The waters of Frederick Sound felt like fish soup today, and everybody wanted a taste. We watched hundreds of marbled murrelets dive for small sandlance. Mew and Bonaparte's gulls were wheeling overhead and scooping fishy bits from the sea's surface. Salmon were leaping, huge schools of herring were boiling and, in the midst of all this commotion, the humpback whales were gorging.
All of the guests whose body clocks are still on Eastern Standard Time were up and on the bow before 6am today. We watched, and exclaimed, as a solitary humpback whale lunged laterally through herring-filled water with its mouth wide open.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we were surrounded by humpback activity. While the Sea Bird sat motionless in the water, whales breached, slapped their pectoral fins on the water, dove deeply and showed us their flukes and cruised in tight formation right alongside us.
Late in the afternoon we went ashore at Cape Fanshaw for beach walks, and attempted to penetrate the dense forest beyond. Our explorations today provided ample evidence of the abundance of life here in Southeast Alaska - both on land and in the sea.
All of the guests whose body clocks are still on Eastern Standard Time were up and on the bow before 6am today. We watched, and exclaimed, as a solitary humpback whale lunged laterally through herring-filled water with its mouth wide open.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon, we were surrounded by humpback activity. While the Sea Bird sat motionless in the water, whales breached, slapped their pectoral fins on the water, dove deeply and showed us their flukes and cruised in tight formation right alongside us.
Late in the afternoon we went ashore at Cape Fanshaw for beach walks, and attempted to penetrate the dense forest beyond. Our explorations today provided ample evidence of the abundance of life here in Southeast Alaska - both on land and in the sea.
