Whale Watch Photos (2026)
- A Wandering Doc
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Below are the results of the 2026 whale watch. Feedback was overwhelming positive which makes me happy since I organized a group close to 50 in numbers and did not want to disappoint.
This year I did something slightly different. During our pre-cruise meeting at the best Western, I had people take a second name tag and write any rideshare event they were looking for (example- “whale watch” or “monkeypod”).. This way, most people paired up at the best Western yacht Harbor before embarkation. As such, we did not end up with gobs of people meeting in billboards on the morning of the whale watch because most already knew who they were ride sharing with (or they were going on their own). There are some logistics to ride share on Maui, so if interested in this whale watch as a future activity be sure to take peak my 11 page whale watch information sheet found here-
I’m haply to report that while our whales were a bit sleepy this year (we were only treated to one far distance breach), they showed up strong in numbers. I counted over 30 whales in our two hour event. I videoed five decent tails, we had an up close logging (mom holding up a calf), but most important we had an official MUGGiNG- which is much more rare than a common breach from whales in the soup.
A mugging happens when a whale gets extremely close to the boat, close enough that all engines are turned off until the whales swim away. We had a mom and calf 40 feet off the bow and you can actually hear mom exhale on the video.
I was able to capture several tails which is always a highlight. Unfortunately when you get a good tail, that means the whale is going to dive deep and you’re not likely to see them for 20 minutes or so. But tails are important as the underside of the fluke is unique and these photos are what we use for primary identification.
Logging happens when mom and baby just float at the surface. In this photo mom is actually holding baby up at the surface (lazy baby ha)
And special thanks to my amazong Maui neighbors for sharing a few beverages afterward and giving me a lift back to the ship. It’s always a better day when it ends with a visit from Ty and Karen (and my phone in my possession- you may remember from the 2024 trip details I left my phone in their car when returning to the ship)
