Chichagof Island Coast, Chatham Strait, Southeastern Alaska
As we sailed south along Chatham Strait, a small craft approached with researchers who explained to us new techniques used on humpback whales in Alaska. These were researchers from the Alaska Whale Foundation and the National Geographic Society, who have been studying the behavior of these animals for more than a decade. We then received one of the researchers on board and were told of the many different methods of humpback whale research. Just then we witnessed the incredible sight of these marvelous behemoths feeding cooperatively in front of the MV Sea Bird.
As we watched them bubble-net feed, we put one of the research tools carried by our ship, a hydrophone, in the water. With it we heard the eerie sounds that these animals made as they shot upwards and out of the water, engulfing enormous amounts of herring, their preferred prey. We also observed other typical behavior, such as tail lobbing, breaching, pectoral slapping, and young whales cavorting nearby. We watched the whales for almost six hours, but it seemed like minutes. Reluctantly we departed for our next destination, a lovely part of Baranof Island called the Lake Eva Trail. This stream, with an unusally high number of salmonoid species (5!), attracts a large number of brown or grizzly bears. We didn't see the bears on this trip, but they left clues of their presence like scat and mangled salmon everywhere for us to see in this delightful Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock rainforest.
As we sailed south along Chatham Strait, a small craft approached with researchers who explained to us new techniques used on humpback whales in Alaska. These were researchers from the Alaska Whale Foundation and the National Geographic Society, who have been studying the behavior of these animals for more than a decade. We then received one of the researchers on board and were told of the many different methods of humpback whale research. Just then we witnessed the incredible sight of these marvelous behemoths feeding cooperatively in front of the MV Sea Bird.
As we watched them bubble-net feed, we put one of the research tools carried by our ship, a hydrophone, in the water. With it we heard the eerie sounds that these animals made as they shot upwards and out of the water, engulfing enormous amounts of herring, their preferred prey. We also observed other typical behavior, such as tail lobbing, breaching, pectoral slapping, and young whales cavorting nearby. We watched the whales for almost six hours, but it seemed like minutes. Reluctantly we departed for our next destination, a lovely part of Baranof Island called the Lake Eva Trail. This stream, with an unusally high number of salmonoid species (5!), attracts a large number of brown or grizzly bears. We didn't see the bears on this trip, but they left clues of their presence like scat and mangled salmon everywhere for us to see in this delightful Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock rainforest.
