A Couple Glimpses of Alaska's Wildlife

Alaska

Humpback Whales of Southeast Alaska

Humpback whales are perhaps best known for their songs. Herman Melville said of them, "He is the most gamesome and lighthearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other kind of them." Melville was right. Perhaps less well-known is how few of these whales there are. In the north Pacific there are perhaps as few as twelve hundred left-strictly a remnant of the original population that was decimated by recent industrial whaling.

The most acrobatic time for humpbacks is the summer, when they are busy feeding. It is then that southeast Alaska becomes so important for them. In just one small portion called Frederick Sound, as many as three hundred humpbacks have been individually identified. Another population center is Icy Straits. Still others inhabit specific passages, straits and canals. All together, there might be as many as 500 humpbacks using southeast Alaska as their principal feeding area-nearly one-half of the entire remaining north Pacific population.

Sea Birds at Gull Island

The Danny J. stops at Gull Island to view the nine species of nesting birds there: the pelagic cormorant, the red-faced cormorant, the glacucous winged gull, the herring gull, the common murre, the black-legged kittiwake, the pigeon guillemot, the horned puffin and the crested puffin. Large sea mammals like whales and the sea otter are also spotted sometimes on this run. Binoculars and camera equipment are a must. Rain gear might be needed too.