Whitestone and Pavlof Harbors
Wow. OK. Boy oh boy. I cannot believe this! What do you say when the sun shines, the skies are a brilliant blue and all the wildlife you ever dreamed of seeing shows up in spades during one Southeast Alaska day? Whoa.
Oh, and it certainly wasn’t just a humpback whale we watched today, though I would have been more than happy to see whales breathing and throwing their tail flukes skyward. We were able to view the astonishing cooperative feeding behavior called bubblenet feeding. This remarkable activity among humpback whales is a special method the local population has evolved to concentrate schools of small fish. Herring form a tight ball when they are frightened. The humpback whales take advantage of that trait by flashing the white undersides of their long pectoral flippers, blowing a net of bubbles, and as we heard, making the most terrifying trumpeting sounds imaginable.
With enormous open mouths and expanded throat pleats, they rise through the fish-filled water and wham….explode at the surface, where we attempt to catch a photo during the astounding surface activity that lasts for a few stunning moments.
So, alrighty then - aren’t we the lucky ones?, we say as the Sea Lion turns south toward our afternoon destination and we ready ourselves for the safety drill. Hmmm Ian says, and isn’t that the dorsal fin of an orca? Of course it is, and there are about seven of those large and exciting members of the dolphin family as well as some swift moving Dall’s porpoise cavorting nearby. Larry Hobbs, our ‘whale guy’ determines that these are transient whales, the sort of killer whales that eat other mammals. Perhaps the Dall’s porpoise know that too, as their rooster tails soon disappear over the horizon. Beautiful.
Pavlof Harbor this afternoon was calm and sunny with a run of pink salmon moving into the creek and leaping up the waterfall, striving to fulfill their final life’s goal of spawning. Colorful kayaks dot the creek below the falls and more of us cluster behind some low rocks, watching a mother brown bear teach her two-year-old cub to catch salmon. The cub is delightful in its clumsy antics, leaping on the fish, missing and splashing around. It is the stuff of dreams only this is not a dream, we are in Southeast Alaska actually watching brown bears catch salmon!
Summer is ending and as we prepare to depart Southeast Alaska and head south, it seems so poignant to witness these amazing animals preparing themselves and their young to survive the winter.
Wow. OK. Boy oh boy. I cannot believe this! What do you say when the sun shines, the skies are a brilliant blue and all the wildlife you ever dreamed of seeing shows up in spades during one Southeast Alaska day? Whoa.
Oh, and it certainly wasn’t just a humpback whale we watched today, though I would have been more than happy to see whales breathing and throwing their tail flukes skyward. We were able to view the astonishing cooperative feeding behavior called bubblenet feeding. This remarkable activity among humpback whales is a special method the local population has evolved to concentrate schools of small fish. Herring form a tight ball when they are frightened. The humpback whales take advantage of that trait by flashing the white undersides of their long pectoral flippers, blowing a net of bubbles, and as we heard, making the most terrifying trumpeting sounds imaginable.
With enormous open mouths and expanded throat pleats, they rise through the fish-filled water and wham….explode at the surface, where we attempt to catch a photo during the astounding surface activity that lasts for a few stunning moments.
So, alrighty then - aren’t we the lucky ones?, we say as the Sea Lion turns south toward our afternoon destination and we ready ourselves for the safety drill. Hmmm Ian says, and isn’t that the dorsal fin of an orca? Of course it is, and there are about seven of those large and exciting members of the dolphin family as well as some swift moving Dall’s porpoise cavorting nearby. Larry Hobbs, our ‘whale guy’ determines that these are transient whales, the sort of killer whales that eat other mammals. Perhaps the Dall’s porpoise know that too, as their rooster tails soon disappear over the horizon. Beautiful.
Pavlof Harbor this afternoon was calm and sunny with a run of pink salmon moving into the creek and leaping up the waterfall, striving to fulfill their final life’s goal of spawning. Colorful kayaks dot the creek below the falls and more of us cluster behind some low rocks, watching a mother brown bear teach her two-year-old cub to catch salmon. The cub is delightful in its clumsy antics, leaping on the fish, missing and splashing around. It is the stuff of dreams only this is not a dream, we are in Southeast Alaska actually watching brown bears catch salmon!
Summer is ending and as we prepare to depart Southeast Alaska and head south, it seems so poignant to witness these amazing animals preparing themselves and their young to survive the winter.
