Bill and I went on an all day whale watching and glacier tour today. The weather did not cooperate, but this is the rainy season after all.
We saw a bald eagle before we even left the harbor, and several groups of puffins shortly after that. It was not long at all and we started seeing whales. First there were were several fin whales off the port side, and a hump back whale off in the distance (too far away to get a good photo, but impressive nonetheless).
An hour or so into the tour we started seeing orcas off the starboard side. There were several pods, and we were told that they were locals feeding off a known salmon run.
We saw more fin whales and humpback whales and another large pod of orcas; and puffins, cormorants and auks. We had signed up for the all day tour so we paused for lunch and then entered Northwestern Fjord and motored out to Northwestern Glacier. We saw some harbor seals hopping on and off the icebergs floating in the fjord.
Striation Island, along Northwestern Fjord, was all under ice in the 1960s! That is how fast the glaciers are melting: that island is now hundereds of feet above the fjord!
On our return trip to Seward we saw another large pod of orcas, and several more humpback whales, one of which was showing off doing pec flips.
The captain slowed down for us to see steller sea lions and sea otters, which were huge! The mother otters were 5 feet long, and their babies were larger than any otters in the great Lakes area.
We passed by Bear Glacier, Aialik Galcier, and Holgate Glacier on our way back., and slowed down once again to see a couple of sheep on the steep slope.
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