Pavlof Harbor and Basket Bay

We awoke to another lovely Alaskan morning, slightly overcast with a warm breeze. Just after breakfast we went ashore on Chichagof Island at Pavlof Harbor. Here we had several options for the morning. Some of us decided a good leg stretch was necessary and went for a long hike along a very scenic lake. Others decided to go at a slightly slower pace and discovered many wonders along the trail beside a stream, which the salmon are just starting to return to. There was evidence of brown bears everywhere! We discovered fresh tracks in the muddy areas near the lake and even saw some brown hairs in a tree that a bear had been scratching it’s massive claws on. We also saw tracks of a beaver left behind as they made their way back to the dam along the lake.

Pavlof Harbor is a very sheltered part of Freshwater Bay and a perfect place for kayaking. We paddled as far up into the stream as we could. Salmon were boisterously leaping randomly all over the bay. A couple of guests purchased a fishing license yesterday and caught and released a few sliver salmon.

After lunch we cruised out of Freshwater Bay searching for whale blows. We saw several small groups of humpbacks slowly traveling. Just after we left the humpbacks, the cry of “killer whales” was heard. Everyone rushed out on deck to see these magnificent toothed whales. It was a small pod with one male whale right near the ship, and we saw its large, straight dorsal fin slicing through the surface. We also saw a young calf rolling around and surfing the Sea Bird’s wake.

Eventually we left the killer whale pod and found the humpbacks again. This time they were in Basket Bay right next to the shoreline, cooperative bubble-net feeding. Bubble-net feeding is a spectacular surface behavior where the whales use air bubbles to encircle herring and then lunge up through the bubble net with their mouths extended, engulfing up to 500 gallons of water! We saw several feeding bouts and were amazed to learn that this type of cooperative feeding is only found in southeast Alaska.

In the evening John Francis from National Geographic Expeditions showed us some critter-cam footage that gave us an underwater perspective of the humpbacks bubble-net feeding. Just another wonderous day in Alaska.