Sitkoh Bay, Chichagof Island, Southeastern Alaska
We started our marvelous day in the waters of Peril Strait, that narrow waterway that separates Baranof island in the south, from Chichagof Island in the north, watching three enormous humpback whales cavort among the cold waters. These lovely endangered animals, seemingly quite common here in Southeastern Alaska, was oblivious of our presence, and swam back and forth at the entrance to a small bay. Every ten or twenty seconds they would surface, blow, and dive again, in a series of around six or seven blows. Then they would dive deeply, but not before showing us their lovely fins, with a specific color pattern on the underside, pattern used by researchers worldwide for identifying individual whales! We then had breakfast, and headed into Hanus Bay and the head of the hiking path, which leads to Lake Eva. Some of us went on a longer hike into the temperate rainforest, through mud and water and lovely bear-dense woods, to the lake. Others of us made shorter hikes, and a good number of us kayaked in the calm waters of the bay. Back at the ship at midday, we had a warm lunch, and moved to a new area, Sitkoh Bay. Slowly we entered the long body of water, and at its end we sighted a mother bear and her cub. As we slowly approached this scene, we noticed another bear in the vicinity. We kept on approaching, and before we knew it, five bears had been sighted! Chichagof, as well as Baranof and Admiralty Islands are known to have only brown (grizzly) bears. These animals fit their description perfectly well!. After a good while observing them, if somewhat far away, we proceeded on our way up north along Chatham Strait, to meet with a researcher of the Alaska Whale Foundation, who left his smaller ship, to come and visit with us, and give us a personal and complete description of the animals that are being studied by these researchers, the humpback whales. A slide show illustrated his talk. We then were interrupted by a big pod of transient killer whales or orcas, that group of cetaceans that are known to feed mainly on other marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions and other smaller cetaceans, such as porpoise!
These animals were definitely unconcerned about our presence as can be seen in the photograph, and one of our naturalists and a researcher went off to their vicinity to put a hydrophone into the water, and to listen to their echolocation and communication sounds, transmitted directly to our ship. Killer whales are the largest members of the dolphin family, and males may reach the enormous size of 26 feet, and a weight of eight tons, the females being smaller, and only reaching some 20 feet in length, and a weight of some four tons. They are considered to be the largest ocean predator. During this time, cameras clicked and video machines whirred incessantly, marked by the 'OH's and grunts, as the sound of the camera rewinding the film made somebody hurry to include a new film canister in the camera. Dinner interrupted the observations, and shortly thereafter, we had the opportunity of visiting an interesting grotto on the seaside, at Basket Bay, made of gneiss rock. Among the flowering plants observed were the shooting stars, columbines and elderberry.
We started our marvelous day in the waters of Peril Strait, that narrow waterway that separates Baranof island in the south, from Chichagof Island in the north, watching three enormous humpback whales cavort among the cold waters. These lovely endangered animals, seemingly quite common here in Southeastern Alaska, was oblivious of our presence, and swam back and forth at the entrance to a small bay. Every ten or twenty seconds they would surface, blow, and dive again, in a series of around six or seven blows. Then they would dive deeply, but not before showing us their lovely fins, with a specific color pattern on the underside, pattern used by researchers worldwide for identifying individual whales! We then had breakfast, and headed into Hanus Bay and the head of the hiking path, which leads to Lake Eva. Some of us went on a longer hike into the temperate rainforest, through mud and water and lovely bear-dense woods, to the lake. Others of us made shorter hikes, and a good number of us kayaked in the calm waters of the bay. Back at the ship at midday, we had a warm lunch, and moved to a new area, Sitkoh Bay. Slowly we entered the long body of water, and at its end we sighted a mother bear and her cub. As we slowly approached this scene, we noticed another bear in the vicinity. We kept on approaching, and before we knew it, five bears had been sighted! Chichagof, as well as Baranof and Admiralty Islands are known to have only brown (grizzly) bears. These animals fit their description perfectly well!. After a good while observing them, if somewhat far away, we proceeded on our way up north along Chatham Strait, to meet with a researcher of the Alaska Whale Foundation, who left his smaller ship, to come and visit with us, and give us a personal and complete description of the animals that are being studied by these researchers, the humpback whales. A slide show illustrated his talk. We then were interrupted by a big pod of transient killer whales or orcas, that group of cetaceans that are known to feed mainly on other marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions and other smaller cetaceans, such as porpoise!
These animals were definitely unconcerned about our presence as can be seen in the photograph, and one of our naturalists and a researcher went off to their vicinity to put a hydrophone into the water, and to listen to their echolocation and communication sounds, transmitted directly to our ship. Killer whales are the largest members of the dolphin family, and males may reach the enormous size of 26 feet, and a weight of eight tons, the females being smaller, and only reaching some 20 feet in length, and a weight of some four tons. They are considered to be the largest ocean predator. During this time, cameras clicked and video machines whirred incessantly, marked by the 'OH's and grunts, as the sound of the camera rewinding the film made somebody hurry to include a new film canister in the camera. Dinner interrupted the observations, and shortly thereafter, we had the opportunity of visiting an interesting grotto on the seaside, at Basket Bay, made of gneiss rock. Among the flowering plants observed were the shooting stars, columbines and elderberry.
