This Sunday Trilogy celebrated Mother’s Day by conducting a Blue’Aina cleanup. The corporate sponsor was Trilogy who donated $500 to the Whale Trust Maui and breakfast and lunch was provided by Cool Cat Cafe. The rainy, stormy weather that has been hanging around Maui held off on Sunday, which we greatly appreciated. Though surfers gleefully seized the south swell by riding waves all along the west side, visibility was not clear or safe enough for snorkeling. Murky water not only prevents us from being able to see trash along the reef, it prevents us from seeing sharks. We may have been unable to get into the water to conduct an underwater reef cleanup, but there was plenty of meaningful work to do on land.

Groups of volunteers set out in all directions to collect trash like youngsters on a massive Easter egg hunt. Windy weather seemed to have scattered litter all over Lahaina with reckless abandon. Mitigating the damage, we filled multiple bags with refuse. The smallest in size but most prevalent offender had to be the nearly 100 cigarette butts we found sprinkled all throughout town, and sadly there were plenty more.

After the land-based cleanup, we boarded Trilogy I and harnessed the wind. The power of the sea can be quite humbling and Sunday was no exception. The sails roared as they initially filled with a healthy dose of wind and again when tacking or jibing. We enjoyed a full two hours of sailing while the waves made for quite the ride.

Whale Trust Program Coordinator Emily Machernis captivated us as she brought us up to speed on their current humpback whale songs research. Newly discovered “mystery sounds” could potentially be another form of whale communication and after a decade of research, the Whale Trust published a scientific paper discussing the findings here: “Low frequency, ca. 40 Hz, pulse trains recorded in the humpback whale assembly in Hawaii,” by James D. Darling.

Whale Trust Maui was founded in 2001 and is dedicated to scientific research and public awareness of whales and their environment. Every year Whale Trust Maui hosts their largest event, Whale Tales where participants may lean from guest speakers such as top international scientists, photographers, filmmakers, and conservationists, during expos, benefit whale watches and ocean activities. We are all looking forward to the next whale season and to continue to support Whale Trust Maui.