San Ignacio Gray Whales
Extraordinary Interaction & Experience
Location: South Sawyer glacier, Tracy Arm, southeast Alaska What a day we had today!! Got underway at 6 a.m. from our anchorage at Admiralty Island for the run across to Tracy Arm. Our plan was to push through the ice to the head of the inlet to watch the south Sawyer glacier calving icebergs and to launch our divers and kayakers to […]
Read MoreLocation: Wreck of the State of California, Admiralty Island, southeast Alaska It’s been a funny start to this trip. The last trip was absolutely smashing with flat calm seas, gorgeous weather, loads of animals and superb visibility on the Alaska portion of our travels. This trip got off to a tougher start with wind and rain and […]
Read MoreLocation: Secret location, Admiralty Island, southeast Alaska I can’t disclose the location of our second dive of the day. It’s too dangerous for our friends – thousands of Alaska king crabs. Happy to report that we did our first scuba splash this morning on the wreck of the large steamship State of California in Gambier Bay, Admiralty Island. It was an […]
Read MoreAdmirality Island New site for everyone – unbelievable! Crab orgy! Literally thousands of juvenile Alaska king crabs at 15 feet. Wide variety of life here. From the non-divers in the group – sadly no grizzlies but plenty of sea otters, humpback whales, eagles and incredible mountains. Annie. It is fun to do an exploratory dive on a […]
Read MoreIt is always a pleasure and a good time having Captain Phil Sammet, his lovely wife, beautiful daughter and all his friends onboard the Nautilus Explorer. Through his many scuba diving charters on the Nautilus, Phil has steadfastly stuck to 2 traditions (a) he will paint the toenails of any anybody that he is able to sneak up on if they are having a nap on a couch in the main salon (b) every trip must conclude with a game of Nautilus Jeopardy with questions based on the many (interesting?) facts presented during my various dive and natural history briefings throughout the trip.
Read MoreI made a fast 180° turn in the Nautilus to keep them in sight and was taken aback when I realized that they were swarming a large adult humpback whale. It was hard to see exactly what was going on because of all the splashing. I assumed that the orcas were actually attacking a humpback whale calf and that the mom was defending her offspring from the orcas. Despite all the excited splashing and fin slapping and all the other stuff going on, we weren’t able to see a calf and can only assume that the orcas took a run at the adult humpback. I’ve never heard of such a thing before!
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