Tenakee Inlet & Pavlof Harbor
The first Monday in September designates both endings and beginnings in America. Seasonal tourism comes to a visible halt. Schools resume after weeks of carefree days and soft summer nights. All across the United States, communities pause to recognize laborers with a day of rest. For many, picnics, beach parties, backyard BBQ’s all with delicious food top off this day of leisure. Labor Day. A day honoring that honest hard work built this great country of ours.
Tenakee Inlet provided protection from wind and white-water painting Chatham Strait this morning as we began exploring Alaska’s Inside Passage on National Geographic Sea Bird. Humpback whales far inside tight to an off shore reef, set bubble nets and fed cooperatively on herring. Humpbacks feast in the nutrient-rich waters here in Southeast during the summer months. They labor in the feeding grounds, feeding when the economics make sense, sometimes round the clock. Whales build up fat that they use in the winter months in their breeding and birthing grounds where there is little food.
A live hydrophone lowered from the bow played underwater sounds. Distant trumpeting orchestrated cooperatively feeding humpbacks and indicated more than one pod of whales exploiting prey in Tenakee. Melodic whistles were proof killer whales too were foraging along the temperate rainforest edge. Harbor seals fished in the morning light. Black turnstones dipped and hovered catching a meal just off the water in the current. The labor of fishing was all around us.
A pair of sibling brown bears used the waterfall and stream at Pavlof Harbor in the afternoon to catch pink salmon returning to their neo-natal streams to spawn. As summertime eases to fall, brown bears tend to feed on the richest parts of the salmon, leaving the remainder of the fish for glaucous-winged gulls to fight over. Kayaking and cruising in our fleet of Zodiacs gave us an intimate look at bears picnicking in the rapids and along a well-worn path into the forest where these bears retreat for berry picking and napping. Trees along the stream where bears leave scraps seem to thrive with the extra nutrients.
There is wildness here in this place. There are deep breaths of fresh air. There is an abundance of labor and food. There are stories and excellent pictures to be created. This is a perfect place to commence our expedition.
