Look Deeper
My friend Conor having a whale of a time!
Earlier this week, I took a few minutes to flip through some videos I took on my GoPro on a trip to Maui in mid-February. I was there primarily to speak at a high school and to support my friend Conor on a 190-mile ride around the island to raise money for Imua Family Services. Unfortunately, forecasted bad weather forced Conor to postpone the ride until after I left. The silver lining was that it actually ended up being a beautiful day and we now had a full day to do something else. So, we decided to rent a tandem kayak to watch whales as this is peak whale season on the Hawaiian islands. We got up early and headed out from a beach in Kihei on the south shore to watch the whales. At this time of year, there are ~15,000 whales in the water surrounding the islands.
As we paddled out, we could see dozens of kayakers and a few whale watching boats gathered in a couple of areas much farther out. All around us we started hearing the whoosh of air in and out of whale breathing at the surface. It was hard to tell which direction and how close the sound was while floating so close to the surface of the water as it’s not a great vantage point. It soon felt like we were totally surrounded by breathy beasts that we couldn’t see - yet.
I started scanning the horizon more diligently and every so often I would see a burst of mist from a whale that had just exhaled. I still couldn’t see the whale because of the waves and my eyes caught the motion too late. It turned into a ping pong of alternating “whale!” calls from Conor and me. Over time, I learned to relax my gaze and simply wait for the motion and lock in when it happened. Then the bodies of whales at the surface came into view in rhythmic patterns of three or four visits to the surface before their tails showed as they prepared to dive.
Conor taught me that a whale tail means the giant animal is taking a dive as their bodies become close to perpendicular to the surface of the water. As they plunge down, the tail follows out of the surface of the water, much like a human surface diver’s feet kick out of the water before going down. The steeper the angle of the tail, the longer the dive - up to 15 minutes before returning to the surface for air. Seeing the tails was special and it also meant we then had to look elsewhere for signs of whales as that particular one wouldn’t be at the surface again for quite some time.
Further out on the horizon, near where the whale watching boats were parked, we could occasionally see a dark mass above the surface followed by large splashes of water - a whale breach. These animals spend vast amounts of energy to propel their bodies out of the water to communicate with other whales over long distances. Conor and I both thought this was just an act of play as it looks like they’re just splashing around having a good time. It’s a fun idea to think about, but communication makes more sense given how taxing it must be to get tens of thousands of pounds above the water.
The large splashing sends sounds far and quickly under water to other whales. How the other whales know who is splashing and what it means is beyond me and the scope of this post. Regardless of the reason and mechanism for this form of communication, it’s an incredible sight to see the largest mammals on earth fling their entire bodyweight out of the water and splash back down over and over and over.
Conor and I didn’t paddle far enough out to see a breach up close, but we did have the gift of a mother and calf whale who decided to seemingly park themselves at the surface a couple hundred feet from us. It was as if they were waiting for us to paddle closer so we could see their beauty and size at a distance where scale becomes more real. While in reality they were probably just resting and breathing and could not have cared less about us humans in a yellow plastic boat, it was magical and I will never forget it. We stopped about 30 feet from the pair and watched as they took giant breaths of air that sounded like a wind tunnel before diving down. We were so close you could see the mother whale’s blowhole open and close before submerging.
Whales, like humans, are social creatures and do a lot of communicating in a variety of forms. They’re not texting or stuck on TikTok, but have their own unique ways of staying connected. Some of their communication comes through splashes, some through self-produced sounds (think Dory in Finding Nemo). I don’t know much about whale songs or how it works, but it’s fascinating to think that these giant water-dwelling mammals can communicate underwater to other giant water-dwelling mammals to help find each other, find food, and socialize. You can’t hear any of their songs from above the water, but Conor told me if you were to stick your head under water, you could hear it. I didn’t give this a try as I was in a kayak and risked tipping it (but keep reading).
What I did do was stick my GoPro under the water for a few seconds in an offhand burst of creative energy as we were paddling back to shore after we started to crisp in the Hawaiian sun. I thought this would be a cool way to view the incredibly clear water once I returned home and be fun. We love fun!
Just a few days ago, I watched the video for the first time. Not only is the water crystal clear and beautiful, but the sound was unbelievable. There is so much noise under the surface of the water from these thousands of whales around us that was inaudible from our kayak but is so clear right there from the camera’s microphone. At first I thought I was hearing things or that it was just moving water in the mic, but on further listens it’s obvious that it’s coming from whales. How. Cool. Is. That.
There is always more going on with people, places, and situations than we think. It takes going a bit deeper and exploring, asking questions, and actually taking the time and energy to care a little about those things to peel back a layer and see all there is to see (or dipping your GoPro in the water and seeing what happens). I discovered all the activity under the water totally by accident and after I had traveled 5,000 miles home. It wasn’t intentional. But a simple step off the beaten path, a creative twist, resulted in an awesome realization. All it takes is a little bit of awareness and presence with what you’re doing to see more and experience a richer life - even in the seemingly dullest of situations.
It also only takes a simple retreat into the cocoon of comfort that our technology and screens provide to miss these simple yet amazing parts of life that can go totally unnoticed. I didn’t take my phone out once during that kayak trip (except in the very beginning, where the top photo is from). Sure, I missed some great photo opportunities (and opportunites to throw my phone in the ocean - pros and cons to that one), but it meant that I was engaged with my senses and have more vivid memories from this experience than I would have had I broken my focus to take my phone out and grab a photo or video, maybe having seen a missed notification or text in the process.
I encourage you to take a small step to be present and engaged with something - anything - you have to do today. Maybe it’s writing an email, playing with your dog, or vacuuming the house. There is beauty in the benign, you just have to find it, and look a bit deeper. Send along what you did and how it felt in an email or leave a comment - I’d love to hear!
Thank you for reading, see you next time! Watch the video of the whale sounds below.
-Ben Grannis
#EyesUp
