Whale & Wildlife Report | Jan 4-10, 2026
Highlights
Humpback Whales
Hydrophone Vocals
False Killer Whales
Whale Shark
Bottlenose Dolphins
Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins
Reef Manta Rays
Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
Whale & Wildlife Report | Jan 4-10, 2026
This week brought a mix of weather and a surge of humpbacks! We’re thrilled to see more blows in the area as the season keeps rolling. The surface activity was spectacular with some big chin slaps, breaches, and pec slapping. Did you know a humpback’s pectoral fins can stretch up to 16 feet long (roughly one third of their total body length)! We also encountered some very curious individuals who came over to say hello. These types of encounters are so special as we shut down our engines and the whales are in control. Inquisitive interactions are the ultimate highlight!
The multi-species trend continued this week with multiple humpback-bottlenose dolphin sightings! After a massive breach, a pod of bottlenose circled onto the scene with the whales trumpeting in response. Another group had just three dolphins with them, and reacted with lots of surface behavior and some tail slaps. And our favorite more friendly sighting- a pair of humpbacks cruising with a dolphin pod, swimming sideways, and rolling around. Getting to see these species interact within their shared environment is always a treat.
We said it before and we’ll say it again, wildlife can pop up at any moment! In the final homestretch of one of our tours, we were over the moon to find a whale shark!! It was such a beautiful encounter with one of the ocean’s most awe-inspiring species. To our greater surprise, we encountered the same whale shark on our tours the following day as well! We had some awesome looks and passes, soaking in every second of this rare sighting. Whale sharks are only spotted a handful of times each year, so our guests truly won the ocean lottery!
Humpbacks weren’t the only whales we spent time with, we also spotted false killer whales! It looked to be cluster 1, the same group that we saw last week. The whales were on the move but we had some nice looks and even saw a couple breaches from them! These toothed-whales are endangered species and a more infrequent sight, but we do have the potential to see them year-round off the Kona Coast.
The Hawaiian spinner dolphins and bottlenose dolphins were charming, but reef manta rays stole the spotlight! Numerous tours found squadrons (yes this is the correct term haha) of surface feeding manta rays. We got fantastic views, with the largest group including 10+ rays. When these gentle giants come together it’s pure ocean magic!
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.
