Humpback Whale encounter....

I wanted to share a Humpback whale encounter I experienced while kayak fishing in AK last month. I was bouncing a pink/glow Buzz Bomb in around 40-60 feet of water targeting Greenling right right outside the entry into Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales Island in SE AK when I noticed the water around my Outback started bubbling and churning. I grab my camera as soon as I could and switched over to video mode. In the video you can see this large humback surface right next to me and we both got a good look at each other. The whale seems to turn back towards me as I slip back into the kelp beds to watch. Why the whale swings back a second time in my direction is still a mystery to me, but I have a feeling the whale was as interested in me as I was in it. What an AMAZING experience. I'm just glad I didn't accidentally hook this goliath when it was below me.

Awesome!!!  HAd one go thru the mooching fleet at Point DALCO IN 2008, looked right down its nostrils.  An experience you;ll remember for life, so glad you got nice video!

Nice video, Jammer!  
That bubble curtain can be an ominous sign when kayaking, especially in AK. Supposedly, feeding humpbacks often circle  a cloud of krill they intend to feed-on releasing a curtain of bubbles that drives them closer together. They shoot up through the cloud filling their open mouths and broach their the way out of the water, eventually squirting the excess water out through their baleen. They then swallow the food still trapped in their mouths as they crash back into the sea. Often more than one will broach at a time, if they're fishing collaboratively.

If you encounter a big circle of bubbles it may be made by a whole feeding pack, that soon will be collectively broaching. So you may want to get out of the circle if you find yourself in the center.

That is cool! we had a sighting today at Sunset.

Awesome vid Jammer!

Nice work getting the video on - what a great experience.   

Nice encounter!!!

I gotta dig up some similar footage I have.  A few years back in Prince Williams Sound, I was trying to video some humpbacks I saw doing the bubbles thing.  I thought they were about 100 yards away, but obviously one wanted to check me out because it surfaced within 10 feet of me and scared the shit out of me.

-Allen

so frickin cool!!!  I had a whale encounter at Depoe Bay and also Neah Bay, though nothing as spectacular as that.

I just received an eye-witness confirmation of multiple humpbacks broaching through a bubble curtain, while collaboratively feeding in southeastern AK, from my son-in-law. He  wrote:

" ... great video.  We had this happen to us a number of years ago at Sportsmans Cove (southern end of Prince of Wales Island).  Looked just like the bubbles under Michael’s kayak.  The next thing we knew four humpbacks came up within 15 feet of us with mouths wide open.  They were fishing together and the bubbles aerated the water to push up the krill and then wow.  I have never seen anything like it since and it was like it was yesterday.  waa"