Whale Watching near Juneau

We started our whale watching trip on a small "jet boat" out of Juneau. We traveled about 30 minutes to a location where the operator told us whales had been spotted. We knew we might or might not see one. We were scanning the water for the telltale mist of a humpback spouting.

We found the spot where the whales were reported and very soon someone called out the mist cloud.

It took our operator about ten minutes to close in on the spotted location. He explained that he was prohibited from getting within 300 yards of a spotted whale.

I was glad I had brought my 400 mm lens for my Nikon camera. We stopped and soon there were whales on the water. The operator explained the process of whales surfacing, humping, and diving.

The operator explained that after the whale was on the surface for a few minutes it would do a "fatal dive" or a deep water dive.

When the whale does the "fatal dive" it will present it's fluke or tail for the famous look.

The five minutes or so seemed like a long time as we waited for the dive to start.

The whales would wallow around a bit on the surface.

And, then we saw it as the whale took on the familiar humpback position prior to the dive.

The first dive was a little less than expected, but as time went on and we saw additional whales, it got very exciting.

It was hard to imagine these 40 ton monsters until you get near them.

They are so large and graceful.

The start of another dive.

Still not an amazing fluke but getting there.

Another humping before a dive.

This one turned out better than the others.

What a wonderful display

The first of dozens of great dives and flukes.

The remaining photos speak for themselves. The flukes were magnificant.