The 2027 Sanctuary Ocean Count runs on January 30, February 27 and March 27, each a Saturday, from 8 am to 12:15 pm. Volunteers at shore sites on Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island count every humpback whale they see during a 15-minute scan every half hour. NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary runs the count. This site is an independent guide to it, and we are not part of the program.
Registration is only on the official site, oceancount.org, and opens 26 days before each count. Our guide to joining the count lists the opening and closing dates for all three 2027 counts. On Maui and Lānaʻi, the Pacific Whale Foundation runs its own Great Whale Count on the same Saturdays, with separate registration.
Ocean Count results, 2016 to 2026
The sanctuary publishes one results sheet per count, with the average number of whales seen per 15-minute period on each island, and labels the figures preliminary. Across the 104 island averages from 2016 to 2026, the highest was 6.4, on Oʻahu in January 2022. On Hawaiʻi Island the March average fell to 0.03 in 2018 and was reported as 0 in both 2025 and 2026.
Counting each island’s season separately, March had the lowest average of the three counts, or tied for it, in 27 of 32 seasons. The official sheets and press releases since 2018 are on oceancount.org’s results page, and the 2016 and 2017 sheets are on the sanctuary’s Ocean Count page.
Listening for whale song and watching from shore
During the season you can often hear humpback song by putting your head underwater at a calm beach. Love Big Island’s whale-watching guide explains how to listen for it and compares Hawaiʻi Island boat tours by boat size. Our whale-watching spots page lists lookouts on each island.
This site is independent and non-commercial. It is not affiliated with NOAA, the sanctuary or the Sanctuary Ocean Count program, and it is published by Love Hawaiʻi Guides, Inc. The About page says who writes it and how to report an error.