Frederick Sound & Port Houghton, Southeast Alaska
Do you really want to see whales, humpback whales, close up? Come to Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska! Yes, this is where we saw the first light today, having sailed overnight from Sitka, and the old capital of Russian America, on Baranof Island. At this place we often see humpback whales, as the ocean is quite deep and the upwelling is very strong. So, before long, we had sighted our first humpback whale activity: pectoral fin slapping, fluking and even breaching out of the water! And soon we were in the vicinity of the activity and enjoying the antics of a young calf, traveling back and forth with its mother. She was definitely feeding, probably on small fish or krill. And the animals approached us and passed under our bow twice! So much for the fear of humans…
By the afternoon we had arrived at Port Houghton, on the mainland. We anchored and commenced our activities immediately: Zodiac cruises of the narrows and hiking along the forest’s edge. A young moose was seen swimming across the narrows and many interesting plants were seen, including the parasitic groundcone, three species of orchids and the insect-eating round-leaved sundew, an insect eating plant!
Do you really want to see whales, humpback whales, close up? Come to Frederick Sound in Southeast Alaska! Yes, this is where we saw the first light today, having sailed overnight from Sitka, and the old capital of Russian America, on Baranof Island. At this place we often see humpback whales, as the ocean is quite deep and the upwelling is very strong. So, before long, we had sighted our first humpback whale activity: pectoral fin slapping, fluking and even breaching out of the water! And soon we were in the vicinity of the activity and enjoying the antics of a young calf, traveling back and forth with its mother. She was definitely feeding, probably on small fish or krill. And the animals approached us and passed under our bow twice! So much for the fear of humans…
By the afternoon we had arrived at Port Houghton, on the mainland. We anchored and commenced our activities immediately: Zodiac cruises of the narrows and hiking along the forest’s edge. A young moose was seen swimming across the narrows and many interesting plants were seen, including the parasitic groundcone, three species of orchids and the insect-eating round-leaved sundew, an insect eating plant!
