The National Geographic Sea Lion was met by an extremely low tide as it cruised into Pavlov Harbor. Being late August, the last of the pink salmon were making their way back upstream into their freshwater habitats to lay their eggs. With the presence of salmon, we were hoping to see one of their top predators, bears. Mother Nature was on our side and we saw a beautiful brown bear gracefully catching a salmon feast in the stream.
While the bears were enjoying their late morning snack, the undersea specialist, along with her dive team, explored the underwater world in the bay. With the nearby freshwater stream mixing with the sea, the differences in water density created a blurry layer known as a halocline. Once the divers dropped below the halocline, they found a beautiful rock wall covered with thousands of bright orange plumose anemones- what a sight! Their favorite part of the dive was finding the giant pacific octopus. Fun fact: octopuses use copper instead of iron (like vertebrates) to transport blood throughout their body; this gives them blue blood instead of red! Being able to share underwater video footage with those who prefer to stay on land is a great and unique tool of discovery.
Pleased with our morning bear encounters, we sailed south through Chatham Strait. No liquid sunshine today, we had REAL sunshine. The clear day was perfect for scanning the horizon for whales, and it must’ve been our lucky day! Just south of Angoon, humpback whales were spotted-and we break for whales. We spent nearly three (YES, THREE!) hours out on deck watching many different humpback whales bubble net feeding and lunge feeding on the krill in the area. We even had the opportunity to see multiple close-up breaches in a row! It is almost embarrassing how many photos were collectively taken by guests, staff, and crew aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion today.
With a cocktail in hand we waved goodbye to our whale friends and headed inside to watch a slideshow of our collection of photos from the week; what a great recap of all of our incredible wildlife encounters and other adventures throughout the trip-wow, a week already?! Captain Nettles joined us for a delicious farewell dinner and then we spent the evening mingling with new friends and reminiscing about our time spent aboard the ship-memories we know that will last a lifetime.
