Today reminded me of one of my favorite Lindblad quotes, from one of our captains who so eloquently said, “We are in the business of making good memories.” It’s quite rewarding for the staff, crew, officers, and I, to share these beautiful experiences with people who will cherish these moments for life.
We started in Chatham Strait with a fascinating presentation by Dr. Andy Szabo about the sophistication of humpback whales. Better yet though, our expedition leader Rab Cummings led the National Geographic Sea Lion into the heart of humpback heaven, and there we witnessed one of the rarest and most amazing animal behaviors. Cooperative bubble net feeding is the collaborative effort by several whales, each a leviathan in size, coming together to feed at once in a massive surface lunge. They scare a school of fish into a concentrated ball, then chase them to the surface, and with mouths agape they capture the school in their open mouths. By the way, each of these enlarged mouths is about the size of a VW microbus. So, yes, we had a good time.
The afternoon was also hard to beat. We explored the bay by kayak and the forest by trail, and were treated with a bear feeding in the salmon stream. Seeing a bear feeding is a worthwhile experience, as is any natural encounter that reminds us that we humans are still mortal. Every animal surpasses us in certain talents, and reminds us we are not the masters of the universe. Excited and mesmerized by the beauty and sophistication of nature, we return to the ship as grateful bipedal primates.
Then to top it all off, we were treated with Northern Lights until the midnight hour. Yep, life is good.
