Where They Go, When They Come, and Why Spring Changes Everything
Every year, thousands of humpback whales make one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom. They leave the warm breeding waters of Hawaii, Mexico, and the western Pacific and swim north. Some travel over 3,000 miles, one way. They don’t eat during the trip. They arrive hungry, and Alaska feeds them.
Understanding why they come here, when they show up, and where they concentrate is foundational to everything we do on our Hungry Whales Photo Tour each spring. It’s also the key to understanding why early spring in Southeast Alaska offers something the summer whale-watching season doesn’t.
Why Alaska
Humpbacks spend winter in tropical waters where they mate, give birth, and nurse calves. But tropical oceans are nutritional deserts for a baleen whale. There just isn’t enough prey down there to sustain a 40-ton animal that needs to eat a ton or more per day. So they fast. They live off stored fat for months, and by the time they point north they’re running on fumes.
Alaska’s cold, nutrient-dense waters are the payoff. The coastal waters of Southeast Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea, these areas produce massive concentrations of the small schooling fish and krill that humpbacks need. The whales feed hard during the Alaska months, building fat reserves for the next winter’s migration and breeding.
The whole cycle is driven by food. Alaska isn’t a destination for humpback whales. It’s a grocery store. The biggest one in the Pacific.
The Herring Connection
In Southeast Alaska specifically, one species holds the whole thing together: Pacific herring.
Herring aggregate in enormous schools in the protected waterways around Sitka, Chatham Strait, and the surrounding channels to spawn each spring. Timing shifts a bit year to year, but the peak generally falls late March through April. When the herring show up, the whales are right behind them.
This isn’t a casual relationship. Researcher Joseph Liddle tracked humpback whale abundance in Sitka Sound alongside Pacific herring spawning biomass from 1981 through 2011. The correlation between the two populations was 0.87. For context, that’s about as tight a link as you’ll find between a predator and its prey in the wild.
The numbers tell a story too. Around 1986, an estimated 60 humpback whales were using Sitka Sound. By 2000, that had grown to more than 400 individuals. These whales, feeding at rates up to half a ton of herring per day, were collectively consuming an estimated 20,000-plus tons of herring annually around the spawn.
Both populations grew together. The whales didn’t suppress the herring. Both were responding to favorable conditions in the North Pacific. That’s the system working the way it should.
When to See Humpback Whales in Alaska
This is where most of the whale-watching advice you’ll find online gets it wrong. Or at least incomplete.
The standard answer is “May through September”. Technically true. Humpback whales are present in Alaskan waters throughout summer, and the whale-watching tourist season runs June through August, lined up with the cruise ships.
But there’s a window most people don’t know about.
The earliest humpbacks reach Southeast Alaska in March, timed to the herring spawn. This is when bubble-net feeding is at its most intense. The whales are hungry from months of fasting. The herring are packed together for spawning. The result is concentrated, aggressive, cooperative feeding behavior that you simply don’t see at the same scale during the summer months.
By June and July, the herring have spawned and scattered. The whales spread out across a much wider area. You’ll still see humpbacks in summer, sure, and they’re still impressive animals. But the dense, coordinated bubble-net feeding events that define the spring window are largely done.
Late March through early April is, in my experience across five seasons, the best time to see humpback whales in Alaska if you want the behavior, the concentration, and the close encounters. Fewer boats. Fewer people. And the most active feeding of the year.
Where to See Humpback Whales in Alaska
Humpbacks use an enormous range of Alaskan waters. The main areas, briefly:
Southeast Alaska is the epicenter for bubble-net feeding. Protected channels, deep water adjacent to shallow herring habitat, nutrient-rich upwelling. This is where the Jurasz family first documented bubble-net feeding in the 1970s, and it’s still the best place on earth to witness it.
Glacier Bay and Icy Strait host significant numbers in summer. Point Adolphus and Icy Strait Point are popular destinations and the area has some of the longest-running whale research programs in the state.
Kenai Fjords and Resurrection Bay, near Seward, offer reliable summer sightings in spectacular fjord scenery. Mix of humpbacks, orcas, and gray whales.
Kodiak and the Gulf of Alaska support feeding humpbacks spring through fall, though they’re less accessible.
Prince William Sound is another summer option with the bonus of tidewater glaciers.
For bubble-net feeding specifically, Southeast Alaska. No question.
A Recovery Story Worth Knowing
There’s a bigger picture here, and it’s worth telling because it’s actually good news for once.
Commercial whaling hammered North Pacific humpback whales nearly to extinction. By the mid-20th century, the population was in terrible shape. Individual identification studies in Southeast Alaska during the 1980s counted mere dozens of whales where there should have been hundreds.
The 1966 ban on commercial humpback hunting, backed by the Endangered Species Act listing in 1970, turned it around. Slowly. The North Pacific population recovered to an estimated 20,000 individuals by the mid-2000s. In 2016, most humpback whale populations were removed from the Endangered Species List.
When a group of humpbacks erupts through a bubble-net off Sitka, mouths open, herring scattering in every direction, that’s a scene that wasn’t happening at this scale 50 years ago. This is what successful conservation actually looks like when you’re standing on a boat watching it.
A Different Kind of Whale Watching
Most people encounter humpback whales in Alaska from a cruise ship or a big excursion boat in summer. That’s a perfectly good way to see them. But it’s a different experience from what spring offers.
In late March, the waters around Sitka are quiet. No cruise ships. Most charter boats still winterized. The whales are feeding in concentrated groups, not spread across hundreds of miles. And the cooperative bubble-net feeding at close range is something the summer season rarely delivers at the same intensity.
Our Hungry Whales Photo Tour runs during this window on purpose. Small group. Dedicated charter with Gary, who’s spent his life on these waters. Five days positioned in the middle of the peak feeding. If you want the real version of this, not the postcard version, that’s what we’re offering.
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