Alaska 2000 (continued)
Pack Creek was once the home of hermit Stan Price, who befriended Admiralty Island bears. During his 40 years here he did not allow hunting of the bruins. He died some years ago, but today the bears are still protected and access is carefully controlled. We were fortunate to get a permit to spend the day here.
To reach the viewing tower from which this photo was made, our group hiked a mile along a trail through thick rainforest some distance from Pack Creek. In every direction, skunk cabbage--apparently a favorite bear delicacy--was smashed flat. Bear droppings and tracks were everywhere. We sat in the tower for over an hour, enjoying bald eagles carrying bits of salmon, a stream choked with fish, and beautiful sunset light on the rainforest. But nary a bear. Then, as we descended the tower to hike back to the boat, a bear showed up for its fish dinner. And then another, and another. At dusk, we hurried back along the trail, serenaded by a bear roar from the creek below; the sound literally seemed to shake the forest.
From Pack Creek, we made our way south along, anchoring at Pleasant Bay and then continuing on along Seymour Canal , photographing humpback whales in the morning. Our destination was Kake, a Native village that is also a gathering place for salmon-fishing black bears. As we approached Kake, the skies cleared and the humpback whale pyrotechnics began. Here a whale "lobtails," slapping its tail again and again on the water.
Humpback whales, considered the acrobats of the whale world, show (pictured above and below) a unique group behavior called lunge feeding or bubble-net feeding. After a creating an underwater halo of bubbles that confuse the small fish/krill prey that's the favorite food of these baleen-equipped giants, the whales then as a group circle under the food and quickly lunge upward, jaws and throats agape, straining the water from their food. Think of a 40-foot bullfrog, throat distended, jaws at a greater than 90-degree angle, and one senses the enormity of what these whales do.
Near Kake, this juvenile humpback whale romped in a bed of kelp, rolling over and over. Occasionally it stuck its head out of the water. Brown barnacles are visible on its jaw. Its eye is at the lower right.
