A Local Whale
You don't always have to go out on boats to see whales. Humpbacks and orcas appear in Gastineau Channel and Auke Bay every now and then and when they do, they're readily visible from shore.
When that happens, apart from their "mere" presence, there may not be much drama involved, especially if they are simply cruising, barely breaking the surface to breathe. A show of flukes is probably as good as it gets, although that may be enough to help identify a particular whale.
But in July 2023, one humpback spent more time in Auke Bay than usual, coming so close to shore that trees and hedges and terrain sometimes obscured it, even though it could be clearly heard exhaling as it approached. In the first and third images it was so close that local foliage partially interfered, and in the fourth image it was so close it barely fit in the frame.
And here it was so close and so unexpected, it had surfaced, exhaled, and sounded before I could fully swing the camera.
The whale soon moved across the bay to the Fritz Cove shore and worked the shoreline in water deep enough to sound (and to show distinctive identifying white markings on its flukes' undersides).
The whale was in the bay often enough that whale-watching boats, normally farther out, stayed in the bay.
There was also opportunity for surprise.
Cropped:
This humpback was particularly intent on harvesting little fish, probably herring. Early one morning, it followed the shoreline past the reef (and a bald eagle) into the little cove by the ferry terminal and, ironically, the dock where the biggest whale-watching boats were parked.
Looking very long and very stretched out beside the reef:
Above: diving by the reef.
Below: reappearing in the cove near the Allen Marine dock and whale-watching boats and a small cruise ship.
It almost submerged, heading toward the Allen Marine boat, the St. Elizabeth.
It then reappeared, dramatically, lunging upward and moving toward the docked St. Elizabeth, probably because that's where its targeted prey fish were schooling, and perhaps because the boat's hull helped keep the school from escaping. Water streamed from its jaw.
Some of the school escaped in the wash. See the little dark shapes above the froth to the left of the whale's head.
A very cropped closeup shows some of the escapees.
The whale forced sea water through its baleen, presumably retaining any fish that didn't escape.
Cropped and enlarged to show the jaw and blowhole.
Finally, it swam away, paralleling the docks, past the whale-watching boats (where there were no visible watchers, either crew or customers, on the dock or on deck), past the small cruise ship, and toward the Alaska Marine Highway System dock and docked Le Conte ferry, and made a final plunge, showing flukes, before heading back into the bay.
Some of these image files from the first three whale posts (there will be a few more posts soon) may also be seen in larger size in my new Whales 2023 gallery. Here is the direct link to that gallery: https://bobeastaughimagery.zenfolio.com/p961935417 Although the gallery images happen to be available for purchase as prints or digital files, my main goal in creating the gallery is to provide another (free) viewing opportunity. I would like to have the images broadly seen and enjoyed. And selling them is a way to have them seen more broadly and to get them out into the world.
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After a lifetime of mainly expressing myself with words, my postings here will mainly rely on images. They will speak for themselves to some extent, but I'll usually add a few comments of explanation. I've taken photographs for decades, since the 1950's, inspired in part by my father's photographic skill. Four years of photo assignments and quality darkroom time eventually gave way to decades of casual and family picture-taking. I re-immersed myself when I left film and turned to digital.