What we are seeing from the rafts, week by week through the season. The honest answer to “are the whales here yet?”
How to read this log. One entry a week while we are on the water, written by the crew the same day: how many whales we are seeing per trip, what they are doing (competition pods, mothers and calves, singing, breaching), where in the channel they are, and anything unusual. Before the season opens we post the first confirmed sighting of the year and the shore reports that lead up to it.
2026-09-10
Our 2026–27 season opens on December 15. The first humpbacks are usually reported off Maui in late October and November — mature males ahead of the rest — and numbers build through December into the February–March peak. We will log the first confirmed sighting of the season here, then post a short report every week of the season: what the pods were doing, where the calves are, and the odd surprise.
So you can judge any week’s report against the pattern.
First lone males reported, then daily shore sightings. A handful of whales in the channel on any given day.
Trips start on the 15th. Reliable sightings of several pods a trip; the first calves at the very end of the month.
Numbers climb every week. Competition pods, loud singing on the hydrophone, breaching most trips.
Peak. Dozens of whales in view on a good day, mothers and calves everywhere in the shallows.
Adults thin out; mothers and calves linger and relax. Often the closest, calmest encounters of the year.
Whales seen per trip, pods, calves and behaviours. Our crew log it after every departure; the weekly note here is the summary.
Daily trips from December 15 to April 12. Whale sighting guaranteed.
