HONOLULU (KHON2) — At about halfway through Hawaii’s whale season, NOAA said the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary reports many mothers have given birth to their calves here.

We spoke to a captain who notices an increase as well. “We’ve been seeing so many in town. And like I said, they may be a mile, anywhere from a quarter mile to a mile off the shore. So, we’ve been seeing so many off the shore, Waikiki, all the way from Diamond Head to here at Kewalo, just tons of whales out there very active. Mothers teaching their calves, how to breach, how to dive down how to flap their tail. So, it’s been pretty cool,” said living ocean tour guide Abrien Aguirre.

They said as the calves get older, they become more active “because the calves really start learning how to be whales. So, they’ll be breaching more they’ll be tail slaps. So, we anticipate it being way more active and just way more spectacular.”

With the whale activity anticipated to pick up, we spoke to the Coast Guard to see how they monitor boats. They say their main mission is to inform people on the water about the whales to prevent having to give violations. “We’ll get air support up too so if you guys see the Coast Guard hilo up, helicopter up, they’re working with us as well, because there’ll be a little to see if there’s any violations for my aerial point of view, bird’s eye view and really vector us into where we need to go,” said Eric Lauginiger, U.S. Coast Guard Chief maritime enforcement specialist.

The U.S. Coast Guard is out on the water for about 70 hours a month and so far, they’ve done 16 boardings, given out 4 warnings and no violations. However, they are still on high alert and remind residents to call NOAA if a whale is in danger.