Sitko Bay and Pavlof Harbor
It was zero six forty in the early morning when our expedition leader’s soft voice came over the public address system into our cabins and, for some of us, into our dreams. “Good morning. Good morning aboard the Sea Lion. It is early but we have brown bears on the shore ahead of the ship…” Within minutes most of us were coming out of our cabins and headed for the bow to enjoy a wonderful view of a female brown bear and her two yearling cubs. We watched for almost an hour as the mother fed on sedges and grasses along the shore and the cubs followed along, taking kid’s time out to explore and romp around a bit. What a wonderful way to begin our third day here in southeast Alaska!
We spent the rest of the morning cruising Chatham Strait in search of humpback whales, and we were quite successful at that task. First we followed a single whale as it cruised along the middle of the Strait in search of food. A little later we watched two humpbacks as they blew their bushy spouts into the air between 4 to 6 minute dives, probably to a depth of 135 feet where the ship’s sonar registered dense aggregations of one of their favorite meals, the shrimp-like krill. With careful looks at their individually identifiable tail flukes, however, we found that we were really looking at three whales, two with predominantly black flukes and one with a beautiful white pattern on its flukes. Our photos of those animals will be added to the database of all photographed humpback whales in the North Pacific at the National Marine Mammals Laboratory in Seattle.
During lunch the Sea Lion dropped anchor in Pavlof Harbor along the east coast of Chichagof Island, where we spent our afternoon hiking and kayaking. A beautiful waterfall empties a large lake into the bay and our hikes took us to the lakeshore for a look into the interior of this huge and wild island. Before we even got ashore however, a brown bear was spotted along the beach in the path of the hikers. Unfortunately, as the long hikers neared, the bear ran into the forest and disappeared. Later in the afternoon, one of the hiking groups ran across another brown bear in the meadows surrounding the lake and heard it roaring after it crept into the underbrush. There is a unique and wonderful feeling associated with being in these wild places where you might encounter a bear or a beaver or a mink as we did this afternoon or a whale as we did this morning. What a lucky bunch we are to have shared these experiences together on this voyage of discovery in southeast Alaska.
It was zero six forty in the early morning when our expedition leader’s soft voice came over the public address system into our cabins and, for some of us, into our dreams. “Good morning. Good morning aboard the Sea Lion. It is early but we have brown bears on the shore ahead of the ship…” Within minutes most of us were coming out of our cabins and headed for the bow to enjoy a wonderful view of a female brown bear and her two yearling cubs. We watched for almost an hour as the mother fed on sedges and grasses along the shore and the cubs followed along, taking kid’s time out to explore and romp around a bit. What a wonderful way to begin our third day here in southeast Alaska!
We spent the rest of the morning cruising Chatham Strait in search of humpback whales, and we were quite successful at that task. First we followed a single whale as it cruised along the middle of the Strait in search of food. A little later we watched two humpbacks as they blew their bushy spouts into the air between 4 to 6 minute dives, probably to a depth of 135 feet where the ship’s sonar registered dense aggregations of one of their favorite meals, the shrimp-like krill. With careful looks at their individually identifiable tail flukes, however, we found that we were really looking at three whales, two with predominantly black flukes and one with a beautiful white pattern on its flukes. Our photos of those animals will be added to the database of all photographed humpback whales in the North Pacific at the National Marine Mammals Laboratory in Seattle.
During lunch the Sea Lion dropped anchor in Pavlof Harbor along the east coast of Chichagof Island, where we spent our afternoon hiking and kayaking. A beautiful waterfall empties a large lake into the bay and our hikes took us to the lakeshore for a look into the interior of this huge and wild island. Before we even got ashore however, a brown bear was spotted along the beach in the path of the hikers. Unfortunately, as the long hikers neared, the bear ran into the forest and disappeared. Later in the afternoon, one of the hiking groups ran across another brown bear in the meadows surrounding the lake and heard it roaring after it crept into the underbrush. There is a unique and wonderful feeling associated with being in these wild places where you might encounter a bear or a beaver or a mink as we did this afternoon or a whale as we did this morning. What a lucky bunch we are to have shared these experiences together on this voyage of discovery in southeast Alaska.
