LIHUE — Ellen Johnston of Kansas does not have any oceans, let alone whales.
“We saw a blow while parking the car,” Johnston said Saturday when she joined the Ocean Count group of a dozen volunteers demonstrating her grasp of the terminology used in the Sanctuary Ocean Count at the Ahukini State Recreational Pier site.
“We saw one while we were in the helicopter coming in for the landing,” said Taylor Hall, one of the trio in Johnston’s group.
The sightings concided with the findings of the Ahukini site group led by Marga Goosen and Lani Tamanaha-Broadbent, Goosen befriending the Kansas visitors and inviting them to the count following a helicopter tour of the island.
Ahukini is one of 53 sites across the main Hawaiian Islands where volunteers peered oceanward looking for whales in the first Sanctuary Ocean Count coordinated by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and the Great Whale Count (Maui only) by the Pacific Whale Foundation.
A total of 279 whale sightings were recorded during the 8:30 to 8:45 a.m. time period, representing the most of any time period throughout the day’s count. At Ahukini, weather conditions were perfect for viewing whale and marine animal behavior, with clear and sunny skies, low wind and calm seas, the same conditions that created the Kauai Hoe Wa‘a racing canoes punctuating the scene.
“We had a lot of activity between that time period,” Goosen said. “It’s more than what happened last year where we had no sightings.”
During the four-hour count period, observers also noted sightings of turtles, sea birds, flying fish and some spotted/spinner dolphins, said Cindy Among-Serrao of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
“Some volunteers even saw an endangered Hawaiian monk seal at a handful of sites,” Among-Serrao said.
The Sanctuary Ocean Count Saturday was the first of three counts, and the second year the shoreline-based count was conducted on the same date, ensuring the data from all the main Hawaiian Islands was collected simultaneously.
“What is going on?” asked Alicia Viquelia, a tour bus operator, who stopped with her busload of visitors to watch.
Ocean Count promotes public awareness about humpback whales, including whale education, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, and shore-based whale-watching opportunities.
Ocean Count volunteers tally humpback whale sightings and document the animals’ surface behavior, such as blows, breaching and tail slaps, during the survey period that starts at 8 a.m. and runs through 12:15 p.m. on the final Saturdays of January, February and March, coinciding with the height of the period humpback whales are in Hawaiian waters.
Count data provides a snapshot of humpback whale activity from the shorelines of Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii Island.
Volunteers for the Feb. 29 and March 28 counts are being registered online at www.oceancount.org.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
