United States - Alaska- Afognak Island - Kitoi Bay

Salmon Hatchery

I thought Geographic Harbor was going to be the highlight of our trip.  I was wrong, every day presented us with awesome wildlife, scenery, and shared memorable experiences.   There was not one bad day, all of them were equally excellent. 

Gary and I have been to Kitoi bay previously, but we were there earlier in the season before the salmon were running.    We had only seen one Kodiak bear at Kitoi Bay.   On this trip, we anchored in the heart of the bay near to the salmon.   The water was alive with chum salmon, all queuing up to swim up the fish ladder to spawn.    The hatchery was crawling with hungry Kodiak bears walking on the shore, fishing for salmon, and swimming.  It was amazing to see so many bears up close while they hunted.

The next morning, I heard a lot of bears growling and rumbling.   Everyone was sleeping and I was still tired so I stayed in bed.   We took our dinghy ashore to meet with the hatchery manager to get a tour of the facility.  We quickly learned that there was 30 bears at the fishing ladder feasting at sunrise!  

Onshore to tour the salmon hatchery

Nothing to see here just a bear walking on the shore behind our yacht

Kodiak Cubs

Bear feasting at the salmon ladder

Bald Eagle

Mum and cub salmon feasting

“The Food Chain”

Chum Salmon

Mother bear tells this bear to back off he is getting too close to her cubs that are onshore eating salmon

Summary of our sail route with our guests

My niece is killing it with the camera, look how good we look! Lol