Chichagof Island, Southeast Alaska
“Bears on the Beach!” expedition leader David Cothran exclaimed. The sound of salmon working their way up stream was the “breakfast bell” for two sibling brown bears feasting at Pavlof Harbor for our first morning ashore. Cameras clicked and whirred as our photographic expedition eagerly exposed frame after frame on the dark-chocolate colored young bears gorging on pink salmon. The extremely low tide left little water in the basin, forcing the salmon to gather in small pools where underwater images could be had before their final push upstream to spawn and then die. All in picture perfect sunshine.
After lunch, Dr. Fred Sharpe, from the Alaska Whale Foundation, joined us on the Sea Bird. We encountered and photographed one of the largest groups of cooperative bubble- net feeding humpback whales Dr. Sharpe has observed in twenty years of conducting research in these waters. At one point, there may have been twenty-three animals feeding together on herring. Breaching by one of the feeders signaled a disaffiliation of the super-pod. For over an hour whales treated photographers aboard the Sea Bird to a full range of surface behaviors including breaching, pectoral fin-slapping, head-lunging, and inverted tail-lobbing. Our evening ended as the day began, with beautiful Alaskan sunshine illuminating pure magic for our photographers to capture. All of this on our very first full day of our photographic expedition, truly picture perfect.
“Bears on the Beach!” expedition leader David Cothran exclaimed. The sound of salmon working their way up stream was the “breakfast bell” for two sibling brown bears feasting at Pavlof Harbor for our first morning ashore. Cameras clicked and whirred as our photographic expedition eagerly exposed frame after frame on the dark-chocolate colored young bears gorging on pink salmon. The extremely low tide left little water in the basin, forcing the salmon to gather in small pools where underwater images could be had before their final push upstream to spawn and then die. All in picture perfect sunshine.
After lunch, Dr. Fred Sharpe, from the Alaska Whale Foundation, joined us on the Sea Bird. We encountered and photographed one of the largest groups of cooperative bubble- net feeding humpback whales Dr. Sharpe has observed in twenty years of conducting research in these waters. At one point, there may have been twenty-three animals feeding together on herring. Breaching by one of the feeders signaled a disaffiliation of the super-pod. For over an hour whales treated photographers aboard the Sea Bird to a full range of surface behaviors including breaching, pectoral fin-slapping, head-lunging, and inverted tail-lobbing. Our evening ended as the day began, with beautiful Alaskan sunshine illuminating pure magic for our photographers to capture. All of this on our very first full day of our photographic expedition, truly picture perfect.
