemed to bounce from one group to another. The breaching (where the whales jump up out of the water and spash didn’t catch on with the whales closest to shore. I’m sure they had their reasons.

Watching the whales was a truly wondrous experience. It is expensive. I would love to do it again–but the price was about 75 per person (without the fishing or whatever). So it isn’t something I could do every day. But the call of something so intriguing, the chance to watch something so full of life–would be hard to resist.