Chatham Strait & Pavlof Harbor
This was a Monday morning never to be forgotten! Humpback whales were all around the boat before breakfast, the sharp yet soft sounds of their exhalations punctuating the stillness with the magic of being so close to these glorious animals in their Southeast Alaska wilderness home. Plumes of vaporized whale breath hung in the quiet air and hovered over the dark calm water. What a thrill to see four huge whales moving together so near the shore!
Yes, this was a Monday morning to be remembered…Did you see the breaching? Hard to miss as the whale lunged up out of the water so many times!
At lunch time we tried to turn around, but a sharp-eyed guest spotted a group of whales bubblenet feeding nearby and we were off again, this time with eleven whales.
Eventually though, we did turn and head over to nearby Pavlof Harbor, a beautiful cove with an outlet stream below a wonderfully picturesque waterfall. All the boats were launched; kayaks, Zodiacs and even the rescue boat and soon we were on the lookout for brown bears.
The great annual feast of migratory salmon is in full swing these late summer days and we witnessed several bears catching these amazing anadroumous fish. A young adult coastal brown bear as well as a large female with two year-and-a-half-old cubs were working the falls and the lower pools this afternoon. By this time of the season, the bears are satiated although fully seventy percent of their yearly nutrient comes in the form of salmon caught during the few months of the run. By the time the salmon are spawned out, the bears will have gained about one hundred pounds each!
What a fine September day in Southeast Alaska!
