Greetings From Hawaii

One of our members has a friend in Hawaii who sent us this You-Tube taken in Hawaii on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated.
The following explanatory note came with the video ---

Aloha Friends:

I just received these links to some amazing footage of our humpback whales behavior on Inauguration Day.  The ceremony and filming of the whales took place at City of Refuge, also known as Ho'nau nau State Park in South Kona.

~Just minutes before a traditional Hawaiian blessing to honor Barack Obama's Inauguration, a pod of joyful  whales began gathering by the temple where the event was taking place. People at the gathering who have lived on the Big Island their whole lives, have never seen anything like what took place on this special day. This happy pod of whales began with 3 white belly breaches, followed by spyhopping,slapping their fins and tails and a new behavior we have never seen before that we nicknamed the full body slap... for a full 30 minutes!

The voice you will hear in the background is Haleaka Iolani Pule Dooley, known locally as "Aunty Aka" and you can hear the excitement in her voice as the whales celebrate wildly in front of her and those gathering for the special blessing~