Whats Out There?
Every day brings a new opportunity to explore and discover the wonders of this diverse ecosystem. Let’s venture out to sea and let nature reveal its treasures!
We get Many questions surrounding which tour is best and what kind of things will I experience? Each tour has a unique offering for all visitors from our 4 hour Half Day Charter for those on a tight schedule or that don’t want to be on the water that long to our 8-10 hour Full Day Charter to venture deep into the Kenai Fjords National Park. The good thing about all our tours is that you will have the opportunity to see all the wildlife listed below, you don’t have to go far to see these amazing subjects. If you would like to go beyond the Resurrection Bay and to the Glaciers of Kenai Fjords National Park you will need to book at least the 6 hour ¾ Day Charter. This is a good chance to check most things off your bucket list, being on the water longer does allow for more opportunities to see the diverse wildlife and tide water glaciers.
“Most visitors are looking for Whales and Glaciers.”
The type of whales in the area and the most common would have to be the Humpback Whale and the Orca (Killer Whale). We see these subjects a high percentage of the time. you could see a pod of Humpback Whales doing one of my favorite behaviors - bubble-net feeding! Multiple whales will work as a team to trap fish by blowing bubbles from their blowholes creating a net-like structure around their prey pushing them to the surface while lunging out of the water engulfing the school of Herring.
Orca (Killer Whale) are seen in the area as they hunt for prey in the bays and fjords. Orca are the largest member of the dolphin family, they can grow to be 30 feet long and swim up to 30mph! There are three types of Orca in this area. Residents, Transient, and Offshore. Resident Orca feed mainly on fish and are the type that we see on our tours most often. Transient Orca come to the area to hunt and feed on Marine Mammals such as Seals and Sea Lions. Offshore Orca feed mainly on Sharks in the open ocean and we rarely see those type. Orca can be seen from a long way away with a huge dorsal fin that can measure up to 6ft high.
Other whales that could be seen if luck is on your side would include Fin Whale, Minke Whale and Grey Whale.
Our tours will also see many birds that are found throughout the area as this has been known to be a mecca for birders. Among the seabirds we have a good chance at seeing Puffins, Common Murre, Cormorant, Oystercatcher and huge colony’s of Black-Legged Kittiwakes.
Other wildlife opportunities on our tours include: Harbor Seals, Stellar Sea Lions, Mountain Goat, Black Bear, and Dall's porpoise.
Let’s Look at Glaciers!
Get up close and personal with the this pristine ecosystem that was carved by glaciers thousands of years ago. The Harding Icefield is the largest in the United States covering an impressive 30 miles wide by 50 miles long with a depth of 4,000ft. This icefield feeds around 40 of these massive glaciers, as we watch with cameras in hand at the terminus for the frequent calving of ice chunks collapsing into the waters below providing a spectacular spectacle.
Glaciers are moving bodies of ice that can change entire landscapes. They sculpt mountains, carve valleys, and move vast quantities of rock and sediment.
In the past, glaciers have covered more than one third of Earth's surface, and they continue to flow and to shape features in many places.
Glaciers carve a set of distinctive, steep-walled, flat-bottomed valleys. U-shaped valleys, fjords, and hanging valleys are examples of the kinds of valleys glaciers can erode.
Tide Water Glaciers
Tidewater and freshwater glaciers are formed on land but terminate in bodies of water. They often calve to produce floating chunks of glacier ice known as icebergs. Tidewater glaciers can flow directly into the ocean in an open coast location or they can also discharge into steep-walled fjords.
Hanging Glacier
A hanging glacier originates high on the wall of a glacial valley and descends only part of the way to the surface of the main glacier and abruptly stops, typically at a cliff. Avalanching and icefalls help accumulate ice and snow to the valley floor below.
Cirque Glacier
They are called "cirque glaciers" if they originate in small bowls with steep headwalls (cirques). From their high elevation origins, alpine and cirque glaciers may flow into ice falls or valley glaciers, or they may terminate in the mountains. Small alpine and cirque glaciers can sometimes be found beneath the highest peaks in the western United States today.
