LIHUE — It was a rare sight for Cory Olores and the crew aboard a Captain Andy’s sunset cruise boat. On Sunday evening, the vessel caught sight of four orca killer whales about one mile off Port Allen. The sight
LIHUE — It was a rare sight for Cory Olores and the crew aboard a Captain Andy’s sunset cruise boat.
On Sunday evening, the vessel caught sight of four orca killer whales about one mile off Port Allen. The sight drew quite the reaction as the black and while mammals swam a few yards from the boat around 5:30 p.m.
“Oh my god,” said Olores, whose been working on the boat for 11 years about the reaction to his first killer whale sighting. “I kind of felt like a little kid again. Everyone was excited.”
Olores snapped a picture and took some video of the less-than-five minute encounter. Boatgoers cheered in the video as they watched the show.
Robin Baird, a research biologist for the Olympia, Washington-based Cascadia Research Collective, said he’s checking photos of the whales in a photo-ID catalog of killer whales to see if they match whales spotted here before.
But as far as a rare sighting, it was. Killer whales aren’t native to these waters.
“There is no resident population of killer whales in Hawaii — we’ve seen them once in our work off Kauai (and twice off the Big Island),” he wrote in an email.
Humpback whales are far more common. In fact, that season will be in full force soon, as the annual whale spotting events will run between January and March.
