In the middle of Chatham Strait, which divides the big islands of Chichagof and Baranof from the other large member of the ABC group, Admiralty, we watched as a humpback whale repeatedly slapped its ten to fifteen foot long flipper on the water. Occasionally, it would leap out of water before falling on its back. It was not long before everyone was on deck. We watched until breakfast was called.
During breakfast we repositioned back east near Saginaw Bay where more humpback whales were feeding. The water was very calm, with only the suggestion of a ripple from the wind. In places, however, the water was stirred into small waves. With no wind only large schools of baitfish could create these waves. In amongst the schools of fish, whales were feeding on krill. We weren't sure of it at the time but later in the morning we towed a fine mesh net and caught hundreds of half-inch long krill. The whales were feeding on these small crustaceans.
Each whale when starting to feed would stick its tail above the water and twist it around. Gradually we could see the whale spin and finally come to the surface with its left side up, open its huge mouth and close it on the dense schools of krill. Each time the whale turned to the right with its lower jaw extending outward from the tight circle that the whale made. We wondered if there were right hand and left hand whales. Indeed, all that we saw were 'right handed,' that is they spun clockwise.
As the morning wore on and the whales became less active, we headed north up Chatham Strait only to be stopped again by a breaching whale. This time with the camera ready we caught the whale just as it reentered the water. Seeing a 40-foot whale leap totally out of the water just hundreds of feet from the ship was electrifying. The morning had ended on a spectacular leap and Red Bluff Bay was completely forgotten.
