Harbor Seals, Mom and Pup, Tracy Arm, Alaska #3401

Last week I spent a day in Tracy Arm onboard the Captain Cook and shot this image of a mother harbor seal checking in with its pup. The iceberg jam in the bay in front of South Sawyer Glacier is one of the top three most productive harbor seal pupping areas in Southeast Alaska along with LeConte Glacier near Petersburg and Johns Hopkins Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. Harbor seals pup on icebergs in ice-clogged bays because the ice gives the seals a wall of protection from their main predator, the killer whale. Glacier ice is very sharp and cuts the whales’ skin. Additionally, the thick ice is hard for the killer whales to travel through using their echolocation system of navigation. Enjoy and thank you for visiting – Camera: #Nikon #D850, Lens: # Nikkor 80-400mm, Digital Capture, Hand-Held, ©Mark Kelley