A beautiful sunrise greeted us as we sailed into Kelp Bay early this morning. Glassy seas gave perfect reflections of the snow covered mountains. Here, we went for walks, kayaking, and zodiac tours, but this was all disrupted by an amazing encounter. But more of that later. In the afternoon, we repositioned to Sitkoh Bay where we went for a variety of walks. Brown bear signs were everywhere and a few of us surprised a bear along the trail. It was a great place to stretch our legs, enjoy the sunshine, and even get sunburnt! A beautiful meadow at the head of the bay was colored red with paintbrush flowers.
Ok, what disturbed our morning? Humpback whales feeding right next to shore! Not just in any normal way though, but a very specialized way. A nearby fish hatchery releases salmon smolt that don’t act like normal baby salmon. Instead of dispersing, they stay in tight schools, hugging the shore. A few local humpbacks have learned this and have developed amazing techniques to feast on the small salmon.
I got to spend time observing a whale the researchers have dubbed “pelican”. This whale has a strange but incredible behavior where after blowing a bubble ring to help trap the fish, it lifts its wide open mouth high out of the water. Then the whale sculls forward with gigantic pectoral fins, flopping along and putting on an amazing performance. I have never seen anything like it in my many years here!!!
“Scraping its flanks along the rocky shore, the whale took in trapped prey with the ease of a cow grazing in an open field” -Matt Dumas
