Petersburg to Frederick Sound
Morning found us in Petersburg, one of the genuine working towns in SE Alaska. Instead of a dock full of huge cruise ships and an endless succession of souvenir shops, there is a dock full of fishing boats, three fish-processing plants, two hardware stores, a fabulous bookstore, and a Sons of Norway Hall. Our activities in Petersburg included strolling through town, helicopter flight seeing (including a landing on the Patterson Glacier), and a trip led by our natural history staff to a bog on Mitkof Island.
The bog was fascinating. As we hiked up the trail, the dense canopy of the spruce and hemlock forest suddenly gave way to open space, sparsely populated by shore pines and an abundance of very unusual plants. One of the most unusual was the long-leaved sundew. This is a carnivorous species, somewhat akin to a Venus flytrap, that acquires nutrients by capturing small flies in a spoon-shaped appendage surrounded by little hairs with droplets of a stickum juice. When the unsuspecting fly lands on the attractive red body of the plant, it gets trapped and ultimately digested. Another interesting dweller of the bog is Labrador tea. This is an ethno botanical classic, long used as a sedative drink. However it is now known that consumers should use great caution, because the active ingredients include a neurotoxin and several different glycocides that can have an unpredictable effect on the central nervous system of humans. There are not many animals found in the bog because of a lack of cover and forage. Nevertheless, we encountered Sitka black-tailed deer that were so lacking in fear that they might have been escapees from a petting zoo. One even crossed our path within arms length, far more interested in eating than in the strange creatures raptly watching its progress.
The highlight of the afternoon was humpback whales!
Come you baleened behemoth
You large brained beauties
Share what’s on your minds
Look you large lunged leviathons
You fabulous fluked phenomena
Let us in on your knowledge…
Consider it, you gigantic geniuses
You marvelous monumental mammals
Won’t you part with a few clues?
Harold J. Morowitz
OK, that’s a bit over-dramatic, but we were all in awe as they made their choreographic presentation—literally surrounding the Sea Bird. Blowing, diving, fluke-smashing, pec-slapping, breaching. We saw it all as we drifted in the midst of great whales this afternoon.
Comic relief from the intensity of our whale encounter was provided by our Hotel Manger Judy, who at recap demonstrated various techniques of consuming the fresh Dungeness crab that we were to have for dinner.
As the crab-fest ended, our expedition leader Steve let us know that this was only our initial encounter with whales. Stay tuned for tomorrow at Idaho Inlet and Point Adolphus for many more marine mammals!
Morning found us in Petersburg, one of the genuine working towns in SE Alaska. Instead of a dock full of huge cruise ships and an endless succession of souvenir shops, there is a dock full of fishing boats, three fish-processing plants, two hardware stores, a fabulous bookstore, and a Sons of Norway Hall. Our activities in Petersburg included strolling through town, helicopter flight seeing (including a landing on the Patterson Glacier), and a trip led by our natural history staff to a bog on Mitkof Island.
The bog was fascinating. As we hiked up the trail, the dense canopy of the spruce and hemlock forest suddenly gave way to open space, sparsely populated by shore pines and an abundance of very unusual plants. One of the most unusual was the long-leaved sundew. This is a carnivorous species, somewhat akin to a Venus flytrap, that acquires nutrients by capturing small flies in a spoon-shaped appendage surrounded by little hairs with droplets of a stickum juice. When the unsuspecting fly lands on the attractive red body of the plant, it gets trapped and ultimately digested. Another interesting dweller of the bog is Labrador tea. This is an ethno botanical classic, long used as a sedative drink. However it is now known that consumers should use great caution, because the active ingredients include a neurotoxin and several different glycocides that can have an unpredictable effect on the central nervous system of humans. There are not many animals found in the bog because of a lack of cover and forage. Nevertheless, we encountered Sitka black-tailed deer that were so lacking in fear that they might have been escapees from a petting zoo. One even crossed our path within arms length, far more interested in eating than in the strange creatures raptly watching its progress.
The highlight of the afternoon was humpback whales!
Come you baleened behemoth
You large brained beauties
Share what’s on your minds
Look you large lunged leviathons
You fabulous fluked phenomena
Let us in on your knowledge…
Consider it, you gigantic geniuses
You marvelous monumental mammals
Won’t you part with a few clues?
Harold J. Morowitz
OK, that’s a bit over-dramatic, but we were all in awe as they made their choreographic presentation—literally surrounding the Sea Bird. Blowing, diving, fluke-smashing, pec-slapping, breaching. We saw it all as we drifted in the midst of great whales this afternoon.
Comic relief from the intensity of our whale encounter was provided by our Hotel Manger Judy, who at recap demonstrated various techniques of consuming the fresh Dungeness crab that we were to have for dinner.
As the crab-fest ended, our expedition leader Steve let us know that this was only our initial encounter with whales. Stay tuned for tomorrow at Idaho Inlet and Point Adolphus for many more marine mammals!
