Alaska’s waters are home to at least a dozen whale species, ranging from massive baleen whales that filter tiny prey through bristle-like plates to toothed predators that hunt fish, seals, and squid. Some live in Alaska year-round, while others travel thousands of miles to feed in the state’s cold, nutrient-dense seas each summer. Here’s what you’ll find and where.
Humpback Whales
Humpbacks are the most commonly spotted whales in Alaska and the star of most whale watching trips. They migrate roughly 3,000 miles from Hawaii to Alaska each spring, sometimes completing the journey in as few as 28 days. Once they arrive, they spend the warmer months gorging on krill and small fish to build up the fat reserves they’ll live off during winter.
Their most spectacular behavior is bubble-net feeding, a coordinated group technique where several whales blow curtains of air bubbles to corral fish into a tight ball near the surface, then lunge upward through the mass with mouths wide open. Humpbacks feed across multiple Alaskan regions: Southeast Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and the Bering Sea. They’re visible from April through November in some areas, with peak numbers from June through September. In both Hawaii and Alaska, it’s illegal to approach a humpback within 100 yards.
Orcas (Killer Whales)
Alaska hosts three distinct ecotypes of orcas, each with different diets, social structures, and movement patterns. Despite looking nearly identical to the casual observer, they’re genetically and behaviorally distinct.
Resident orcas have the smallest home ranges and return to predictable locations each year. They eat fish: salmon, herring, halibut, and cod. Transient orcas (also called Bigg’s orcas) have larger, less predictable ranges and feed on marine mammals like seals, sea lions, and even other whales. Offshore orcas roam the farthest from the coast and appear to prey primarily on fish, including sharks.
Several resident pods live in Prince William Sound, and orcas are found throughout the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska. Unlike most Alaskan whales, orcas can be seen year-round, with peak viewing from May through June in areas like Seward.
Bowhead Whales
Bowheads are Alaska’s true Arctic specialists. They live almost exclusively in Arctic and subarctic waters between 60° and 75° north latitude, spending their lives among seasonal sea ice. Of all large whales, the bowhead is the most adapted to icy conditions. Their massive, thick skulls can break through sea ice up to 8 inches thick, and Alaska Native whalers have reported bowheads surfacing through ice 2 feet thick.
The only U.S. population, known as the Western Arctic stock, inhabits the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas. They winter near the southern edge of the pack ice, then follow the ice as it retreats northward in spring. You can see bowheads close to shore near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) in April and May during their northward migration, and again from August through October as they head back south. Bowhead whales hold deep cultural significance for Alaska Native communities, which have hunted them sustainably for thousands of years.
Gray Whales
Gray whales make one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling from breeding lagoons in Baja California, Mexico, to summer feeding grounds in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas. They pass along Alaska’s outer coast from mid-February through May on their northward journey. Most of the eastern North Pacific population spends the summer feeding in the far north, though some stop to feed along the coast of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia instead.
Grays are bottom feeders, rolling on their sides to scoop up sediment and filter out small crustaceans. They tend to stay closer to shore than many other large whales, which historically made them easier to spot from land.
Beluga Whales
Two populations of belugas live in Alaska. These small, white whales are easy to identify and often found in shallow coastal waters and river mouths. The Cook Inlet population, which lives near Anchorage, is one of the most watched and most threatened. It was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2008 and currently numbers only about 331 individuals, based on aerial surveys from 2022. New surveys were conducted in June 2025, with updated population estimates still under review.
Other beluga populations in Alaska are found in the Bering and Chukchi seas and are considerably larger and healthier. Belugas are one of the few whale species that stay in Alaskan waters year-round rather than migrating to warmer seas.
North Pacific Right Whales
The eastern population of North Pacific right whales is one of the rarest large whale populations on Earth, with fewer than 50 animals remaining. Illegal Soviet whaling in the mid-20th century devastated their numbers, and recovery has been painfully slow. Between 1965 and 1999, there were only 82 confirmed sightings in the entire eastern North Pacific, most in the Bering Sea and near the Aleutian Islands. In 2022, at least two right whales were spotted east of Cape Sarichef in the Aleutians. Encountering one in Alaska is extraordinarily rare.
Sperm Whales
Sperm whales, the largest toothed whales, are present in the Gulf of Alaska and along the Aleutian Islands. They spend more than 70% of their time in deep foraging dives, typically in waters 780 to 1,200 meters deep along the continental slope and around seamounts. Male sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska have become notorious for stealing sablefish off commercial longlines during the fishing season, which runs from mid-March through mid-November. Because they live far offshore and dive to extreme depths, sperm whales are rarely seen on typical coastal whale watching tours.
Other Species in Alaskan Waters
Several additional whale species pass through or inhabit Alaska’s more remote offshore waters. Blue whales, the largest animals ever to live, are occasionally found in the open North Pacific. Fin whales and sei whales, both large and fast-swimming baleen species, also travel through Alaskan seas. Minke whales, the smallest of the baleen whales commonly seen in Alaska, are occasionally spotted in Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage. Dall’s porpoise, harbor porpoise, and Pacific white-sided dolphins round out the toothed whale and dolphin sightings in various coastal areas.
Where and When to See Them
The whale watching season in Alaska runs roughly from May through September, matching the peak months when most migratory species are present. Some operators run shoulder-season trips from March through May and in October. Where you go determines what you’ll see.
- Southeast Alaska (Inside Passage, Juneau, Glacier Bay): Humpbacks and orcas throughout the season. Humpbacks are visible outside Juneau from April through November, peaking June through September. Gray whales pass along the outer coast in spring. Minke whales make occasional appearances.
- Kenai Fjords and Seward: Humpbacks from April through October, peaking May through August. Orcas year-round, peaking May through June.
- Prince William Sound: Home to several resident orca pods. Humpbacks visible mid-May through September in the western portion.
- Utqiaġvik (Barrow) and the Arctic coast: Bowhead whales close to shore in April and May, returning August through October.
- Cook Inlet near Anchorage: Beluga whales, though the endangered population is small and sightings are not guaranteed.