A Spooky Surprise | Our First Humpback Whale!
PC: Olivia Miller
A Spooky Surprise — Our First Humpback Whale | Oct 30, 2025
A spooky surprise the day before Halloween: our first humpback whale this season! Captain Andrew, Naturalist Olivia, and our guests set out on our 8:30 AM pelagic whale watching tour, searching for Kona’s year-round whales and dolphins. This time of year offers some of the best whale watching along the Kona Coast, with the added excitement of potential spotting early season humpbacks!
After spending time with two pods of short-finned pilot whales offshore, we cruised north along the coastline near Kahalu’u Beach Park. Suddenly, a juvenile humpback surprised us with a spectacular cartwheel! The whale surfaced several times for breaths, giving everyone on board excellent views during each appearance.
The encounter ended as the whale arched its back for a deep dive, gracefully lifting its flukes out of the water. Flukes are like fingerprints for humpback identification! Naturalist Olivia captured photos to submit to Happywhale, hoping for an ID match or potentially to add a new whale to their database.
Though this may be an early sighting, it’s a thrilling preview of the winter season ahead. The annual humpback migration brings thousands of whales to Hawaiian waters for birthing and breeding. We can’t wait to see surface-active whales, mom-and-calf pairs, and large humpback gatherings in the coming months!
Our official 2.5–3 hour humpback whale watching tours begin December 13th, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more early arrivals on our 3-4 hour pelagic whale watching tours until then!
PC: Olivia Miller
PC: Olivia Miller
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