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More Clover Pass Humpbacks

9/29/2016

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Spent more time fishing near Clover Pass and observed more humpbacks in the area.  There appeared to be two or three whales near the north tip of Gravina Island.  We watched one whale breaching near Guard Island.  I was able to get a few photos, but they are blurry due to distance.

Upon our arrival home, a humpback was observed swimming south toward Mountain Point.  No pics.   
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Humpbacks near Clover Pass

9/28/2016

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Spent more time fishing near Clover Pass and observed at least nine individual humpbacks in the same general area.  Some were farther out in the Clarence Strait, while others were close to Clover Pass.  We also observed three whales swimming together far out in the Behm Canal.  
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More humpbacks in Clover Pass

9/23/2016

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Spent the day fishing in Clover Pass and observed at least three individual whales in the same general area.  One of the whales was lunge feeding near the shore by Clover Pass Resort and Knudson Cove. Although the birds were circling, I never did manage to get a good picture of a lunge.    
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Humpback soup

9/21/2016

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Spent the day fishing in Cover Pass.  Within ten minutes of our arrival we encountered our first humpback.  While getting our poles ready, we heard the distinctive sound of a humpback exhaling.  We were shocked to see a humpback approximately 20 feet off of our bow.  I immediately put the engine in neutral.  One or two minutes passed and the whale surfaced again within 20 to 30 feet of our boat on the left side.  It dove and gave us a very up close viewing of its flukes.  I have never been that close to a humpback whale's flukes before.  Our boat is 21 feet long.  The width of the whales flukes were at least half the length of our boat.  The experience got our hearts pumping!  

As we continued on we started observing spouting, humps, and flukes in almost every direction we looked.  Some were far our in the Clarence Strait, while others were close to Clover Pass.  We saw a mom and a calf, and we watched the calf breach.  We saw pectoral fins on the surface, and we were able to get a few good fluke photos.  We were able to photograph six individual whales, including the calf.  I was able to match the mom's fluke using alaskahumpbacks.org fluke catalog.  I hope to match some of the others as well.

It should be noted that the whales were not following NOAA regulations regarding safe whale viewing. We did our best to stay at least 100 yards away from them.            
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Orca/humpback double header

9/18/2016

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The day started out with a breaching humpback in Annette Bay.  The whale breached approximately four or five times.  Once it stopped breaching, it began swimming north through Nichols Passage.  It was then that it became apparent that there were actually two or maybe three whales together.  I was never able to get a photograph of the three whales at the surface together, but observed spouting that indicated at least two whales.  
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Approximately 15 minutes after losing sight of the humpbacks, a pod of five orcas were observed swimming south through Nichols Passage.  We launched our boat and spotted the pod near Annette Island across from Mountain Point.  The pod then moved into George Inlet.  While observing them in George Inlet, we noticed spouting a half mile to one mile away from the first pod further in George Inlet.  There were approximately eight orcas in the second pod.  We were able to identify T68 and T68A in the first pod, as we photographed them on March 16, 2016.  I am assuming the second pod were transients as well given their close proximity to each other.  

As we were heading out of George Inlet, a humpback surfaced in front of our boat.  It appeared to be moving in the same direction as the orcas.  We waited for ten minutes in the hopes of getting a photograph, but we never saw the whale surface again.  

I cannot help but wonder if the two species encountered each other.  The humpback appeared to be very large, so I believe it was a full grown adult.  I would really like to know if anything occurred back in George Inlet.   
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Long distance humpbacks

9/17/2016

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Spent time out near Knudson Cove and observed two whale spouts, very close to each other, far out in the Behm Canal.  A couple of hours later near Clover Pass, one whale spout was observed in the Clarence Strait near Prince of Wales Island.  No pictures due to extreme distance.  
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Humpback(s) near Mountain Point

9/14/2016

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From a distance, one humpback was observed near Annette Island.  The whale was swimming north. Several hours later, one humpback was seen near Mountain Point.  The whale was swimming south.  A small pod of harbor porpoise were also observed.  
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Humpbacks in Nichols Passage

9/11/2016

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More long distance whale viewing today.  Throughout the day whale(s) were observed in Nichols Passage and near Annette Island.  The grand finale came at the end of the day with one whale repeatedly tail slapping near Annette Island.  Once again, the photos are blurry due to distance.    
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Humpbacks in Nichols Passage

9/10/2016

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Long distance whale watching throughout the day today.  The first whale was observed swimming north along the shores of Annette Island.  Several hours later, at least three humpbacks were seen near Gravina Island close to the west channel of the Tongass Narrows.  The whales seemed to stay in that general area for several hours.  It was difficult to determine how many whales there where due to distance, but I can make out three whales in several photos.  The photos are blurry due to distance.  
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Humpbacks near Mountain Point

9/9/2016

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Observed at least three, perhaps as many as five humpbacks from our deck.  The whales were swimming south so I drove to mountain point hoping I would be able to figure out how many there were.  I was also hoping they would begin feeding close to shore.  Upon my arrival to mountain point, I was able to confirm there were at least three.  The whales continued moving south.  The weather was absolutely horrible.  It was extremely windy, the rain was blowing sideways, visibility was low, and the water was very rough.  The conditions made taking photos very difficult.             
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