This morning we visited a beautiful small bay called Fox Creek. We were able to take walks along the gravel beach and up the creek and observed the wonderful sights of the Southeast Alaska spruce forest and see bear tracks and sign as we explored to creek sided. We also were able to take zodiac cruises around Shaw Island and find sea otters in the bull kelp and Stellar sea lions fishing in the shallows. We also observed a humpback whale in the center of the bay.
During lunch we re-positioned National Geographic Quest to a small bay called the Hobbit Hole. From there we once again took zodiac cruises out to near the open Gulf of Alaska and find at least a hundred Stellar sea lions hauled out on Bird Island. From this small rock they have an easy access to salmon migrating by from the open ocean and many of them were swimming and feeding around the rocks, Nearby we observed numerous sea otters a quite close range as they rested on the bull kelp. Continuing our cruising we observed a bald eagle feeding on a salmon that it has caught in the rich waters nearby. Returning to the ship we saw many more sea lions and sea otters and were impressed by the abundance of wildlife in this very rich environment of Southeast Alaska.
