PHOTO COURTESY OF KEN HELD A humpback whale calf with wounds that appeared to have been caused by the propeller of a small boat traveling at high speed was spotted Monday off Maui.

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Whale calf spotted
with wounds from
boat propeller

A humpback whale calf that was slashed by a boat propeller was spotted off Maui on Monday by the crew of a whale watch boat.

The injured calf was swimming with its mother about a mile and a half off the coast of Puamana, south of Lahaina, when it was sighted from the Pacific Whale Foundation's Ocean Explorer. The whale had multiple cuts down its back, about 4 inches apart.

"It was not a fresh wound; there was no blood trailing in the water, and there were no sharks nearby," said Ocean Explorer Capt. Chris Nesbitt. "It was swimming slow but seemed to be swimming and moving OK." He said there were also injuries along the whale's left front side, but its flukes and tail were not injured.

After observing the injuries from about 20 yards' distance, Nesbitt theorized that the calf was slashed by propellers of a smaller boat moving at a high rate of speed.

The Pacific Whale Foundation will use the young whale's plight to underscore the annual effort to keep boaters and tour vessel operators vigilant in the humpback breeding grounds off West Maui.

A meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Ocean Discovery Center at Maalaea harbor to review techniques for handling boats around whales, avoiding collisions and minimizing disturbance to the animals. The meeting will also address what to do when collisions occur and how to report them.