We awoke today (at 5:20 a.m.) to expedition leader Rab announcing that killer whales had been spotted on the Chatham Strait horizon. No sooner had we rubbed the sleep from our weary eyes and ambled our way onto the bow did they appear. A pair to starboard, then another port bow, three more behind us! Killer whales were everywhere! Several of them raised their heads above the surface to get a better look at us (called ‘spyhopping’) while others swam to the ship, passing just below our bow. The encounter lasted for over an hour and we were all afforded incredible views of these striking animals; but, eventually we had to leave the killer whales and make our way to our next landing. En route, we were visited by a team of Alaska Whale Foundation volunteers that were stationed nearby at AWF’s Center for Coastal Conservation. The team introduced themselves and discussed their research at the field station. It was fun to hear them recount their day-to-day life as whale researchers, and we had many questions to ask before we were forced once again to carry on.
We finally arrived at our Hanus Bay destination in the early afternoon. There we were presented with many options for exploring the area. Kayaking in the shallow lagoon at the back of the bay proved to be popular as it was our first opportunity to do so and the sun was shining high in the sky. With the entire afternoon available we were all able to walk on the Lake Eva trail, too. This beautiful rainforest trail at the north end of Baranof Island was blanketed with wildflowers, lush ferns and luxurious mosses. The trees were alive with kinglets, wrens and varied thrushes, the latter’s’ ethereal whistles seemed to emanate from the forest itself. Many of us walked to the falls where the Lake Eva creek emptied into the lagoon. We sat among towering spruce trees and watched juvenile salmon leap from the water as they attempted to catch insects on the water’s surface. On our walk back to the landing beach we passed red squirrel middens strewn with spruce cones and paused to enjoy a red-breasted sapsucker that was busy drilling sap-holes. Eventually, we reached the beach where our DIBs were waiting to take us back to the ship, and climbed in, not quite ready for the day to end but confident that tomorrow would no doubt be another day filled with excitement.
