Locations North Pacific, throughout Alaska waters. Humpback Whale : Distribution: Found in all the world's oceans, most populations of humpback whales follow a regular migration route, summering in temperate and polar waters for feeding, and wintering in tropical waters for mating and calving. Location: North Pacific, throughout Alaska waters.
Resident of North Pacific, throughout Alaska waters. What Might You See? Humpback whales. Coastal Alaska serves as feeding grounds for a population of 10, humpback whales that breed in Hawaii during the winter. Gray whales. Their outbound spring trip skirts the state in April and June, with the biggest concentrations passing the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak areas during May. Killer whales. These ton animals usually occur in two types near the coast, but both have the same iconic, black-and-white appearance.
More elusive are the quiet and secretive marine mammal hunters known as transients. Beluga whales. Cook Inlet near Anchorage is home to a small and completely isolated population of these white fish-eating whales. Beluga calves are gray-blue. Numbering about animals, these belugas are listed as critically endangered, so seeing them is a privilege.
Several different and much larger populations of belugas spend summers in Bristol Bay and Arctic areas. Other large whales and cetaceans. Also be alert for minke and fin whales , plus Pacific white-sided dolphins and harbor porpoises. Show Map. Other Tips For a unique degree panorama of Kachemak Bay and Cook Inlet, stop at the Baycrest Hill overlook at the top of the bluff just before your descent into Homer. On calm days, you will see sea otters speckling the waters, with congregations of humpbacks sometimes in view.
This perch about feet above the sea features the glittering spit at night, boat traffic and the wakes of marine mammals during the day, with snowy mountains spanning an endless horizon. It may be one of the greatest views in Alaska. Sterling Highway Mile With trails to the beach. Right as you enter town, at 95 Sterling Highway. Check out our guide to Homer tours of all kinds. Whalefest Kodiak celebrates the return of gray whales every April with two weeks of activities, science talks by whale biologists, and whale-watching excursions.
Getting There: Kodiak Island is about miles south of Homer about miles air miles south of Anchorage. Here the nutrient rich waters of the North Pacific mingle with outflow from Glacier Bay and currents from other passages, creating a particularly dense concentration of food for whales and other marine mammals.
Cruise ships will book your whale-watching trip for you, but you can often get a better price by contacting tour operators directly. Their forehead is soft and non-bony.. A really unique feature of these whales is that several of their neck vertebrae are not fused, which allows the Beluga to turn its head without turning its body.
This gives them an incredible advantage for visibility and movement when they are swimming. This is gives them an incredible advantage from predators like sharks and polar bears.
Beluga whales are also quite a bit smaller and are comparable in size to dolphins. View the image below to see the difference between a dolphin and beluga whale:. Beluga Whales have a life expectancy of around 30 years and will reach their full size at around 10 years old. Beluga Whales eat marine species that are most common depending on the season and location. They feed on salmon, shrimp, whitefish, cod, mussels and more.
This gel contains enzymes that attacks microbes, and the edge of the ridges makes it hard for smaller organisms to get attached. Beluga whales are not born white. It takes about 6 years until they gradually turn white. Belugas are one of the three Alaska whales that spend all their lives in arctic waters. Beluga are special among all whales because they can turn their heads. Maybe this is so that they can communicate with each other better!
Beluga are very social and make a wide variety of sounds. Graceful and magnificent, humpback whales inspire awe in young and old alike. These marine mammals travel great distances to take advantage of the best breeding grounds and feeding spots. North Pacific humpbacks, for example, mate and give birth in Hawaii and then travel to Alaska each summer to feed. In its lifetime, the average gray whale commutes over , miles — the equivalent of a trip to the moon and back.
Each year, gray whales go back and forth between their feeding grounds in the Arctic to breeding grounds off the coast of Baja California. They spend six months of the year just traveling! Killer whales are social animals that live in stable family-related groups.
Killer whales display a high level of care for their offspring. In addition to the mothers, various pod members mainly adolescent females perform most of the care for the calves. As with most mammals, killer whales are very protective of their young. Killer whales are often compared to wolves because both species are top predators, maintain complex social relationships, and hunt cooperatively. Bowhead whales were hunted by commercial whalers for over four centuries, beginning in the North Atlantic in the s and ending in the North Pacific by the mids.
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