Nearly 500 humpback whales seen from Big Island shores during first of 3 ocean counts

Hundreds of volunteers watching Saturday from shores throughout the Hawaiian Islands gathered data during the first of three humpback whale counts scheduled in 2025.

A total of 429 volunteers participated in the Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count on Maui and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s Ocean Count on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Molokaʻi and Hawai‘i Island.

This is the seventh year that the organizations’ counts are coordinated on the same days, ensuring the data from all the main Hawaiian Islands are collected simultaneously.

On the islands of Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Molokaʻi and Hawai‘i, volunteers collected data from 30 sites. A total of 183 whales were observed between 10 and 10:15 a.m.

On Maui and Lānaʻi, volunteers collected data from 11 sites during 15-minute intervals between 8:30 and 11:50 a.m. A total of 113 whales were observed between 10 and 10:15 a.m.

On Kaua‘i, the total number of whales observed during the day’s count was 440. On O‘ahu the total was 399, on Molokaʻi the total was 87 and the total on the Big Island was 493.

The total number for the Great Whale Count on Maui was 702, for a grand total of 2,121 throughout the state. This number may represent duplicate sightings of the same whale by different observers, or the same whale at different time periods or different locations throughout the day.

Data collected during the Sanctuary Ocean Count and Great Whale Count combined with other research efforts can help reveal trends in humpback whale occurrence within and amongst whale seasons.

Ocean Count site leaders tally humpback whale sightings and document the animals’ surface behavior during the survey, which provides a snapshot of humpback whales’ activity.

The Great Whale Count by Pacific Whale Foundation had site leaders count whales from shore as part of a long-term survey of humpback whales in Hawai’i, with 12 survey sites along the shoreline of Maui and a site on the shoreline of Lānaʻi.

Both counts take place three times during peak whale season annually on the last Saturday in January, February and March.

Preliminary data detailing Sanctuary Ocean Count whale sightings by site location are available at oceancount.org/resources. Additional information is available on the sanctuary’s website at hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov.

The Pacific Whale Foundation’s Great Whale Count data may be found here with additional information at mauiwhalefestival.org.