Whale Watching with Kaha Loa
Your action-packed day watching whales starts at Mala Boat ramp in Lahaina at a time of your choosing. Morning trips departing between 6-10am or afternoon departing between 1-3pm depending on length of trip, availability, and your personal preference. Just choose morning or afternoon, and I will contact you to determine exactly what time you would like to start your excursion. Just bring your sense of adventure, and I have everything else that you will need. BYOB and BYOP (Picnic lunch) always encouraged.
Every year, as many as 12,000 North Pacific Humpback Whales make the 2,700 mile journey from Alaska to Hawaii. During the winter months, especially Dec 15th – April 15th, the sheltered waters of Maui County are like Mecca for these amazing animals. During February, the waters outside Lahaina have the highest concentration of North Pacific Humpbacks anywhere in the world!
There are several things that make whale watching in Maui especially amazing
The waters of the Maui Nui Basin (the area between Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai) are extremely sheltered, and this region is literally whale soup during peak season. There are whales everywhere you look. You can enjoy watching the antics of these magnificent creatures from relative comfort with typically very calm seas. Humpback Whales are the most surface active of all the whale species and they are even more rambunctious while here in Hawaii! To see a 90,000-pound animal jump entirely out of the water and witness the subsequent splash that displaces enough water to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool is something that you will remember forever. They are extremely intelligent and curious, and at times will swim right up to the boat to check us out. I love to turn the engines off, and listen to the sound of their breathing and trumpeting, which can be heard for hundreds of yards. We have even had singing whales under the boat, which caused the entire boat to vibrate like a speaker, and you could feel the song in your feet and hear it with amazing clarity. I also have a research-grade hydrophone (underwater microphone) to enables us to listen to all of their amazing sounds through the speakers of the boat!
I have a long pole mount for our Go-Pro that you can use to capture underwater footage of the whales. Video of humpbacks hanging out underneath the boat is simply spectacular! Kaha Loa’s catamaran design features two hulls to provide added stability for better photography. The best thing about whale watching with Kaha Loa is that every seat is a front row seat. You’ve got total freedom to move around to always catch the best view.
Another huge benefit of a custom whale watching charter with Kaha Loa is that you can also choose whether you’d like to spend all day chasing whale spouts and waving flippers, or scoot over to a snorkel spot and see some of the other amazing wildlife that inhabits our coral reefs. If put your head under water during whale season you can even hear the whale songs while snorkeling! The deeper that you are able to swim, the better you can hear them! My crew and I can give you pointers on how to get a little deeper and clear your ears to maximize sound quality.
Like all our trips aboard Kaha Loa, it’s YOUR boat! We can do whatever you want whenever you want. I look forward to helping you create the best day of your vacation!