Humpback whales have a unique pigmentation pattern on the underside of their tail (flukes) much like a "thumbprint" that allows us to identify individual animals. Beth, who has been doing humpback whale photo-ID for over 30 years as part of Eye Of The Whale, has created an interactive catalog where she and others can post and try to match their fluke photo IDs as well as their "Best Of" pictures of humpbacks whales seen along the Kohala Coast (primarily between Blacks Point and Anaehoomalu Bay out to ~3nm). These pictures are not under permit or scientifically recorded as they are taken strictly "opportunistically" when whales have approached a vessel close enough or with the use of telephoto lenses, as these days with digital photography and image stabilizing telephoto lenses, much can be done to provide a somewhat identifiable fluke photo. All pictures are copyrighted by the author, please contact eotwhale@gmail.com for use request.

Note: Unless under Federal Permit, Please follow NOAA whale watching regulations.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center have created an educational website that explains the value of photo ID, how to take the pictures and what to look for when matching flukes. Instead of recreating all this information for our site, we ask you to please refer to their site as it will make using our catalog much more enjoyable.

An EXCELLENT source for matching flukes is Happywhale. Happywhale engages citizen scientists to identify individual marine mammals, for fun and for science. I highly recommend you submitting flukes to HW as can match ID’s from around the world including any in Hawaii.

Eye of the Whale Corner