Whales sleep just under the surface of the water. Every other year a mother calves right outside Kahului Harbor. Paddlers report striking her baby with a paddle (no harm to the baby). They could not see the whale calf sleeping only 1 foot below the surface even though their speed was about 3mph.

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The Superferry will travel at 30+mph. At that speed it will have an impossible 2.5 seconds to stop if it spots a whale. (And that is a big if) These pontoons extend over 11 feet into the water. Any whale will be massacred.

"Safe" speeds around whales are 13mph. At even that speed we have seen 3 whale strikes in the first month of the 2006-2007 whale season. But hopefully, the whales survived these lower speed strikes.

At 13 mph the trip from Maui to 'Oahu would take perhaps 10 hours.