Whales, Whales, and More Whales

Robert, Wednesday, June 25

When I got up this morning, I heard the weather forecast that said scattered showers today and lots of rain tomorrow. We had planned to do things like laundry today and go watch whales tomorrow. After hearing the forecast, we decided that we would try to see whales today. While the boats have enclosed cabins, going out in the rain to take pictures is a pain. I called and signed us up for the 3:00 p.m. trip. This gave us time to get an axe. Many campgrounds in Alaska and Canada have free firewood for campfires but often it is not split. The first place we checked had axes but they we a little pricy and they didn’t have edge guards. Then we tried Home Depot. While they didn’t have edge guards other than little things that looked like they wouldn’t last for more than a week or two, they had axes that were better than the ones we had looked at and they were about half the price. We now own an axe. We then swung by the trailer as Leslie wanted more clothes as it was a little cool and then we set off for the dock. When we got there the guys running the tour said they had booked 42 people for the trip. They said if we were flexible, the 6:00 p.m. trip only had about a dozen signed up. Our thoughts were that fewer are better so we said we would come back. The dock was only about three miles from the trailer so we came back home. I split some firewood and soon it was time to head back to the dock. There were 18 people on the trip and so we had plenty of room. After a 15 minute ride we arrived where the whales were hanging out. When we got there, we watched a pod of 5-6 whales. They were just swimming along and blowing. The way you spot whales is that when they blow you can see the spout for a mile or so. We got to within 100 yards of these. What we really wanted to see was called bubble netting. This is a feeding technique that the whales use. Humpback whales are baleen whales rather than toothed whales. That means they eat small fish like herring and shrimp. The herring they eat are the size of minnows. When they bubble net, the whales dive and create a circle of bubbles around a school of small fish. The bubbles have the effect of concentrating the fish in the center of all of the bubbles. Then the whales open their mouths and swim up through the center of the bubble net. They are swimming fast enough to break the surface of the water and stick their heads out of the water by 10 feet. There was a second pod of whales that we swimming close to the pod we were watching. The two pods joined and started bubble netting. Now the pod had more like 15 whales. That in itself is pretty impressive as they are about 40-45 tons each. All of the whales would swim on the surface and blow. Then they would all flip their tails meaning that they were diving. For several minutes everything would be calm with no whales in sight. Then if you were watching closely, you could see a circle of bubbles on the surface, This would be followed by the entire pod rising 10 feet out of the water in the center of the bubbles. If whales have shoulders, you would say they were all shoulder to shoulder. We saw them do this three or four times before it was time to head back. The crew said that they had only been observing bubble netting for the past three days and that it is unusual to be able to see it. We got back home around 9:30 p.m. and while Leslie fixed dinner, I tried to get a fire going but the wood was just too wet. I could quite a blaze going with small twigs I picked up off the ground but even the pieces I had split down to the thickness of a piece of cardboard would barely burn. I gave up, came in and ate dinner, and crashed.

Unbelievable Whales & A Great Eagle

Leslie Wednesday, June 25, 2008

We had planned to take a whale watching trip on Thursday but we heard on the local weather that Thursday may have pouring rain all day. We had read that Captain Larry’s Orca Enterprises has the absolute best whale watching trips. This was certainly the best whale watching trip we’ve ever taken.

Orca Enterprises has purple jet boats that have been specially designed to not bother the whales. The boats have no propellers so if a whale swims under the boat, it is not at risk of being injured. The boat is excellent for viewing. The windows open so if it is raining you can take pictures without going outside. When the boat stopped to watch the whales, passengers are allowed to climb up on the roof of the boat.

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We initially planned to take a trip at 3:00 pm. At the dock we were chatting with the on-board naturalist about how many people would be on the trip. He told us that the trip was full but that if we could be flexible we might want to take the 6:00 pm trip that would have only 15 people on a boat instead of 42. He also said that the light would be better for photography later in the day. We decided that boat trips are always more enjoyable with fewer people so we switched our reservation. (The naturalist also told us that the reason there were so many more people on the afternoon trip than had been registered when we called at 10:00 am this morning is that the tour companies run "Dock sales" on the day of trips. He said that you’ll always get a better price if you book as late as possible and look around the dock for a sale booth. He also said that evening trips are very lightly booked because the cruise ship passengers don’t want to miss dinner aboard.)

We did not see Orcas (killer whales) but had a spectacular trip of humpbacked whales. The humpbacked whales spend the winter in Hawaii and summer in Alaska. While they could remain all year in Alaska, they couldn’t remain all year in Hawaii because they feed only in the cold waters off Alaska. Once they leave Alaska they don’t eat again until they return next year. The babies are born in January in Hawaii. There was one mother whale and a baby born last winter.

We saw two pods of whales who after some time joined together.
Here are some swimming whales, dorsal fins, and tail shots as they dive.

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The whales feed by passing through the water, swimming up from the deep, allowing the herring to pass through their mouth. When they exhale, a huge plume of water shoots up from the surface of the sea. These humpbacked whales of southeast Alaska have unique method of feeding. Through intricate choreography the whales join together and "bubble feed". They form a circle deep underwater. All together the whales rush up through the water, their bubbles forcing the herring together in a dense pool. This is a very efficient method of feeding because the force of the bubbles concentrates the herring enabling the whales to ingest much more food more quickly. The whales weigh 40-45 tons and eat 2 tons of food every day. It is unusual to watch the whales bubble feeding and the activity occurs only in southeast Alaska. Each whale’s position in the bubble circle is exactly the same every time. Only adult whales participate and the group is dominated by a single female.

Here are some shots of the bubble feeding. It happens very quickly and I was having a difficult time capturing a series due to the battery recharge time on the camera. This series of shots is from several different bubble feeds of the same group of whales.

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After the whales emerge, they swim on the surface a bit and then exhale. See the plumbs of water as they exhale.

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One the way back to shore we saw an adult eagle on top and a number of seals on the base of a channel marker. The eagle was feeding and I captured a series of the eagle in flight. Notice as the eagle flies back toward the channel marker you can’t see his head.

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We were very pleased with the whale watching trip. The wildlife viewing was a wonderful experience. At the end one of the naturalists on board told us about a place we might hike to see the whales from the beach.