After cruising through the night, National Geographic Sea Lion explorers awoke in the calm waters of beautiful Kelp Bay. Several guest explorers bushwhacked through the Alaskan blueberry, huckleberry and Sitka alder to explore an old growth forest dotted with 200-300 year old Sitka spruce and western hemlocks. Sphagnum moss blanketed the spongy ground with numerous species of mushrooms passively turning the dead forest into the nutrients needed to support the emerging seedlings of a diverse understory. With great effort guest explorers slogged their way to interior wetlands and muskegs to witness the plant diversity of one of Alaska’s most common biomes. Meanwhile, other explorers ventured out in kayaks to watch sea otters and harbor seals rollick about Kelp Bay. Once the early morning explorers traded places with the early kayakers, and all seemed to be enjoying pleasant walks and paddles when suddenly a loud noise rang out—or did it? Those in kayaks were pleasantly surprised to see a humpback whale completely breach and then slam the water with percussive force. Hikers were baffled by the “bang”; however, all quickly preceded to the intertidal zone to witness either the 2nd or 3rd humpback breach. Expedition landing craft riders were fortunate to trail the humpback from the 100 yard distance mandated by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). This humpback continued to slap the water with its fins, perhaps playing, perhaps jarring krill that it then captured while feeding.
After all aboard, Birgit Buhleier, National Geographic Expert, shared her National Geographic sponsored “Critter-Cam” research wherein a camera is glued to dorsal side of a humpback whale to document their behavior. These amazing videos showed a young calf following its mother and nursing while swimming through the ocean. A second set of videos documented a male humpback escorting a gravid female in the midst of several of males; however, the female shown no interest in mating. Birgit’s incredible sharing video finished with a group of humpback cooperating in bubble netting to commutatively feed on krill.
Following a delicious lunch, ice cream sundaes were suddenly disrupted when guests saw Orca dorsal fins and the whole dining room immediately rushed to the starboard dining room windows. Gobble, gobble- - - ice cream gone; and, folks were on the bow watching a couple of orcas off the starboard. Lee Moll shared about orcas biology and family behavior when suddenly 3-juvenile orcas were seen on the port side. Swoosh! The National Geographic Sea Lion listed to the port when a large orca fin rose from Kelp Bay waters and what was thought to be few individuals was actually a family pod of 8-10 orcas. After a half-hour photographing of orcas, folks slowing trickled into the orcas - truncated “Global Gallery”.
Late afternoon, Dr. Andy Szabo joined the National Geographic Sea Lion and shared his amazing research on humpback whale biology and their slow but steady population increase, their annual migration to Hawaii, and their feeding behavior in the nutrient and krill rich regions of SE Alaska. Of great interest is the work that Dr. Szabo and his team in disentangling whales caught in fishing nets and documenting both their recovery and the continued threats to humpback whales, including larger cruisers and naval sonar. His work, in combination with the Artic Council and International Whale Foundation, has led to a better understanding of challenges related to protecting whales internationally.
Our amazing day of exploration and wildlife viewing concluded with a peaceful float through Red Bluff, accentuated by a piece of the mantle having been uplifted and the serenity of a cascading waterfall.
