Whale & Wildlife Report | Feb 22-28, 2026
Highlights
Humpback Whales
Short-Finned Pilot Whales
Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins
Pantropical Spotted Dolphins
Bottlenose Dolphins
Hawaiian Monk Seal
Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
Tiger Shark
Reef Manta Rays
Spotted Eagle Ray
Whale & Wildlife Report | Feb 22-28, 2026
What a special end to February with lots of humpback whales, adorable calves, fascinating id matches, short-finned pilot whales, first-time whale watchers, and a surprise marriage proposal onboard! We love sharing whale and wildlife encounters with our guests — you bring the joy.
Let’s talk about one of the coolest parts of the humpback season: making id matches for the whales we’re watching! Through Happywhale, our team made some pretty interesting matches. Here are the highlights:
CRC-22145 (2023 calf of “Guardian”, a Salish Sea summer resident)
CRC-20780 (a whale documented off the coast of California)
HW-MN0442823 (a whale documented off the coast of Russia)
HW-MN0442823 (2025 calf of “Graze”, a Salish Sea summer resident)
HW-MN0522834 (a whale documented off the coast of Mexico)
We had the pleasure of adding these winter sightings to Happywhale’s database, further documenting the travels of these ocean giants. Let’s go citizen science!
Lots of bouncing babies this week! Our tours encountered humpback mom and calf pairs up and down the Kona Coast. We saw calves sticking close to mom, touching pec fins and displaying their precious bond. More energetic babes were breaching, head lunging, and tail slapping, with a few very curious individuals taking an interest in us. It was fun to see bottlenose dolphins in the mix as well - perhaps eager to say hello to the newest generation of humpbacks too!
What could spice up our humpback tours even more? Short-finned pilot whales! We were thrilled to have multiple encounters with this year-round species. Offshore, pods were logging and traveling allowing everyone to get great looks. The coolest sighting though was a pod of pilot whales interacting with humpbacks! This was the first time we’ve seen these two together this season and the humpbacks seemed fairly welcome to the interaction, twirling with the pilots on the surface. So awesome!
Our tours enjoyed lots of other marine species from acrobatic dolphins to sharks to activity around the fish pens with Hawaiian monk seals. Our favorite find this week? A squadron of 15-20 reef manta rays surface feeding in a current line! We had to press pause on the humpbacks to check out this impressive gathering over the reef.
Mahalo to Mother Nature for another wild week on the water. March is here and we’re ready to make the most of the final month of our humpback season!
Humpback flukes | PC: Olivia Miller
Interested in experiencing our tours?
Hawaiian Adventure’s tours provide the best opportunity to explore the Kona Coast and the wildlife beneath the waves.
If you’ve been on other tours, you’ll appreciate the Hawaiian Adventures difference.
