Hawaii Whale Watching Season
Where today falls in the humpback season, computed rather than repeated.
Not yet. The season is still ahead.
Humpbacks reach Hawaii around the start of November, about 62 days from now. The heaviest months are still 123 days out, so a trip booked for this week is a trip with no whales in it. Boats run other tours until then.
Season: Nov 1 to Apr 30 · Peak: Jan 1 to Mar 31
Maui is the epicenter, and this is a Big Island site
Worth saying plainly, because most pages that answer this question are quietly selling you the island they are written on. The shallow water between Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi is where the density is, and if seeing whales is the reason for the trip, that is where to see them. What the Big Island has is a real fleet, a short run to deep water, and far fewer boats on the same whale.
The epicenter
Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi
The shallow, sheltered water of the Maui Nui basin is the population's main breeding ground and the densest whale water in the islands.
A real season
Kona and the Kohala coast
The leeward Big Island coast drops off fast, so boats are in whale water minutes after leaving the harbour. A December through April industry, and the calmest sea state of any island.
Whales, fewer boats
Kauaʻi
The north and south shores both hold whales through the season. Winter swell decides which side runs on any given day.
Whales, fewer boats
Oʻahu
Trips run out of Waianae and Kewalo Basin. Busy water, and the easiest whale trip to add to a trip that was not about whales.
Month by month
The season NOAA publishes, laid out. Boats run outside these months for other things; whale trips mostly do not.
| Month | What it is |
|---|---|
| November | Arriving, and building |
| December | Arriving, and building |
| January | Peak |
| February | Peak |
| March | Peak |
| April | Thinning out |
What nobody can tell you, including us
There is no live whale feed for Hawaii. Not here, not anywhere. Volcano alerts come from USGS instruments and surf comes from the National Weather Service, and both publish around the clock. Nothing publishes humpback numbers as they happen, because counting whales means people looking at the water.
The closest thing is NOAA's Sanctuary Ocean Count below, and it is three Saturday mornings a season, from shore, by volunteers. That is a fine way to track a population across decades and no way at all to tell you about this afternoon.
So this page tells you where the season is, which is knowable and stays true, and stops there. Anyone promising you a probability for a given day made it up.
NOAA's Sanctuary Ocean Count
Volunteers count from shore sites on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island and Kauaʻi, on the last Saturday of January, February and March. Maui is not in this one; the Pacific Whale Foundation runs its own Great Whale Count there. It is free, it is open to anyone, and it is the one morning a year you can watch whales and be useful at the same time.
- January 308:00 AM to 12:15 PM
- February 278:00 AM to 12:15 PM
- March 278:00 AM to 12:15 PM
These three are the sanctuary's standing schedule, worked out from its own rule. It confirms each season's dates in the autumn, so check its page before planning around them.
Tours & booking
Getting on the water
You can watch from shore for nothing. Lapakahi, Puʻu Kohola and the Kohala pull-offs all work, and in February you will see spouts from the highway. A boat buys you the part shore cannot: the hydrophone, and being close enough to hear it.
Kona trips typically run about $100 to $140 a person for two to three hours.
Most Kona operators run whale trips December through April only, and nobody can promise you a whale on a given morning. Several offer a free repeat trip if you see none, which is the honest version of a guarantee.
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Related
Season and peak months from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (NOAA). Count dates and times from the sanctuary's Ocean Count page. Season position is computed at page build from the Hawaii calendar; no part of this page is a sighting report.