Pavlov Harbor and Chatham Strait
A good day again. It was not drizzling, even if it was cool. We slowly left Chatham Strait and entered Pavlov Harbor where, years ago, Russian and American ships would stop and fill their barrels with good fresh water. Here, after breakfast, we set upon the beach and had different activities during the morning. Hiking to the waterfall where salmon jump up into the river and lake beyond, paddling around the bay in our kayaks to enjoy a solitary and quiet moment, and taking interesting Zodiac tours, where we saw good numbers of bald eagles, and bald eagle nests Some of us saw harbor seals in the water and on land, as well as a few Steller sea lions. Then, during our second round of Zodiac tours, we saw a humpback whale eating, very near our boat. It did a few blow series, and then took off, slowly entering Chatham Strait.
After lunch, already in Chatham Strait, a very large fjord in itself, we encountered two humpback whales bubble-net feeding. This is a strategy and technique in which one of the whales dives under a school of small fish, in this case herring possibly, and begins to swim in circles, slowly exhaling a long series of small bubbles, which create a “net” around the fish. This net scares the fish even further, and they form a tighter ball. It is in that moment that the two (or however many whales are taking part in this technique) swim quickly up into the ball of small fish, with open mouths, and take in a huge amount of water with the prey. They come shooting out of the water with open mouths, already starting to close the huge gaps, and expel the water through their numerous baleen plates, which hang from the upper jaw. In this manner, they eliminate the water and swallow the prey.
That wasn’t enough! We then sighted a group of Orcas! Yes, the famous killer whales, males and females, slowly were making their way along Chatham Strait. We used up many a card in our cameras during the afternoon, before we continued on our way south, towards the town of Petersburg, on the Island of Mitkoff.
