HANALEI — About 150 dolphin-like “melon-head” whales appeared in Hanalei Bay Saturday morning in a tightly packed pod between the mouth of the Wai‘oli Stream and a beach known as Pine Trees. The 370-400 pound mammals circled most of the
HANALEI — About 150 dolphin-like “melon-head” whales appeared in Hanalei Bay Saturday morning in a tightly packed pod between the mouth of the Wai‘oli Stream and a beach known as Pine Trees.
The 370-400 pound mammals circled most of the morning in the west end of Hanalei Bay. Bathers on boogie boards, surfboards and kayaks paddled out to the pod, which came within 20 yards of the beach at times.
There were fears that the whales might beach along Hanalei Bay, though by the end of the day the pod was still circling offshore.
The melon-head whales are look and act like dolphins.
By mid-afternoon, the pod was spotted moving east, to an area patrolled by County of Kaua‘i lifeguards, at the Hanalei Pavilion county beach park, and at sundown were gathered closer to the Hanalei Pier.
Kaua‘i Police were on stand-by at the beach park at the end of the day with Jean Souza, the Kaua‘i liaison for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and a NOAA fisheries representative on the scene.
Beachgoers said underwater noises could be heard pulsing about every 15 seconds and the noise appeared to be affecting the pod of whales.
It is unknown if the sounds, or the unusual podding of the whales, had anything to do with RIMPAC exercises now being held in Hawaiian waters. A call to the Navy at their Pearl Harbor public affairs office was unreturned at press time.
A crowd of people followed the track of the melon-head whales during the day. The sighting occurred the same day the annual Tahiti Fete was held at Hanalei Pier.
Glenn Schot, a resident of Hanalei whose home has a view of the oceanfront, said the whales arrived early Saturday morning, and were clustered in a tight group. He estimated the pod was made up of 150-200 melon-head whales.
“That’s very unusual, the melon-head whales are deep-water divers, they like colder water,” Schot said.
He said “tons of people” went out on boogie boars and kayaks to see the melon-head whales up close, which caused the pod to break up.
He said local residents requested that county lifeguards go out to clear away people from the whale pod.
“They’re OK now,” Schot said in a call to The Garden Island made at the end of the day Saturday.
He estimated the whales were then about 100 yards offshore in 20 feet of water.
Chris Cook, Editor, can be reached at ccook@ pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 227).
Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) and dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
