Hawaii’s first humpback whale sighting captured by Oahu spearfisherman

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii’s first humpback whale sighting off the shores of East Oahu had one spearfisherman holding his breath longer than he may have wanted on Thursday.

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He’s known as Oahu Ryan, a spearfisherman and underwater videographer who has had his fair share of adventures under the sea – but this chance encounter would top them all.

“It’s got to be the most exciting thing that’s ever happened. It’s extremely rare not only to see a whale but to have a whale swim over your head,” stated Oahu Ryan.

Oahu Ryan was hunting 50 to 60 feet offshore when he noticed something coming his way.

“I did think at this point that it was a submarine because it wasn’t moving at all. They just like cruise. Its fins aren’t moving or anything. They just, like, kicked in and coasted,” said Ryan.

Experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuary confined what Ryan saw was a humpback whale. This year, none have been reported until now.

“It’s hard to understand if this is an early whale, a pre-season whale, or maybe one that’s been lingering around since this last season or perhaps it just kind of missed the season altogether,” said Eden Zang, Pacific Islands Region Sanctuary Sound Monitoring & Science Coordinator.

Humpback whales are typically in Hawaii to breed and calve from December through May. They will then go up to their high latitude feeding grounds in Alaska, per NOAA.

“It is unusual to see a humpback whale here in July,” stated Zang.

Ryan said he’s hunted countless times in the winter during peak whale season, but never saw one in a short dive until Thursday. However, the sighted humpback whale will not be here for much longer.

“There’s not enough food here to sustain them so they would need to go back up to their feeding grounds soon,” said Zang.

Researchers said there’s not enough data to determine this particular whale’s age, health or what it’s doing here.

“It does look like the animal doesn’t have a lot of barnacles on it. A lot of times when the whales first arrive to Hawaiian waters, they do have a lot more barnacles on them. The longer time they spend in our warm waters, those barnacles kind of die and slough off,” said Zang.

According to NOAA, federal laws require people to maintain a 100-yard distance and not approach humpback whales.

“In this case, it looks like the free diver was just underwater and got lucky that this whale cruised on by, which is totally fine,” stated Zang.

Oahu Ryan believes his experience was a one-in-a-billion chance happening.

“I just had like, shivers. I saw the eye,” said Oahu Ryan. “It changed its gaze and just looked at me and kept cruising.”