Today was a longer cruise — 59nm from Cannery Cove down to Explorer Basin on Kuiu Island. But the potential for whales is extremely high along the west side of Kuiu Island and down near Tebenkoff Bay and Explorer Basin, and it’s one of the most remote spots we visit. AND the weather today was PERFECT for our 6am departure.
We crossed Frederick Sound and headed south in Chatham Strait.
It’s incredibly beautiful when the skies are clear(ish) and you get to take in the rugged scenery that is Baranof Island.
Not long after we started down the west side of Kuiu Island we began to see humpbacks near shore in the distance, and then of course, eventually up close.
The fluke below belongs to the whale SEAK-1361, called Ectasy, first officially sighted in 2000 in Alaska.
And this one below belongs to this male SEAK-1852, first reported sighting back in 1994!!!
The humpback in this next photo with Dog Star, with the fluke underside showing, is SEAK-1038 called Equals and was first officially spotted in Hawaii in 1988!
These whales were bubblenet feeding, but were too far ahead of us to get any pics. Then, of course, they popped up behind us and we missed them again, but Julie and David on Dog Star got a front row seat (and had to divert a bit, even).
After another short while, we got into more humpbacks bubblenet feeding and we drifted around with them for a while, just watching and listening (and taking a zillion photos). What a treat!
Less words, more pictures:
A few nice shots of Dog Star and Evenstar Kadey Krogen watching whales in Southern Chatham Strait:
I also took a bunch of fluke photos and popped them into Happy Whale to get IDs and came back with eight more individuals identified. Here’s that info for any whale nerds (talking to you, Andrea). 🙂
If you click on any of the linked names, you can see all the reported sighting for each whale…it’s pretty fun!
We’re all anchored in Explorer Basin now, and it’s beautiful. An extremely eventful day with incredible scenery! Wonder what tomorrow will bring us.