#Kohola

Kapa‘a Beach Park received the most votes with 158. It was followed by Hualālai (Four Seasons Resort) with 142, Punalu‘u Black Sand Beach Park with 123 votes, Hawaiian Paradise Park with 115 and Old Coast Guard Road rounded out the top 5 with 110 votes.

With more whales in the water, that means more chances to spot them while they’re here, especially during the peak humpback season from January through March.

Volunteers must register in advance, and participation is limited for each Sanctuary Ocean Count site.

Two key best practices are for vessel operators to keep a sharp eye out for Koholā and reduce vessel speeds, as both have been shown to reduce the risk of hitting a whale, especially calves, which are particularly susceptible to vessel strikes.

“Based on recordings of whale song, our research reveals that nearly the entire Hawaiian archipelago is visited by humpback whales during the winter and early spring months,” says the paper’s lead author Marc Lammers, research ecologist with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “We documented an abundance of koholā in Papahānaumokuākea.”

On Wednesday, Jan. 26, a yearling humpback whale entangled in at least 140 feet of line, with a buoy trailing about 60 feet behind, was freed in waters off Ukumehame, Maui, by a team led by responders trained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.