A record number of whales were sighted yesterday during the Pacific Whale Foundation's 2008 Great Whale Count on Maui, which recorded a total of 1,726 whale sightings in a three-hour period.

The Great Whale Count is an annual event that brings together Maui visitors, residents and Pacific Whale Foundation's researchers, educators and other staff, to tally the number of whale sightings and record whale surface behaviors that could be viewed from 12 shoreline observation stations. These counting locations stretched along Maui's south and western shores, from the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua to Pu'u Olai in Makena, and included a site at Ho'okipa Beach on Maui's north shore.

Yesterday's count of 1,726 whale sightings broke the 2006 record of 1,265 humpback whales counted.