sanders Posted December 2, 2022 #1 Share Posted December 2, 2022 (edited) How common is it to see sea otters if not on an excursion in Sitka, Haines, Juneau or Ketchikan? I've been to Juneau and Ketchikan numerous times but have never seen them. Thanks in advance. Edited December 2, 2022 by sanders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Aurora Posted December 2, 2022 #2 Share Posted December 2, 2022 While I don't remember seeing a sea otter in Haines, we've spotted them in outside of Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka. Seward seems to be a particularly good area for spotting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 2, 2022 Author #3 Share Posted December 2, 2022 Thanks. Appreciate that. BTW, your avatar reminded me of another question... have you ever seen the Northern Lights in the area of these 4 ports in May? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cw2go Posted December 2, 2022 #4 Share Posted December 2, 2022 If you're doing a north or south bound sailing. Phillips cruises out of Whittier will be a great opportunity for otters and the 26 glaciers tour is fantastic. Bring binoculars and sunglasses, you'll thank me later! 😎 Patty 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 2, 2022 Author #5 Share Posted December 2, 2022 Doing a round trip this time so won’t be in Whittier. Thanks for the info though I will file it away for another time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beluga_baby Posted December 3, 2022 #6 Share Posted December 3, 2022 I saw two or three sea otters from the ship while we were sailing into Sitka right before we docked. From my understanding there is a lot in that area. I was actually surprised we saw them, we were on the 14th deck of the ship looking down. I would have thought they were too small to see from up there, but they are bigger than I expected, and with a zoomed in camera or binoculars it was easy to confirm it was them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 3, 2022 Author #7 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Thanks... I will keep watch for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashland Posted December 4, 2022 #8 Share Posted December 4, 2022 On 12/2/2022 at 2:01 PM, sanders said: Thanks. Appreciate that. BTW, your avatar reminded me of another question... have you ever seen the Northern Lights in the area of these 4 ports in May? Northern lights at these ports in May...no...But we have seen them once on an early September cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 8, 2022 Author #9 Share Posted December 8, 2022 Rats... thanks Ashland. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 10, 2022 Author #10 Share Posted December 10, 2022 Would it be possible to see puffins somewhere if you don't take an excursion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Crew News Posted December 10, 2022 #11 Share Posted December 10, 2022 4 hours ago, sanders said: Would it be possible to see puffins somewhere if you don't take an excursion? That is hard to say. In all of my visits to Alaska, taking lots of bird photos, I was able to see puffins only on an excursion from Homer Alaska in May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 10, 2022 Author #12 Share Posted December 10, 2022 Nice photos... sigh... maybe one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfilpus Posted December 10, 2022 #13 Share Posted December 10, 2022 We saw sea otters in Resurrection Bay, just outside of Seward harbor and puffins in Kenai Fjords National Park; both on an excursion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted December 17, 2022 Author #14 Share Posted December 17, 2022 Thanks… sorry for the late reply just saw this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Coral Posted December 24, 2022 #15 Share Posted December 24, 2022 I always see them going to Glacier Bay from the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdk4asu Posted January 15, 2023 #16 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Sea otters generally hang out along the coastlines so that is why there have been comments about Seward and Sitka. I have read there are tons of them in Seward and along the Gulf of Alaska near there. I know it is a bit off topic, but if you REALLY want to see Sea Otters up close, and always know you will see them, go to Morro Bay in California. There is a whole family of them that move around the northern edge of the bay, as well as Monterey Bay and the coastline right off of Cannery Row in Monterey, next to the aquarium. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atobols Posted January 15, 2023 #17 Share Posted January 15, 2023 On 12/9/2022 at 7:39 PM, sanders said: Would it be possible to see puffins somewhere if you don't take an excursion? We saw a puffin floating by the ship when we were in Glacier Bay. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atobols Posted January 15, 2023 #18 Share Posted January 15, 2023 7 hours ago, jdk4asu said: Sea otters generally hang out along the coastlines so that is why there have been comments about Seward and Sitka. I have read there are tons of them in Seward and along the Gulf of Alaska near there. I know it is a bit off topic, but if you REALLY want to see Sea Otters up close, and always know you will see them, go to Morro Bay in California. There is a whole family of them that move around the northern edge of the bay, as well as Monterey Bay and the coastline right off of Cannery Row in Monterey, next to the aquarium. Hope that helps! I was thinking the same thing. We like to kayak in Morro Bay and we always have otters floating along next to us. I've seen them lots of times in Monterey Bay from a scuba diving or whale watching boat but I've never kayaked there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Ferry_Watcher Posted January 15, 2023 #19 Share Posted January 15, 2023 We saw a raft of otters while on a whale watching excursion at Icy Strait Point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare eileeshb Posted January 15, 2023 #20 Share Posted January 15, 2023 3 hours ago, atobols said: We saw a puffin floating by the ship when we were in Glacier Bay. There’s a few places in Ireland with heaps of Puffins in the summer, the most popular would be the cliffs of moher (a stones throw from my home turf) and also the Skelligs down in Kerry. There were so many puffins around when Star Wars was being filmed on Skellig Michael that they created the porgs in order to hide them via cgi. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted January 17, 2023 Author #21 Share Posted January 17, 2023 Thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islandchick Posted February 6, 2023 #22 Share Posted February 6, 2023 Tons of otters and puffins on wildlife cruise out of Seward. Unfortunately haven't seen them along the regular Alaska cruise route. To late to see northern lights in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanders Posted May 16, 2023 Author #23 Share Posted May 16, 2023 Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CynCyn Posted May 17, 2023 #24 Share Posted May 17, 2023 We saw several otter on a whale watch from Victoria. Sadly, we didn’t see any whales! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rothko1 Posted May 18, 2023 #25 Share Posted May 18, 2023 We went on a sea otter excursion cruise in Sitka that went out past the main harbor. We saw some otters, and everyone was photographing them. Then a few of us spotted a couple of humpback whales and our excursion quickly switched from sea otters to whale watching, which was fantastic. We tracked the whales, and then actually saw a gray whale also. So while the sea otters were interesting, they quickly lost out to the excitement of the whales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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