HONOLULU (KHON2) — Some visitors from Idaho had a once-in-a-lifetime experience off Maui when their whale watching tour was mugged by two humpbacks on Friday, Jan. 2.
The giant creatures came within feet of their vessel. The Bunce family has been on whale watching tours before, but nothing quite compares to the experience they had on Friday off Kihei.
“Am I in a dream? Is this is this actually happening?” said Kaiden Bunce. “Is this an actual whale?”
“I would say the encounter probably lasted five minutes, and it was like, this can’t get any better, and then they come up again. So, they came up like three or four times and stuck their noses out of the water right next to us. It was amazing,” Lisa Bunce said.
KHON2 asked the family if the experience was terrifying or exhilarating.
“It was exhilarating. I mean, everyone was just screaming,” Lisa said.
“Yeah, I think it was a little bit of both,” Kevin Bunce said. “There was one point where they were underwater, and I had my phone under the water film, videoing them, and the whale just turned and started coming right towards me.”
Experts with the Pacific Whale Foundation said this behavior is usually seen in juvenile male humpbacks — their chief scientist said it is a prime example of what they call mugging.
“That term mugging is related to the approach limits and the inability to maneuver your vessel when a whale approaches and is within 100 yards here in Hawaii,” Currie said, “and so they’re holding the vessel hostage in a sense, and so they’re getting mugged. These are two individual whales that are just being curious.”
“Knowing that, like, they’re, they’re not necessarily dangerous as per se, but they are very big and could, and a lot of things could happen,” Kevin said. “So I was being, I was mostly thinking about my phone. I didn’t want to lose it, and I was just a little bit intimidated, and then he just came up right in front of u,s and it was just, yeah, amazing. Experience of a lifetime, for sure.”
Peak humpback whale season in Hawaii is typically January to March; click here for more information.