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| Alaska-Bear Family |
Alaska-Bald Eagle |
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The nutrient-rich waters of the Inside Passage encourage
an amazing variety of wildlife, with whales topping the
list of marine mammals.
- Orcas or killer whales were once thought to be
dangerous to man, hence the name killer whale. Now we
know they are remarkably intelligent with significant
communication abilities. Mature orcas grow to 30 ft (10
m) and live in family groups called pods. Orcas belong
to the family of toothed whales. Resident orcas eat
primarily fish and live in larger pods while transients
prey on marine mammals and fish and travel in smaller
groups.
- Humpback whales feed on krill and small schooling
fish, with Frederick Sound and Stephens Passage being
favourite feeding areas. Weighing 20-40 tons and
reaching lengths to 50 ft (16 m), some 1,000 humpbacks
feed in British Columbia and Alaska during the summer
and give birth in Hawaii. These baleen whales use a
variety of feeding strategies, including vocalizations,
fin motions and bubbles to scare their prey into dense
concentrations thus making them easier to catch.
- Gray whales annually migrate to calve their young in
several lagoons in Baja, California and then return to
northern waters for summer feeding. Primarily dark gray
with white spots and botches, grays are the only large
whale with an overhanging upper jaw.
- Other whales spending the summer in these northern
waters include the minke, finback, sei and blue whale.
Belugas, notable for their distinctive pure white
colouring when mature, live year-round in Arctic waters.
Historically, whaling was a large commercial industry in
northwest coastal waters.
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- Dall porpoises are the fastest marine mammals, capable
of speeds up to 30 knots (33 mph, 53 kph). Traveling in
schools of 8 to 12 or more, the “rooster tails” they
create when swimming near the surface makes them
relatively easy to spot. Because of their black and
white markings and dorsal fin, people occasionally
mistake them for killer whales but they are much
smaller. Unlike dolphins, Dall porpoises don’t usually
put on acrobatic displays out of the water.
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- Dolphins, particularly Pacific white-sided dolphins,
love to leap and frolic in a ship’s bow wave. Traveling
in large schools, often numbering in the hundreds, these
playful, sociable creatures can put on impressive
acrobatic displays. They mate in the fall, a time when
they particularly delight in leaping and somersaulting
in front of ships. These dolphins have a black back with
gray sides, a white belly and hooked dorsal fin.
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- Steller, or northern sea lions,
range from California to Alaska and can often be
found in large numbers at remote rookeries. The
mature males at these breeding colonies assemble
harems at the water’s edge. The rookeries are
distinguished by loud roaring and a notable smell.
Large males can weigh up to 2,400 pounds (1,088 kg)
and move surprisingly fast, aided by their rear
flippers. Sea lions eat fish, particularly salmon.
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- The most common seal found in the Inside Passage
waters is the harbour or hair seal. They reach 4-5 feet
(1.5 m) in length and can weigh 180-300 lbs, (80-135 kg)
feeding on fish and crustaceans. Greyish with spots,
harbour seals are the most common seal in Alaska. They
commonly poke their large-eyes faced above the water;
they have no visible ears and are clumsy on land.
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- Sea otters, once nearly extinct, can now be spotted in
kelp beds where they often congregate in groups to feed
on sea urchins, abalone and mussels. Unlike other marine
mammals, sea otters do not have blubber to keep them
warm but rely on an extremely thick fur coat that traps
air close to the skin. The river otter is a close
cousin, living near shore; both are members of the
weasel family.
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Fish and other seafood
- There are five species of salmon found in British
Columbia and Alaska waters: pink (also called humpy),
chum (dog), coho (silvers), sockeye (red) and chinook
(king or spring). Although each of the five species of
salmon has different spawning cycles, these runs of
salmon are an important part of the commercial and sport
fishing industries.
- In addition to salmon, these waters are home to
halibut, lingcod, and rockfish (sometimes called red
snapper), as well as a wide variety of shellfish,
including various species of crabs, shrimp and prawns,
clams and mussels.
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Bears frequent the tidal flats and adjacent grasslands
during May and June after emerging from hibernation.
Later in the summer they congregate along salmon
spawning streams to gorge on salmon. The Alaska brown
bear, including the grizzly, can grow to 1,000 pounds
(450 kg) and should be treated with caution. The black
bear, a smaller species, is also common throughout the
region.
Moose thrive in a variety of habitats, living in most of
the major river valleys on the mainland.
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Although moose
sometimes enter urban areas, these animals can be
extremely dangerous. Mature males can weigh up to 1,600
pounds (725 kg). They are the largest members of the
deer family.
Other animals include sure-footed mountain goats and
Dall sheep, found throughout the high sections of the
mainland, Sitka black-tailed deer that inhabit both the
islands and coastal mainland, caribou herds in Alaska’s
interior and on the Alaska peninsula, and coastal wolves
which exist in territory not frequented by brown bear.
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Birds are abundant along with coast, with more than 200
species recorded. The most common land birds are eagles,
ravens and crows.
- Eagles, both bald eagles and golden eagles, are
numerous all along the Inside Passage.
 The white head of
a mature bald eagle is relatively easy to spot in high
trees. They feed on fish, mate for life and have a
wingspan of 6-8 feet (2-3 m). Both eagles and ravens are
central figures in Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian
mythology.
- Ravens are highly intelligent birds. They resemble
crows in their jet-black colour, but are substantially
larger in size. While they make a distinctive “klok”
sound, ravens can also imitate a number of other birds,
animals and sounds.
- Crows are commonly seen foraging for food in the
intertidal zone, grabbing small mussels, flying into the
air with them and dropping them on rocks to open the
shell..
- Other birds include Steller’s Jays, glaucous-winged,
Bonaparte and herring gulls, Canada Geese, common loons,
tufted and horned puffins, pigeon guillemots, pelagic
cormorants, mergansers, marbled murrelets, spotted
sandpipers and black oystercatchers. Some nesting sites
are easily viewed from a boat.
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Plants
- Both the islands
and the mainland of the Inside Passage exhibit a
straight demarcation line between tree growth
and an intertidal zone that’s a solid carpet of
barnacles, mussels and rockweed. Just above
this, there’s often a coating of tar-like black
lichen.
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- The forests that thrive along the Inside Passage are
part of the North American coastal temperate rain
forest. Dominant trees include western hemlock, Sitka
spruce, western red cedar, Alaskan yellow cedar (at
higher elevations), and Douglas fir. Growing as far
north as Sitka, red cedar provided materials for
housing, canoes, totem poles, clothing and baskets for
Native peoples.
- Aboriginal peoples harvested berries and tubers from a
variety of plants in the appropriate season.
- Sphagnum mosses, sedges, rushes and
shrubs dominate bog plant communities, called muskegs.
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