Frederick Sound to LeConte Bay to Wrangell Narrows - Southeast Alaska
We covered a lot of "ground" or should we say ''water" today. The weather is holding well. It is not sunny like the last three days, but is not raining. We feel so fortunate as the season is turning toward fall in Southeast Alaska. That is the reason the Sea Lion is headed all the way to Seattle this trip where it will cruise the Islands and coast of Northwest Washington and British Columbia and the Columbia River before heading to Baja for the winter.
The day started with a 5:30 am pick up of the Alaska Whale Foundation crew of Fred Sharpe, Pieter Folkens, and Sarah Grasf. At 6:15 a large group of Orcas, also known as killer whales were spotted. This group turned out to be a resident Alaskan pod. Pieter gave us an in-depth commentary of the behaviors as well as the history of the whales. There were whales in all directions, but we got excellent looks at a number of animals close to the vessel. There was what appeared to be mating behaviors with several animals. They were turning on their sides and back and one large pink protuberance on one of the males was observed. Each year new and different information is gathered by whale researchers and whale watchers such as the guests of the Sea Lion. Lindblad vessels share whale and wildlife observations with research groups such as the Alaska Whale Foundation. Even though most of the guests are not trained wildlife researchers, observations are still important, because it provides insight and data that the researchers can key off of to better study whales or any other animals. These observations hold true for not only whales, but also other animals such as bears and birds. This data is called "weighted" data because the validity of the data increases as the training of the observers increases. Therefore, validity of results increase from elementary school children to secondary to trained volunteers to trained researcher schooled in their respective disciplines.
Fred Sharpe is Chief Researcher with the Alaska Whale Foundation with 15 years of experience in Humpback observation in Alaska. He gave a slide presentation, answered questions and showed underwater observation filmed from a camera attached to the back of Humpback Whales.
Thoughout the rest of the morning some folks went out on flightseeing tours over LeConte Glacier as we cruised to a rendezvous with ice tours of LeConte Bay. After lunch everyone scattered in difference directions on more plane rides, ice tours, visiting the fishing town of Petersburg, hiking into the Petersburg muskeg. Petersburg is best known as a fishing town with a specialty of Halibut and Black Cod (Sablefish). Early evening saw the Sea Lion heading for the twists, turns and spectacular scenery of the Wrangell Narrows. Expedition Leader Betty Lu Krause told us sea stories as we navigated the Wrangell Narrows. As usual, we had the choice of meat, fish and vegetarian entrees for dinner, or a combination of all three if we wished.
We covered a lot of "ground" or should we say ''water" today. The weather is holding well. It is not sunny like the last three days, but is not raining. We feel so fortunate as the season is turning toward fall in Southeast Alaska. That is the reason the Sea Lion is headed all the way to Seattle this trip where it will cruise the Islands and coast of Northwest Washington and British Columbia and the Columbia River before heading to Baja for the winter.
The day started with a 5:30 am pick up of the Alaska Whale Foundation crew of Fred Sharpe, Pieter Folkens, and Sarah Grasf. At 6:15 a large group of Orcas, also known as killer whales were spotted. This group turned out to be a resident Alaskan pod. Pieter gave us an in-depth commentary of the behaviors as well as the history of the whales. There were whales in all directions, but we got excellent looks at a number of animals close to the vessel. There was what appeared to be mating behaviors with several animals. They were turning on their sides and back and one large pink protuberance on one of the males was observed. Each year new and different information is gathered by whale researchers and whale watchers such as the guests of the Sea Lion. Lindblad vessels share whale and wildlife observations with research groups such as the Alaska Whale Foundation. Even though most of the guests are not trained wildlife researchers, observations are still important, because it provides insight and data that the researchers can key off of to better study whales or any other animals. These observations hold true for not only whales, but also other animals such as bears and birds. This data is called "weighted" data because the validity of the data increases as the training of the observers increases. Therefore, validity of results increase from elementary school children to secondary to trained volunteers to trained researcher schooled in their respective disciplines.
Fred Sharpe is Chief Researcher with the Alaska Whale Foundation with 15 years of experience in Humpback observation in Alaska. He gave a slide presentation, answered questions and showed underwater observation filmed from a camera attached to the back of Humpback Whales.
Thoughout the rest of the morning some folks went out on flightseeing tours over LeConte Glacier as we cruised to a rendezvous with ice tours of LeConte Bay. After lunch everyone scattered in difference directions on more plane rides, ice tours, visiting the fishing town of Petersburg, hiking into the Petersburg muskeg. Petersburg is best known as a fishing town with a specialty of Halibut and Black Cod (Sablefish). Early evening saw the Sea Lion heading for the twists, turns and spectacular scenery of the Wrangell Narrows. Expedition Leader Betty Lu Krause told us sea stories as we navigated the Wrangell Narrows. As usual, we had the choice of meat, fish and vegetarian entrees for dinner, or a combination of all three if we wished.
