Whittier Boat Tours Through Prince William Sound
Whittier boat tours launch from a deep-water port surrounded by glacier-carved fjords, offering access to tidewater glaciers, sea otter colonies, and protected wilderness waters. Operators range from small wildlife-focused vessels to larger sightseeing catamarans, with routes covering Blackstone Bay, Surprise Glacier, and the western sound. Most Prince William Sound excursions from Whittier include hydrophone listening for marine mammals and stops near calving glacier faces.
The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel opened Whittier to road traffic in 2000, yet the harbor's commercial fishing fleet predates the 1964 Good Friday earthquake by half a century. Prince William Sound cradles twenty-six tidewater glaciers, more than any comparable fjord system in North America.
Surprise Glacier and Blackstone Glacier discharge icebergs the size of residential buildings into narrow waterways patrolled by harbor seals and Steller sea lions. The harbor sits at the terminus of Passage Canal, a seventeen-mile corridor carved during the Pleistocene and deepened by glacial melt. Whittier boat tours depart from Harbor View Drive, where commercial operators maintain year-round berths despite winter ice.
The Sound's nutrient-rich waters support one of the continent's densest populations of humpback whales. Each spring, returning pods feed on krill swarms concentrated along the continental shelf. Orca pods—both resident fish-eaters and transient marine-mammal hunters—patrol the outer channels. Sea otters raft in kelp beds near Coxe Glacier, their populations rebounding after near-extirpation during the maritime fur trade. Black-legged kittiwakes and tufted puffins nest on vertical cliff faces above the waterline. Naturalist guides carry hydrophones to relay whale vocalizations and spotting scopes calibrated for distant wildlife.
Whittier's position within Chugach National Forest ensures that boat cruises navigate federally protected watersheds. The forest's western boundary runs along the Sound's eastern shore, encompassing old-growth Sitka spruce and hemlock stands. Tidewater glaciers originate in the Sargent Icefield, a remnant ice cap covering two hundred square miles. Calving events—when vertical ice faces collapse into the sea—generate waves that propagate across the fjord. Tour operators maintain minimum safe distances of three hundred meters from active glacier faces, a regulation enforced by the U.S. Forest Service. Multi-hour excursions venture to Surprise Cove, where glacial flour tints the water turquoise, and to Blackstone Bay, where three separate glaciers converge. Whittier boat tours run daily from April through October, with reduced frequency during shoulder months when sea ice restricts passage.
11 hr
