{"id":2082,"date":"2014-02-08T16:22:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T00:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2014-05-29T20:21:34","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T04:21:34","slug":"the-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/?p=2082","title":{"rendered":"The Brothers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just about everyone passes through the area where Stephen’s Passage and Frederick Sound meet. Cruise ships transit this area going to and from Juneau and Skagway. The Alaska Marine Highway ferries plow these waters almost daily. It is also on the main Inside Passage route using Wrangell Narrows. What is all too common with all of these vessels is the fact that they are quickly passing through. Maybe they will choose a heading to take them close to the Five Finger Lighthouse. But there is another spot that I love to take a little time to enjoy–The Brothers.<\/p>\n

\"Brother<\/a>

The Sea Lion Colony at the south end of West Brother island<\/p><\/div>These are the West Brothers and East Brothers islands near Point Pybus at the southeast corner of Admiralty Island. In the 1930s when fox farming was the third largest industry in Alaska, West Brothers was the site of the Zimmerman Blue Fox Farm with over 400 pair at its breeding height.<\/p>\n

While the foxes are\u00a0now ghosts of the island’s past, you will find a very large colony of Stellar sea lions. Because the sea lions use\u00a0West Brothers nearly year round, you can also spot hunting orca in the vicinity. I once saw orca,\u00a0humpback whale and sea lion all from a single location just south of the two islands. The channel\u00a0between the two islands is navigable and very picturesque.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Nautical map of the Bothers Islands<\/p><\/div>The sea lions are easy to find, the largest haul out is at the southerly tip of West Brother. You will hear the sea lions before you see them. The raucous calls are quite loud, carrying well over the water. Approaching The Brothers one calm and foggy morning we could hear the sea lions over a mile away, long before we could see the islands.<\/p>\n

A word of caution, the Stellar sea lion is a threatened\u00a0species and boats should not approach their\u00a0haul out locations\u00a0any closer than\u00a0100 yards.\u00a0There are two notable haul out sites, the largest being the rocks at the southerly tip of West Brothers. They also use a pebble beach and adjoining rocks on the northwest side. The southerly site is rumored to have a camera up in the trees; so do obey the rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just about everyone passes through the area where Stephen’s Passage and Frederick Sound meet. Cruise ships transit this area going to and from Juneau and Skagway. The Alaska Marine Highway ferries plow these waters almost daily. It is also on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[310,127,136],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2dWYW-xA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2082"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2117,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2082\/revisions\/2117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nordicquest.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}