Chatham Straight and Pavlof Harbor
An hour and a half after sunrise National Geographic Sea Lion was cruising slowly north, in the waters of Chatham Strait searching for marine mammals. The sun was rising over Admiralty Island to the east and the water was decorated with wonderful patterns that reflected blue skies and scattered clouds. It was a glorious morning in Southeast Alaska and just ahead of National Geographic Sea Lion a group of humpback whales were casually traveling north, and it seemed, also enjoying this beautiful early morning in Chatham Strait. This body of water has the distinction of being the longest and deepest fjord in North America, extending over 150 miles and reaching depths of over 2000 feet in several places. Chatham Strait runs between Baranof and Chichagof Islands and in the southern end of the channel the Strait opens to the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. These rich and extremely productive waters bring a myriad of different animals, all attracted to these rich waters in the long days of summer to feed.
Our plans for this morning were to continue our search for more marine mammals, enjoy our good fortune with fantastic weather and see what Southeast Alaska offered up from her treasure chest of natural beauty. As if on cue, more humpback whales were sighted in the distance. Announcements were made and soon the bow of National Geographic Sea Lion was filled with a large group of guests poised, facing north binoculars held up…watching! Slightly ahead of our ship, a group of whales exploded out of the water in unison mouths agape, while a flock of gulls circled overhead. It was our first day, and before lunch we were viewing an event that can be seen in very few places in the world. There was a group of humpbacks unrelated to each other, who were using a strategy of forming a cooperative bubble net to engulf large schools of fish! For the remainder of the morning National Geographic Sea Lion maneuvered expertly in and around this group of whales as they continued feeding in an elaborate and extremely coordinated style; gathering enormous mouths of water and fish over and over and over! After each surfacing, the whales dove in a synchronized fashion, each whale with its own part and position, blowing the bubble net, circling underneath, rising towards the surface, AND as they began to surface a series of battle cries could be heard on the hydrophone….thirty seconds later, a large group of whales hit the surface of the water mouths open hoping for yet another mouthful of fish.
Just before lunch, and reluctantly, National Geographic Sea Lion pulled away from this group of humpback whales and headed for our afternoon anchorage in Freshwater Bay. While lunch was served the deck crew anchored National Geographic Sea Lion, dropped Zodiacs and kayaks and prepared our landing site for an afternoon of kayaking and hikes. Our Expedition Leader had gone ashore to check the low waterfall at the site for what is known as a constant visitor for this time of year. We were hiking and kayaking near a salmon river, which was filled with migrating salmon. Salmon are considered sustenance not only to humans who have called this land home for thousands of years, but also to Alaskan brown bears. This afternoon, as our Expedition Leader checked the beach and low waterfall, just as she expected, there was a bear quite busy hunting its late summer meal of pink salmon. Hikers were brought ashore and a serious briefing was completed concerning watching bears in the wild. These brown bears were very busy filling their bellies with salmon. They were not very interested in groups of humans who were patiently taking the time to enjoy a fantastic opportunity to photograph bears in their natural environment, feasting on one of the most important food sources of the Northwest Coast. Our walks were short, as we only made it around the corner of the beach, and then gathered together to just watch as one, then two, then three, then four bears all scrambled over rocks and water trapping salmon. The delicacy for these brown bears was the roe of the female salmon and the brains of both sexes; equally rich in oil…a necessity to fatten up brown bears for the winter slumber. We all remained for the afternoon, watching, photographing and enjoying another rare site. The sun moved slowly in and out of light clouds adding to the grey on grey of the water, while sun breaks lit up the different shades of green that made up the forest all around and far behind the waterfall, each large and small component adding to the bounty of this place called Southeast Alaska.
