Whales

No trip to Alaska would be complete without seeing a whale or two.

We have always been excited to encounter these mysterious mammals. In Mexico we have had the chance to have short close encounters with young Grey Whales. That was thrilling, but here, there are opportunities to live with the Humpbacks in their environment. No, we haven’t been swimming with them, but we’ve ‘camped out’ for days at a time with them. They are alive and well. We see how they hunt by cooperatively creating a bubble net to surround small bait fish and then swim up through the corralled feed with mouths open.

I hope to see a full breach

I like to imagine what their underwater life is like: They are social since they travel in pods sometimes. They can communicate, but only the Lord knows what they are saying. What causes them to be seemingly rambunctious at the end of the day? They can flap their massive tail and create a wall of water. These are mammals with a semblance of family. And I wonder…

“How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.” Psalm 104:24-26

-mike