Mendenhall Glacier peeking over our shoulders....
We dock in Juneau by 08:00 and not long after, we are off in search of whales. Today we travel with a local company, Gastineau Guiding, that mixes tourism with educational research. The mission? We will pull a crab trap to check for an invasive species of green crab, search for humpback whales recording individuals sighted and do a plankton tow to collect a sample of available food source.
Gastineau Guiding has seven, twenty passenger boats. We are aboard the Explorer today and Chris is our guide. I sense this is a good company as we also have an extra guide riding along on his day off...and the same joke we use at home...."This is what whale watching guides do on their day off...they go whale watching!" I am among my people!
Pulling the crab trap we are happy to find NO invasive species green crab....but five sea stars and two rock sculpin.
Ahh, slime...never Nan's favorite!
Just as Chris is about to talk about humpback whales....he does a model switch-ER-roo....what's that he's holding now???
Yes...ORCA!!! This is a great surprise as killer whales are sorta rare around here....and yet, here they are! It seems to be about 5 - 7 whales, gliding along the shore.
We have a nice encounter and then as we star to move toward the humpbacks that are reported by another boat...Dall's porpoise mug our boat! These speedy guys and gals (fastest cetacean in the ocean....moving at speeds of 30 knots) are a lot of fun to watch...but not so much fun to photograph as you mostly get splashing water for a photo.
Yes, we find Humpback whales, numbering three and the crew recognizes the fluke pattern on each one.
Let me introduce you to "Flame"....thought to be mother of Spark (2013) and in 1998 a calf nicknamed "Spot."
Here we have "Barnacle" with the very dark fluke, but some small white circles are clearly visible.
The photo ID program is much like the one we have for Orca whales in the San Juan Islands.
We had some nice looks at Steller sea lions on our way back to the dock and arrived back at the ship with enough time to recharge and go off...yes, whale watching with cousin Don!
These guys! Can you imagine those summer cousin meet ups in northern Minnesota....um...60 years ago???
We are on a larger boat for the evening cruise, complete with a buffet dinner, enclosed dry and warm cabin....and look who we find out in the channel! Why, it's our morning group of whales, Flame, Barnacles, Spot and one more...so, four! We are the only boat out there, and since it's light until 11:45 p.m. right now....no problem with light...except for the rain. So to make sure we got great "looks", these whales hung out RIGHT by our side...except when they dove under the boat and went to the other side!
The Steller sea lions were not to be out done...or under appreciated. These incredible water acrobats begged for our attention, over and over again.
We return to the ship at 9:30 p.m. Just in time for the "All Aboard."
Goodbye Juneau!
We are off to a tiny place on the chart, Icy Point Strait. It's a new port created for cruise ships...but also for the native people of Hoonah to re-energize their economy. All the shops and tourist attractions are run by the native people of the area. Hopefully this works well for everyone. We are anxious to see what this experiment looks and feels like.
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