Sitkoh Bay and Chatham Strait
Ah, glorious sunshine! We awoke this morning to clear, blue skies and began to wonder about all these reports of how much rainfall temperate rainforests normally receive. The National Geographic Sea Bird cruised into Sitkoh Bay on the south side of Chichagof Island and we ventured past a once-thriving salmon cannery, admiring the thick forest and glimpses of wildlife. Impressive snow-capped peaks towered above us in the distance.
After breakfast, we departed the vessel for the morning’s shore activities. Many of us hiked through the temperate rainforest on a bear trail and then on a primitive road, where we marveled at the lush vegetation, large trees, abundant birds and blooming wildflowers. Some of us spotted a Sitka blacktail deer, red squirrels, and evidence of bears. The kayakers paddled around the bay as fish leaped out of the water nearby. Others did Zodiac cruises and sighted a brown bear in the far reaches of the bay. Any activity we did seemed like the perfect thing to do in such beautiful weather.
After lunch, we raised anchor and began cruising north along Chatham Strait, looking for marine mammals and other items of interest. The weather was clear, calm and warm, so everyone enjoyed time lounging on deck. Chatham Strait is a fault-controlled very deep linear fjord, with evidence of at least 120 miles of offset between rocks on either side of the fault. The direction of offset is to the right, just like the San Andreas Fault in California.
Later in the afternoon, our friendly shipboard geologist Al Trujillo gave an illustrated talk about glaciers in Alaska. It was interesting to see the characteristic features that glaciers leave behind once they retreat.
As soon as the talk was completed, Expedition Leader Lee Fleisher made a call over the ship’s PA system: killer whales had been sighted close to the vessel! Everyone rushed up on deck with their cameras to get better views. Since the killer whales were traveling in the other direction, the vessel made an abrupt turn. As we followed them, we could clearly see that it was a pod of five killer whales including one small juvenile no more than a year old. They would surface in a coordinated fashion, taking breaths together and gliding through the water so easily. They would take several breaths at the surface and then slip below the waves for several minutes. The whale’s traveling behavior was quite consistent and we wondered if they were resident (fish-eating) or transient (mammal-eating) killer whales. We lowered the ship’s hydrophone into the water to hear their echolocations, but they were in full silent mode. Although the whales knew of our presence, it did not seem to affect them in the least.
What transpired next was incredible and words can hardly do justice to what was experienced. Suddenly, the whale’s behavior changed. The whales had circled around behind the vessel and we noticed lots of splashing. As we turned the vessel and got closer, it appeared that there was something more than the pod of killer whales in the water; the whales seemed to be feeding on something. As soon as the vessel reached the area, a Steller sea lion bolted for the protection afforded by the ship. We knew in an instant that these killer whales were transients! The killer whales then made several passes around the ship but the sea lion stayed close by. Some of us were rooting for the killer whales to attack the sea lion, while others were on the sea lion’s side. As the killer whales circled the vessel, the sea lion hid at the surface near the ship. At one point, the killer whales came right at the ship and lifted their heads out of the water to size up the vessel. Then, they made one last pass around the stern and moved on across Chatham Strait. The naturalists were talking as fast as they could to describe what we were seeing and everyone was taking pictures as fast as they could. We were all amazed to have witnessed such high drama in the struggle for survival.
Because we were still following the whales, hardly anyone responded to the call for wine tasting and appetizers downstairs. The evening’s recap was cancelled and many of us ignored the call for dinner as well. It was just too exciting to be up on deck viewing killer whales in the wild.
As dinner was served, we followed the killer whales across Chatham Strait. Even though the killer whales were in the vicinity of some humpback whales, we did not notice any interaction between the two different types of whales. The skies cleared even more and during the long crimson sunset, we all reflected on the lucky encounter we’d had during the picture-perfect day. Talk of the amazing interaction we had witnessed lingered long into the night and we all agreed it was a true Alaskan experience.
