What are the whales that Im seeing in Maui?
The whales are humpback whales, the fifth largest of the world’s whales. There are distinct populations of humpback whales in all of the world’s ocean basins. The population that comes to Maui spends summers feeding in the cool waters of the North Pacific in the nearshore waters of Southeast Alaska and through the Aleutian Islands into the Chukchi sea. They are also found as far south as the Farallon Islands off California. In autumn, the whales migrate to warm water areas near the equator to mate and give birth. These areas include Hawaii, the islands south of Tokyo (Ogasawara and Okinawa Islands), the Commonwealth of the Northern Marinas, and the Soccoro Islands of Mexico. About 60% of these North Pacific humpback whales come to Hawaii.
