It's early morning. The sun has climbed over Haleakala and turned Maalaea Bay into a dazzle of blue reflecting the sky. In less than 50 feet of water near the harbor, young and old singers fill the ocean with an array of sound ranging from plaintive high-pitched "ee-ups" to gruff basso "uhhs."
At this moment, there sounds as if a whale calf wants breakfast. Mom answers with an "oh-oo," and there are no more complaints. "Arrgh," says a close-by kohola. "Ah-ump," replies another.
This is peak season for humpback whales in Maui waters. Last weekend, Pacific Whale Foundation volunteers recorded 1,208 sightings of whales during a short 3 hours, 20 minutes. Of those, 149 were calves.
"Er-eep," says a whale against a backdrop of at least two singers farther out in the bay. "Ah-eep," says a calf. Off in the distance, there's a low-pitched grumbling sound.
The sounds are familiar to anyone who has spent much time on or in the ocean around Maui during the winter. Na mele o kohola can be heard from miles away under and above the surface.
The songs are also being heard - in real time - 3,000 feet up the side of Haleakala. Thank Dan Sythe. Each year, he installs an underwater microphone hooked to a tiny transmitter. The radio signals go to a receiver hooked to the Internet. Since 2000, whalesong.net has been Sythe's passion and pleasure. Not to mention a lot of work.
"Ah, uuurp" says a whale. The call is answered by a minor key "eeeee" that is close to being a whistle. A dolphin getting into the act? "Yah-ooo," says a whale and is answered with a "ooo-up." Calf and mother? Calf and guardian auntie?
Female kohola come to Hawaii to mate and give birth. When the smaller ones arrive, mother and child are often accompanied by another female or sometimes a bachelor. Auntie and uncle protect the youngster from toothy predators. Calves are the only humpbacks who eat in Hawaiian waters, growing strong on a diet of rich milk produced by their mothers. Adults rely on sifting tiny sea creatures through their baleen in the far North Pacific to gain weight and strength for the 2,000-mile swim to Hawaii.
"I saw my first humpback whale from Makena Beach on Maui in 1969," Sythe notes on the whalesong.net Web site. "As a young man I volunteered as a radio engineer and technical consultant to groups working to end commercial whaling.
"When I heard my first humpback whale sing, from Kamaole Beach in the early '90s, I became enthralled by the idea of bringing these beautiful sounds to the shore where people could hear them."
It hasn't been easy.
"The hydrophone cable is occasionally rubbing against the anchor line and causing some noise. If it persists, we will go to the hydrophone and attempt to resolve it," Sythe said. That may have been the cause of the noise on whalesong.net Tuesday night. The krumping sound was much less prevalent the next morning.
This time of year na mele o kohola courses through the water around the islands. Listening can be as much of a thrill as seeing one breach. A little experience in the underwater world can fuel mental pictures of the leviathans. How the songs relate to kohola life is the stuff of poetic imagination.
Although there is only one recorded instance when Hawaiians captured a humpback, the whales have been part of the culture, probably since the first Polynesians arrived.
One of the whales has approached the hydrophone, saying "hah-eep." With their rising inflection, all of the songs sound as if they are questions. The calf is back with its plaintive interrogation.
Kamehameha the Great surely selected with care the location of the heiau at Kawaihae on the island of Hawaii. He dedicated the temple to his war god, Ku-kaili-moku, an important step toward his later conquests. The location, which became part of the heiau's name, was Pu'u Kohola, or whale hill.
Visit the ocean, take a whale tour, stand on shore to watch for the kohola who rear from the depths. And, listen. On and in the water, you need only your ears.
But there is something magical about the marriage of nature and technology that allows you to hear songs from the deep while sitting in front of a glowing computer screen anywhere in the world.
Dan Sythe and whalesong.net make it possible.
"Oh-oo," sings a whale against the background of a churning boat propeller.
* Ron Youngblood is a former staff writer for The Maui News. His e-mail address is writer@clearwire.net.
