Pavlov Bay & Chatham Strait
We awoke this morning to find that the clouds and rain that had dominated our day yesterday had miraculously cleared. The sun was out as the National Geographic Sea Lion cruised into Pavlov Harbor on the south side of Chichagof Island and dropped anchor. Impressive snow-capped peaks towered above us in the distance.
After breakfast and a safety briefing on Zodiac and kayak operations, we departed the vessel for our first shore activities. Many of us hiked along the shoreline or through the temperate rainforest, where we marveled at the lush vegetation, large trees, and abundant wildflowers. Some of those on the long hike even spotted a Sitka blacktail deer and evidence of beavers. Kayaking was also offered, which allowed us the opportunity to paddle into the lower parts of the waterfall and have our kayaks pushed around by the fast-moving currents as fish leaped out of the water nearby. Any activity we did seemed like the perfect thing to do in such beautiful weather.
After lunch, we raised anchor and began cruising north along Chatham Strait, looking for things of interest. The weather was clear, calm, and warm, so everyone enjoyed time lounging on deck. Chatham Strait is a fault-controlled very deep linear fjord, with evidence of at least 120 miles of offset between rocks on either side of the fault. The direction of offset is to the right, just like the San Andreas Fault in California.
Later in the afternoon, naturalist Justin Hofman showed us his spectacular underwater video of some of his scuba dives into these productive Alaskan waters. It was interesting to see how rich the marine life really is beneath the waves.
Then, humpback whales were sighted at the intersection of Chatham and Icy Straits. As our vessel positioned for a better view, we were surrounded by them! These humpback whales were feeding here and some of the behaviors observed included coordinated breathing, fluking, logging, breaching, fin slapping, and even vertical lunge feeding. Some of the younger whales were just playing at the surface. It was quite a sight and some of the whales got amazingly close to the vessel. Although the whales knew of our presence, it did not seem to affect them in the least.
During recap, we learned that Justin had matched one of the whales to a catalog of whales in the area based on its distinctive white fluke pattern. According to the catalog, the gender of Humpback Whale #1410 was not known, but by the presence of its calf, we confirmed that it is a female. In this way, our observations are adding to the scientific database of whales in this area.
After diner, more humpback whales that were fluking and breaching were seen at Point Adolphus, adding to an incredible day of animal sightings and picture-perfect weather in Alaska.
