Chatham Strait, Saginaw Bay, Southeast Alaska
An early morning light rain greeted the guests and crew of the Sea Lion as we entered Kelp Bay on the northeast shore of Baranof Island. Boulders along a sandy shoreline revealed their true nature as the Sea Lion moved slowly towards the beach. They were harbor seals in a group of nearly sixty individuals resting in the morning mist. Sharp eyes observed a Sitka black-tailed deer and her fawn walking along the edge of the forest as our ship slipped past. Another mother and child pair were seen as the Sea Lion prepared to leave Kelp Bay and enter Chatham Strait. A humpback whale and her young calf were observed rising and diving in a rhythmic cycle that changed only when the young calf breached the surface in an exuberant display of youthful energy.
Breakfast, followed by safety drills and a presentation on the geology of Alaska, filled our morning as we sailed south in Chatham Strait to our afternoon destination along the northern tip of Kuiu Island. Here, the Sea Lion dropped anchor in the quiet waters of Saginaw Bay where guests and the natural history staff explored the shoreline, forest, and bay via foot and kayak.
Steep cliffs of limestone expose an incredible array of late Paleozoic age fossils including brachiopods, corals, crinoids and the unique, single-cell protista known as fusilinids. The fossils attest to the tropical nature of the environment during deposition of these rocks and to the vast distance they must have traveled to reach southeast Alaska. Kayakers enjoyed the quiet of the bay and observed a wide variety of coastal birds that frequent the area. The day’s sightings included bald eagles, red-throated and common loons, pelagic cormorants, common murres, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets and assorted gulls. Hikers were introduced to the rich invertebrate fauna of the intertidal zone and to the wonders of Alaska’s temperate rainforest. A slimy banana slug grabbed the attention of our younger guests while the adults enjoyed their first opportunity below the canopy of spruce and hemlock trees to view the mosses, fungi and flowering plants adapted to the dim light of the forest floor. A rare sighting of a toxic rough-skinned newt (one of only six native amphibian species in Alaska) capped our many biologic observations, and a spectacular sunset ended a full day of discovery.
An early morning light rain greeted the guests and crew of the Sea Lion as we entered Kelp Bay on the northeast shore of Baranof Island. Boulders along a sandy shoreline revealed their true nature as the Sea Lion moved slowly towards the beach. They were harbor seals in a group of nearly sixty individuals resting in the morning mist. Sharp eyes observed a Sitka black-tailed deer and her fawn walking along the edge of the forest as our ship slipped past. Another mother and child pair were seen as the Sea Lion prepared to leave Kelp Bay and enter Chatham Strait. A humpback whale and her young calf were observed rising and diving in a rhythmic cycle that changed only when the young calf breached the surface in an exuberant display of youthful energy.
Breakfast, followed by safety drills and a presentation on the geology of Alaska, filled our morning as we sailed south in Chatham Strait to our afternoon destination along the northern tip of Kuiu Island. Here, the Sea Lion dropped anchor in the quiet waters of Saginaw Bay where guests and the natural history staff explored the shoreline, forest, and bay via foot and kayak.
Steep cliffs of limestone expose an incredible array of late Paleozoic age fossils including brachiopods, corals, crinoids and the unique, single-cell protista known as fusilinids. The fossils attest to the tropical nature of the environment during deposition of these rocks and to the vast distance they must have traveled to reach southeast Alaska. Kayakers enjoyed the quiet of the bay and observed a wide variety of coastal birds that frequent the area. The day’s sightings included bald eagles, red-throated and common loons, pelagic cormorants, common murres, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets and assorted gulls. Hikers were introduced to the rich invertebrate fauna of the intertidal zone and to the wonders of Alaska’s temperate rainforest. A slimy banana slug grabbed the attention of our younger guests while the adults enjoyed their first opportunity below the canopy of spruce and hemlock trees to view the mosses, fungi and flowering plants adapted to the dim light of the forest floor. A rare sighting of a toxic rough-skinned newt (one of only six native amphibian species in Alaska) capped our many biologic observations, and a spectacular sunset ended a full day of discovery.
