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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) on the surface at sunset just after blowing, Frederick Sound, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-blowing3.jpg
  • Dramatic sunset over Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Southeast-Alaska-coast5.jpg
  • This is a rare photo taken from a boat rather than from my kayak. I took it from the deck of a small catamaran owned by the postmaster at Tenakee Springs. It was always such a mesmerising sight watching the blows of the whales being illuminated by the sun when the sun was low in the sky. It was usually emphasised by the dark backdrop of the mountains.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-blowing4.jpg
  • This photo was also used by the Dutch company Verkerke for their paper products in the 1990s.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding6.jpg
  • On my return journey from Isla Catalina to Isla Monserrat I had a very unexpected encounter. I was making great headway with a good following wind when suddenly a very tall tail fin appeared alongside me; my first thought was that it was the dorsal fin of a swordfish. I looked down into the water beneath me and its identity was immediately confirmed when I saw what looked like a giant checkerboard beneath me. Only one large sea creature has markings like that: it was a whale shark that had apparently come to the surface to investigate me. It wasn’t the right season for whale sharks so it was completely unexpected. As it was my first ever encounter with the largest fish in the ocean I implored it to swim with me for a while but it promptly dived out of view.
    Kayaking- Gulf-of-California87.jpg
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding7.jpg
  • This is one of my favourite photos because it captures the serenity and hypnotic bliss that I felt when I was kayaking in Southeast Alaska. It wasn’t easy at times, and sometimes the distances seemed interminable, especially when I was tired and hungry, but at the end of another rewarding day with the whales I felt like I was imbued with their power and resilience, and could glide across the surface effortlessly for eternity.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking27.jpg
  • This was one of my very few whale photos that was taken from a boat when I was living in Petersburg: this was taken a short distance from the town. The products manager that used a lot of my work for Athena International moved to another big international paper products company, Verkerke based in the Netherlands. He continued to select my whale photos for the new company, and this is one of the first images that was used for a large poster.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding5.jpg
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  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Peril Strait, Chatham Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Humpback whales-17.tif
  • I was on my way to explore two offshore islands just to the south of Isla Danzante, Isla Monserrat and Isla Santa Catalina in the Bahia de Loreto National Park, when I encountered a pod of short-finned pilot whales; this was my first ever encounter with pilot whales in my kayak. They are very impressive cetaceans, with a prominent melon (acoustic swelling), like big black shiny torpedoes. They were very inquisitive about me and were frequently spyhopping to get a better view of me. Spyhopping is when cetaceans elevate themselves vertically out of the water to be able to get a better view of something.
    Kayaking- Gulf-of-California71.jpg
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  • I took this photo near my first real private accommodation in Petersburg. I had gone from living in the forest next to the beach in a shelter made from skunk cabbage leaves, to a polythene shelter in the forest, to a dilapidated old house, then to the cannery bunkhouse, and then to an apartment in the old Petersburg Pilot Newspaper building on Sing Lee Alley. I shared a darkroom in the old building with another local photographer. From there I moved onto the sailboat Avalon.
    Southeast-Alaska-winter3.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-winter5.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-coast1.jpg
  • Some of the herring they are catching are clearly visible above the lunging whales. This was taken during a period of clear weather when there was a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory, which created the unusual lighting.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet25.jpg
  • This was the place where I observed and photographed their spectacular cooperative feeding using a bubble net the most. Their baleen plates can clearly be seen in this photo. They have about 330 pairs of dark gray baleen plates with coarse gray bristles on the inside hanging from the jaws. They are about 25 inches (0.6 m) long and 13.5 inches (34 cm) wide. They act as filters to trap their prey when they shut their mouths and expel the water.
    Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet1.jpg
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  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Stephen’s Passage, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    Humpback whales-14-2.tif
  • A pair of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Icy Strait, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I never tired of photographing the whales when they were sounding (diving), because the flukes are such a beautiful shape and the motion is so graceful as they raise them prior to sliding into the water, whilst shedding a sparkling waterfall. There was also the additional aesthetic element of their ethereal breath, which always looked much better than the smell, which is foul and very fishy; research has revealed many harmful pathogens contained in their breath. There are also droplets of mucous that often coated myself and my lens, giving the soft-focus effect evident in this photo, but I usually tried to avoid getting engulfed by their foul-smelling breath.
    Humpback whales-8.tif
  • I was on my way to explore two offshore islands just to the south of Isla Carmen, Isla Monserrat and Isla Catalina in the Bahia de Loreto National Park, when I encountered a pod of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus); this was my first ever encounter with pilot whales in my kayak. They are very impressive cetaceans, with a prominent melon (acoustic swelling), like big black shiny torpedoes. They were very inquisitive about me and were frequently spyhopping to get a better view of me. Spyhopping is when cetaceans elevate themselves vertically out of the water to be able to get a better view of something.
    Kayaking- Gulf-of-California73.jpg
  • Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding20.jpg
  • The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a glowing band of light along the horizon.
    Alaska-humpback-whale-sounding21.jpg
  • Alaska-humpbackwhale-bubblenet27.jpg
  • I had been watching this brown bear for a few days and was determined to get a good photo of it, but after my experience of being charged by a bear in the same area I wanted to find a good place where I could remain safe and concealed so I found a tree with a good strong branch which extended over the small river that the bear often frequented at dusk. I had to wait a long time but eventually it walked right beneath me, and although it stopped momentarily when it heard the clicking of the camera shutter it never looked up.
    Alaska-wildlife-bearAlaska-wildlifeA...jpg
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  • Kayaking- Gulf-of-California76.jpg
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  • Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia) sounding, Stephen’s Passage, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
The unusual and dramatic lighting was created by a forest fire hundreds of miles away in the Yukon Territory. The smoky haze drifted across Southeast Alaska during a rare period of clear weather, intensified the lighting and created a glowing band of light along the horizon.
    Humpback whales-3.tif
  • This photo was taken by one of the leading humpback whale researchers in Southeast Alaska at the time, Cynthia D’Vincent. She was actually working with a film crew at the time who were making an IMAX film. We had a lot of encounters during the filming and she pointed out that I was getting into "rather too many" of their shots, and politely asked me if I could try to avoid doing that. I was getting fed up with having to breathe in the exhaust fumes from their fast boats, whilst I was left rocking in their wake. I continued to work in my usual low impact fashion, but eventually they got all of the shots that they needed and I was thanked for obliging with her request, and I was rewarded with a bottle of wine. <br />
The unusual lighting, and atmospheric conditions at sunset, was a result of an extensive forest fire in the Yukon Territory hundreds of miles away to the northeast.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking26.jpg
  • Indian paintbrush is a common plant in coastal areas of Southeast Alaska, and it illuminates a frequently overcast monochrome landscape with its flaming red bracts that surround the flowers. There are many different species that are difficult to identify, and colour variations from red to orange to yellow in Alaska. They are hemiparasitic on grass roots. The plant evokes the Native American legend of a young brave who tried to paint the sunset with his warpaints. Frustrated that he could not match the brilliance of nature, he asked for guidance from the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit gave him paintbrushes laden with the colors he so desired. With these, he painted his masterpiece and left the spent brushes in fields across the landscape.
    Alaska-vegetation12.jpg