Iyoukeen Cove, Tongass National Forest, Southeast Alaska
Our Photo Expedition exploring Southeast Alaska aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird is off to a great start. The rain and mist of yesterday in Sitka magically disappeared by sunrise, giving way to sun and blue sky today.
An early wakeup call announces bears along the shoreline of Chichagof Island. Rubbing the sleep from our eyes, we gather quietly on deck. From a distance, these are two-pixel bears in the viewfinder. A spotting scope on the bow, however, provides a good view of our first sighting of the Alaskan coastal brown bear.
It’s just after breakfast when the first whales are spotted in Iyoukeen Cove. The towering blows of humpback whales linger against the forested shoreline. It takes patience to watch whales, especially if you’re anticipating the decisive moment when the whales blow, fluke, or breach.
But today we are especially lucky, as the humpbacks have assembled into a group and are feeding cooperatively, a behavior called bubble-net feeding. Time and time again, eight or nine whales surface in unison, mouths agape, as gulls swarm hoping for scraps of food. Cameras click wildly each time they surface. We are witnessing one of the most amazing spectacles in the animal world. The whales are here all summer to feed on schools of herring. Any day now they will start their long migration to Hawaii, where they will spend the winter.
By the time lunch is over the activity subsides, so we head toward an anchorage close to shore. Before making a landing to explore the rainforest, and to take to the water in kayaks to paddle the cove, a special guest, Dr. Fred Sharpe, and good friend of Lindblad Expeditions comes aboard to tell us about his research with the Alaska Whale Foundation. Dr. Sharpe has been studying these whales for over twenty years, specializing in the social and feeding behaviors of this particular group of humpbacks. We learn that in no place else in the world do humpback whales feed cooperatively in such large groups.
Following our afternoon activities we are back on the water hoping for one last breach before heading north towards tomorrow’s adventure. We are not disappointed.
