Sitka, Alaska
Mysterious jellyfish, amassed beneath our Zodiacs this morning, seemed to mirror the glowing flowing aurora borealis painted upon last night’s skies. Aurelia aurita, the moon jelly, is a large gelatinous sea creature with four prominent central rings that thrives in some of the deep backwater fjords the Sea Bird explores. One must wonder how pulsing planktonic animals come together to form swarms or ‘smacks of jellyfish’ like those we observed today.
Looking through the clear water’s shining surface under nary a breath of wind kayakers marveled at the moon jellies and at multi-rayed sun stars, the sea paying tribute to heavenly bodies. Blessed with days and nights of clear cloudless skies in a land made of precipitation – rain for rainforest and snow for glacier – we were bestowed long views, shimmering northern lights and a sunny disposition.
The rainswept seaside town of Sitka, once Russian America’s capital city, showed oft-hidden peaks and shores on this stellar weather day. Picturesque and Fujiesque Mount Edgecumbe slept offshore as we toured a raptor rehabilitation facility, an excellent native artifact collection and a Russian Orthodox Church. Tlingit natives danced the eagles, totems and culture we observed into a moving legacy of Southeast Alaska, its people, land and creatures.
Cultural histories, a smack of jellies, the dancing aurora, a volcano, the intertidal organisms we probed, reposed bald eagles – all things contribute to our ever-growing appreciation and sensation of what is Southeast Alaska.
Mysterious jellyfish, amassed beneath our Zodiacs this morning, seemed to mirror the glowing flowing aurora borealis painted upon last night’s skies. Aurelia aurita, the moon jelly, is a large gelatinous sea creature with four prominent central rings that thrives in some of the deep backwater fjords the Sea Bird explores. One must wonder how pulsing planktonic animals come together to form swarms or ‘smacks of jellyfish’ like those we observed today.
Looking through the clear water’s shining surface under nary a breath of wind kayakers marveled at the moon jellies and at multi-rayed sun stars, the sea paying tribute to heavenly bodies. Blessed with days and nights of clear cloudless skies in a land made of precipitation – rain for rainforest and snow for glacier – we were bestowed long views, shimmering northern lights and a sunny disposition.
The rainswept seaside town of Sitka, once Russian America’s capital city, showed oft-hidden peaks and shores on this stellar weather day. Picturesque and Fujiesque Mount Edgecumbe slept offshore as we toured a raptor rehabilitation facility, an excellent native artifact collection and a Russian Orthodox Church. Tlingit natives danced the eagles, totems and culture we observed into a moving legacy of Southeast Alaska, its people, land and creatures.
Cultural histories, a smack of jellies, the dancing aurora, a volcano, the intertidal organisms we probed, reposed bald eagles – all things contribute to our ever-growing appreciation and sensation of what is Southeast Alaska.
