LIHUE — It’s been a year of abundance. That’s according to Gerry Charlebois, a certified flight instructor who’s been zipping across Kauai’s skies for the last 24 years. He’s the first to admit he isn’t a marine biologist, but the view
LIHUE — It’s been a year of abundance.
That’s according to Gerry Charlebois, a certified flight instructor who’s been zipping across Kauai’s skies for the last 24 years.
He’s the first to admit he isn’t a marine biologist, but the view from above tells him there are more whales swimming and breaching around the garden isle this year.
“Absolutely,” the owner of Birds in Paradise said this week, after snapping some pictures of humpback whales after a recent flight and asked if there are more of them this year than past years. “By a huge number.”
One recent flight spotted 46 whales, he said. Impressive is when the males duel for a female’s attention. The splashes and crashes are epic.
While viewing has been terrific for many whale watchers, a hard number of how many are here can’t be nailed down. That’s because federal funding for counting projects has dried up in recent years, so an apples-to-apples number comparison can’t be dug up, said Jean Nishida Souza.
The Kauai programs coordinator for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary said the general number of whales around the island is 10,000.
“Yeah, there’s a lot out there,” said Souza, whose group leads volunteer whale watching counts from the shore.
But the secret for people who don’t have access to flying?
“I think too often people look for too short of time for a whale,” she said. “The best thing to do is stop, get out of the car and wait for 15 to 20 minutes and slowly scan the ocean.”
Federal and state laws prohibit the approach of a whale on the water within 100 yards. The boundary is 1,000 feet from the air.
