Oh my gosh! The humpbacks were going crazy! They were blowing and breaching and tail flipping! There was quite a large group of them and everyone was on deck, taking pictures! One blew out of his spout and made a noise so close to the ship that it startled me! Such a sight! It's funny, though, because initially we were thrilled to see a tail flip from half a mile away but now we're jaded and demand they breach next to the ship!
Dinner was incredible! I tried the salmon soup and it was surprisingly delicious! The dungeness crab was so fresh, apparently picked up when we stopped in Petersberg. Remember that I am not--or was not-- a fish lover. The fish I've eaten on this trip has been so incredibly fresh and delicious that I've been converted! I'm not sure that means I'm ready to embrace the Friday Fish Fry, but at least I'm open to a good piece of halibut.
...the dining room was evacuated in favor of watching seven or eight black bears on the short, fishing salmon from a small stream inlet. It was too dark and too far away for my camera.
We were so blessed to have two wonderful naturalists on board for the duration of the voyage. They added another dimension of knowledge. (from the Cruise West booklet) Janine Kuehn moved to Alaska when she was 14 years old and earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry. She used her scientific education as an employee with the U.S. Forest Service collecting field data and spending time in the Colville National Forest in Eastern Washington. After earning a Masters degree in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho, she returned to eastern Washington to investigate the environmental impacts of dam removal on riverine ecosystems.
JD Trebec worked as a naturalist while attending Texas A&M and New Mexico State University for his undergrad and graduate degrees in Geography. He served as an interpretive ranger for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a guide for the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ (hey! I've been there!) and his passion is ethnobotany-- the study of the relationships between people and plants and the traditional use of plants.
The naturalists on-board and the guides throughout the trip were all extremely knowledgable and contributed hugely to the flavor. This is what I was searching for when I knew I did not want the Big-Box, Floating City cruise. They were very inspirational, as well, and all so in love with what they do. If they weren't, they did a convincing job of faking it!
JD gave the evening talk on August 21. I learned that black bears are found in all states but Hawaii. Frederick Sound separates the north and south regions. In the south, red cedar is dominant and so is the black bear. In the north, it is yellow cedar and brown bears. The island of AnAn, where we saw the bears, has the highest density in the world!
There is one brown bear per acre on the Admiralty Islands (ABC Islands) which we are circumnavigating now. Brown bears run off the smaller black bear where they exist. Look for the large hump on the shoulders of the brown bear. Grizzly bears are the same animal but are called brown bears on the coast. The bears on the coast are well fed with salmon, while the interior bears struggle to find food and to the joke was that Grizzlys are scrawny, hungry brown bears with a bad attitude! They spend alot of time digging, so they have a scoop face with a stop, like a labrador and a hump; black bears have a roman nose. Brown bears live in more open areas.
Salmon have to change entirely when they head out to the ocean. Who knew? Certainly not me! They have to change from a freshwater fish to a saltwater fish, which is called smoltification. In the ocean they absorb Nitrogen 15 while they eat. They find their way back not only to their own stream, but the same place they were hatched, and then transform themselves again! Once they reach the home stream, they do not eat again. Their only goal is to breed and spawn. Well, if you're going to breed, you want to look as attractive as possible, so the males develop a hump back, a hook nose and jagged teeth! Clearly, it's a salmon thang! Their bodies are starting to fall apart, with no fuel coming in and everything being expended to their final quest. Pacific salmon breed only once. But as the bears, eagles, and seals eat the salmon and discard them or expel them in scat, the Nitrogen 15 is being redeposited. Salmon need cold, clear water shaded by trees in order to spawn... and the trees are fed by Nitrogen 15. It's the circle of life, Simba!
Remember the salmon names by thinking of your hand:
Chum- sounds like thumb
Sockeye- you can sock someone in the eye with index finger
King- the middle finger is the biggest, the King
Silver- you might wear a silver ring
Pink- pinky finger
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But then it gets more complicated! Salmon have two names! This is how to remember their nicknames:
Chum- who is man's best friend? a DOG
Sockeye- if you sock someone in the eye it turns RED
King- is called the CHINOOK because a King can have quite an attitude and be a schnook
Silver- the lone ranger says COHO silver, away!
Pink- if you bend your pinky over it has a hump... HUMPIES
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Salmon are Anadromous, meaning they have the ability to live in the two environments, salt and fresh water.
Aelvin are eggs and fry or parr are the baby fish.
The average farmed salmon steak is nearly 10x higher in PCBs than the wild ones because the pellets they are fed accumulate those toxins. The feedlots destroy sea beds, spread sickness to the wild population such as sea lice, as they pass through that area. Farm fish have a grey colored meat so it is DYED pink to make it look palatable. Alaska salmon, on the other hand, is a sustainable resource.
FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS EAT FARM FISH!!!!
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