Humpbacks, orcas and Icy Strait wildlife
Humpbacks are the reason most people step onto a boat in Hoonah, and the crews spend the whole summer learning where they feed. Everything else in the strait comes and goes with the tide and the fish. This guide walks through the animals you may see from the rail, from sea otters to the occasional bear on a beach, and explains what the whale guarantees on a few listings mean once you read them.
Humpbacks come first
The animal on every listing is the humpback whale. An adult is about 40–50 ft (12–15 m) long and can weigh up to about 40 tons. Most of the humpbacks that summer in Southeast Alaska spend the winter in the warm water around Hawaii, then swim north in spring to feed on small schooling fish such as herring. Icy Strait, which separates Chichagof Island from the mainland where Glacier Bay opens, is one of the places they gather. A 3-hour tour from Hoonah gives you roughly 2.5 hours on that water.
What you see of a humpback depends on what it is doing when the boat arrives.
- The blow. A column of mist as the whale breathes out, often the first sign of one, and on a calm day you can hear it;
- The fluke. The tail rises clear of the water as the whale dives deep, usually the last you see of it for several minutes;
- Breaching. The whole animal launches out of the sea and crashes back. Nobody can predict it, and many trips see none;
- Pectoral slaps. A humpback rolls onto its side and smacks one of its long flippers on the surface, sometimes repeatedly;
- Mothers with calves. Recent reviewers on more than one tour describe a calf surfacing beside its mother.
Each humpback carries its own pattern of black and white on the underside of its tail. Researchers use that pattern like a fingerprint to follow individual whales over many years, and the crews come to recognize some of the regulars. Recent reviewers on Icy Strait Whale Adventures, from ~$302, mention a local humpback the crew calls Wedgie. For catching that tail in a picture, see our tips on photographing whales from the boat.
Bubble-net feeding
The scene reviewers write about most is bubble-net feeding. A group of humpbacks dives beneath a school of herring and blows a ring of bubbles around it. The fish crowd together inside that curtain. Then the whales lunge up through the middle with their mouths wide open, breaking the surface side by side. Gulls often gather over the spot just before. That gives everyone aboard a few seconds of warning.
It happens on some trips and not on others, and no captain can schedule it. Recent reviewers on most of the six main tours describe seeing it, and guests of Hoonah Whale Tours mention it near Grassy Island. Across the strait, Point Adolphus on the mainland shore near Gustavus is known as a humpback feeding area, and Icy Strait Whale Adventures may take its boat there. Reviewers on Glacier Wind Charters add that the captains pass whale locations to one another by radio, so a group found by one boat rarely stays a secret.
Orcas on some trips
Orcas, also called killer whales, travel through Icy Strait on no fixed timetable. They move in family groups, and the tall black dorsal fin of an adult male stands out from a long way off. Recent reviewers on Catch of the Day, from ~$236, report orcas more often than reviewers on most other tours, and reviews of the drone tour mention them too. Treat a sighting as a bonus. Some days bring both species. Many bring humpbacks alone.
Guaranteed sightings, no van ride
Icy Strait Whale Adventures boards guests at its own dock inside the port, so you skip the van. It lends binoculars plus rain gear, and its listing guarantees whale sightings, from ~$302. Read what the guarantee covers before you book. Free cancellation runs until 24 hours before the start.
Smaller animals near the boat
Between whales, captains slow down for whatever is closer to shore. These are the animals recent reviewers name most often.
- Steller sea lions. Steller sea lions haul out on rocks and navigation buoys, sometimes piled several deep on a single buoy while they bark and shove for room;
- Sea otters. Sea otters float on their backs, often in beds of kelp, and children tend to love them more than the whales;
- Harbor seals. Smaller and shyer than the sea lions, often only a round head watching from the water;
- Dall's porpoise. Dall's porpoise is fast and black with white patches, and it sometimes rides alongside a moving boat;
- Bald eagles. Bald eagles perch in the spruce along the shoreline and over the harbor in Hoonah itself.
Bears on the beaches
Hoonah sits on Chichagof Island, which is often said to have among the densest populations of brown bears anywhere. From the water, a bear is a brown shape turning over rocks on a beach at low tide, and the crew will point one out if they spot it. Reviewers on several of the six tours mention bears on shore. None of those tours goes looking for them. The same shoreline sometimes shows Sitka black-tailed deer grazing at the edge of the forest.
Two extras put the bears on the plan. Wooshkeetaan Tours runs a whale watching and bear search for six guests at most, from ~$275, over 3 hours from the Excursions Hub. Its catch comes from its own listing. Bears and orcas, it says, appear only occasionally. On land, Hoonah Travel Adventures drives a small group into the forest on a Chichagof Island brown bear search, from ~$164. It has no whales, its ratings are mixed (3.9 on Viator against 4.2 on GetYourGuide), and bears are never certain.
The 100-yard rule
Federal rules under the Marine Mammal Protection Act keep vessels at least 100 yards (91 m) from humpback whales in Alaska waters. Every tour on this site operates under that rule, so expect to watch from a distance. Now and then a whale chooses to surface nearer to an idling boat, which is the whale's decision and not the captain's. GetYourGuide's summary of Hoonah Travel Adventures reviews says some guests wanted clearer expectations about distance before they booked. A pair of binoculars closes the gap, and Icy Strait Whale Adventures lends them.
What a whale guarantee means
A few listings come close to promising whales, yet none of them controls the animals. Icy Strait Whale Adventures sells its trip as a guaranteed whale watching adventure. Hoonah Whale Tours, from ~$314, pays you back under a money-back guarantee when the trip finds no whales. Alaska Whales & Drones, from ~$250, claims a 100% success rate at finding humpbacks, which describes its record rather than a promise of a refund.
A guarantee changes what happens to your money on a slow day, not what happens on the water. Read the terms on each listing for what counts as a sighting and how any refund is paid. Hoonah Whale Tours is also non-refundable if your own plans change. Its whale guarantee and its cancellation rules therefore pull in different directions. Our comparison of the boats and their guarantees sets all six side by side, and what a Hoonah whale watching tour costs adds the refund rules to the prices. The months when humpback numbers build are in the best time for whales in Hoonah. Ships that also call at Juneau get a port-by-port comparison in Hoonah or Juneau for whale watching.