Boat-bumping whale
was courting

The male was vying for a nearby
female whale, an expert says

---

By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> A federal enforcement officer said that the March 15 incident involving a whale bumping a whale-watching vessel and lifting it several inches was "pretty unbelievable."

The double-deck catamaran Ocean Spirit, carrying 96 passengers, was on a morning whale-watching cruise several miles out of Maalaea Harbor when a humpback lifted the right stern of the vessel.

The 65-foot vessel, which had been in neutral, moved out of the area and the whale followed it for about 300 yards.

Paul Newman, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries enforcement, said he had never heard of anything like it.

Newman said there was no violation of laws protecting marine mammals because the boat did not intend to get that close to the whale.

Newman said based on a description, he believes the male whales were competing for the attention of a female whale and one of them became aggressive.

"Males do anything to get to the females," Newman said.

Newman said he didn't know why the whale followed the boat for nearly a quarter mile after the bump.

"For some reason, the whale did not like the boat," he said.

None of the crew had photographs identifying the fluke markings on the whale, Newman said.

Several years ago, boaters encountered an aggressive whale charging and swimming under vessels, said whale researcher Deborah Glockner-Ferrari.

She said she was unable to obtain photographs to identify the aggressive whale.