Bright light illuminated ragged snowcapped peaks on Baranof Island as we made our way along Chatham Strait. Humpback whales were feeding in the open water, occasionally lunging on their sides or breaking the surface with their open mouths. Others could be seen far to the southeast along Admiralty Island. Pectoral fins waved wildly, whale bodies rolled and splashed, and more surface lunges occurred. They were harvesting krill. These crustaceans look superficially like a shrimp with rake-like feeding appendages that replace pinchers. They are abundant and an important baleen whale food. We even saw several large rings of rising bubbles that individual whales utilized to corral krill for consumption. The whale feeds in the center of the concentration contained by the bubbles. It was a great day for whales and a bad day for krill.
Later in the morning we entered Freshwater Bay off Chatham Strait to find eight humpbacks surfacing together. We made an announcement and as people began to emerge on the bow a large circle of bubbles started. Before the ring was complete a tight group of whale heads erupted from the surface, as their mouths opened. It caught all of us by surprise–no cameras were pointed or images taken. Some people gasped as others oohed and ahhed. About half of the ship had been a little late getting to the scene, but those who made it in time were given a humpback memory forever. We continued to watch numerous surfacing of the group, but the one bubblenet was all we saw. Two breached several times as they made their way southeast. After 30 minutes or so we turned north and continued on for more adventures.
Pavlof Harbor and creek are sometimes a good place to watch brown bears feeding on salmon. It’s always an iffy business to actually find bears near the falls. Our expedition landing craft approached slowly and carefully in hopes of not scaring the bruins and leaving them for others to see. A sow and two spring cubs carefully searched the distant shore for salmon scraps. Mom would pull up a find, and the cubs would rush enthusiastically for the chow. An adult fed farther upstream near the waterfall, and two more young bears walked between pockets of water checking them for stranded salmon. Occasionally they wrestled and bluffed each other to the entertainment of all of us. Both of our groups of Zodiacs saw five to six bears, but the dynamics and the individuals changed.
We all felt that for the first day we had loads of wildlife to watch, including Sitka blacktail deer, more bears on the beach, eagles, and several large flocks of red phalaropes. This will be a hard act to follow!
