Point Adolphus & Fox Creek
The first day of our journey started early. At 5:45 in the morning, our Expedition Leader announced a special sighting— orca whales! A group of 5 stayed with us for about an hour, as the National Geographic Sea Bird carefully maneuvered around shallow spots and rocks. At least two big males with their six-foot tall dorsal fins traveled with the group. That was just the beginning of a very special day.
We continued sailing towards the Point Adolphus area, known for its abundance of humpback whales. Indeed, we found a very tight group of at least ten humpbacks, which showed signs of cooperative feeding. We dropped our hydrophone to find that they were actively vocalizing. What we heard today was a different kind of vocalization from the one that is typically associated with cooperative feeding. We could guess that they were feeding, but will probably never know exactly what these whales were doing. Certainly, the experience of listening to the live sounds of these leviathans is so wonderful, that it is very hard to describe.
We spent our afternoon hiking and kayaking at Fox Creek. Experiencing the temperate rain forest for the first time helps us to understand the big picture of what can be found under these interminable forests. The huge extensions of trees that adorn most of the land’s surface in South East Alaska are much more that that, and we can appreciate that by hiking through bear trails and taking close looks at the interesting plants that live here.
We could also feel the presence of the coastal brown bears. Here their populations are amongst the healthiest in the world. Trees with huge scratches and fur on their bark, scat, tracks, holes on the ground, and every possible evidence of their presence was found today.
From our kayaks we could hear the blows of humpbacks in the distance. We also got to see some of these giants from our kayaks as they cruised along with the current. If that wasn’t enough, just a minute before recap started, a calf humpback started breaching just a few feet away from the ship. It kept on going, over and over again, getting closer and closer to us. The ship was not moving, the excitement was in the air, and suddenly the calf’s mother showed up and both of them literally came to check us out. Without exaggerating, those whales were scratching their backs on the ship’s hull!
Whatever I can say about this would not be enough to describe the emotion everyone felt today on the National Geographic Sea Bird’s bow, in Southeast Alaska.
