A boat tour of the Valdez area, with it's tidewater glaciers
and wildlife sounded very intriguing -- so I went. And it was well
worth it.
Rev. 07/26/01
Alaska & beyond - continued 7/24
Valdez tour
A boat tour of the Valdez area, with it's tidewater glaciers
and wildlife sounded very intriguing -- so I went. And it was well
worth it.
Onboard I met Hanspeter and Edith, a couple from Switzerland. Edith has her own web page which I will check out at my leisure when I return home. We exchanged tidbits of information -- they have two children, a boy and a girl, and two grandchildren. Edith openly admits she spoils her grandchildren -- why does that sound familiar?
The first major thing we saw, as we left Valdez Harbor was
the terminal end of the pipeline. It is a huge complex of storage tanks,
pumps and docks for the enormous tankers that ply the narrow channel into
Valdez. Our Captain has a wealth of information about the area and
kept up a almost constant flow about what we were seeing. He explained
that the huge storage tanks held enough oil to last the US for an only eight
hour period -- mind boggling.
As we passed an enormous barge, we were told about the changes
since the Exon Valdez oil spill. The barge was loaded with oil recovery
equipment. Now, in the event of a spill, the entire salmon fishing
fleet would immediately mobilize to contain and recover the spill. He
went on the explain that they periodically conduct drills, so now they know
how, and are ready to act.
Several
young girls work aboard the boat, which carried some seventy passengers,
as I recall. One was Jennifer, a cute redhead (yes Alice, different
than my brother Chuck, I like redheads). She scrambled about as a deck
hand, plus acted the role of a stewardess. Talked to her about her
plans -- she wants to become a sea captain. And has her eyes set on
the Merchant Marine Academy -- go for it Jennifer, good luck to you.
The first wildlife we saw, as we came out of the harbor, into
the morning mist, was a raft of sea otters, laying on their backs, bobbing
gently in the wake of passing boats.
The captain told us that their population has recovered, since the Marine Mammal Protection Act, to about to their original level, after being hunted almost to extinction, for their pelts. He went on to explain that they raft together, in groups, in the morning. But they will be found individually later in the day, as they feed.
An interesting tidbit -- a group is experimenting with oyster farming along the fiord. Since oysters aren't native this far north, the otters don't know what they are, they don't bother them -- if they ever develop a taste for oysters, they'd probably clean them out in a hurry.
My
eldest son, John, the school principal, has a fascination with eagles. The
mature Bald Eagles, along the channel are quite easy to spot -- their white
heads contract sharply against the dark green of the forest. John --
sorry I couldn't get any closer.
Further along we came to a beach littered with sea lions. Most were hauled up, drying off in the gentle sun. Some were splashing in the water. A number of puffins, the comical looking bird of the north, with the big beak, were also in the water. But they would dive before we got into camera range. Just pop! They'd be gone.
Along the steep rocky shore there are many sea caves. The Captain told us some of the original natives practiced mummification. They would place a deceased elder in the back of a cave, light a smoke fire at the cave mouth. The smoke would preserve the body. This was the farthest north that mummification was known to have been practiced.
Humpback whales are frequently seen, off shore, during the winter,
in Hawaii. The warm Hawaiian waters is where they come to give birth
and raise their calfs. I've seen several breach way up in the air and
come down with such a huge splash, just while sitting on my board, waiting
for waves at Turtles, the surfing break in front of my home. They couldn't
be more than a quarter mile away -- what a sight.
Here, where they come to feed, and I saw them again. I'm always thrilled when I get a chance to see these giants -- I never tire of looking for them..
I
wanted to see an Orca, Killer Whale, but we didn't find any. This is
as close as we came. This is the best northwest indian painting of
a Killer Whale I have run across.
A bear was also on my "wish list" and we missed seeing one too.
There are two tidewater glaciers flowing out of the ice field
in the Chugach Mountains, the Meares Glacier and the Columbia Glacier.
As we approached the Meares Glacier, the first indication was seeing a lot of small icebergs way up ahead. Then as we rounded the bend in the fiord, Unakwik Inlet, the face of the glacier gradually came into view.
Several miles from the glacier, we crossed over it's submerged terminal moraine -- where it had once stood. Water rose abruptly from a depth of a thousand feet to only 20 feet, and as abruptly, dropped again to 800 feet, as we entered the glacier's forebay.
The tide was rising as we crossed over the terminal moraine. Water surged over the shallow top as it refilled the glacier's forebay.
Gradually and carefully, the Captain maneuvered the boat, through the small chunks of brash ice, until we were about a quarter of a mile from the face of the glacier -- that was as close as he dared go. Then he maneuvered the boat so it we paralleled to the face -- and cut the engines.
To give some perspective of it, the face is about 200 feet in the air, and stretches a half a mile across the fiord, from bank to bank.
With the engines stopped, we could hear the glacier as it moved -- crack! like a rifle shot, as the ice gave from all the pressure -- CRACK! like a cannon when a huge piece broke off it's face, splashing into the sea water at it's foot, raising a column of water three-forth the height of the face -- 175 feet in the air. You could see the surge created by the falling chunk of ice. and a five foot wave rolled across the quarter of a mile toward us. The boat rocked, but the deep water kept the wave from cresting -- no, it wasn't surfable. It is a great sight to see so much energy and power.
Next, we visited Columbia Glacier. Twenty years ago it
began a major retreat. We could only go as far as it's terminal moraine.
The entire forebay, seven miles to it's face, is filled with floating
icebergs. Large icebergs, grounded on it's terminal moraine, block
entrance to it's forebay, and block much of the ice from entering the fiord.
It's face is 400 feet high and several mile wide. Some day the
forebay will clear and it's face again visited.
The tidal surge, twice a day, does wash some icebergs off of the forebay, into the fiord, as the tide drops and water surges over the terminal moraine.
The most beautiful iceberg I saw was an Aquamarine color. An iceberg is compressed snow, compressed until it forms into ice, rather than being frozen water. For this reason it has different physical properties than frozen water. It absorbs all the light rays except the higher spectrum, mainly the blues. This gives it the different colors.
What a trip!
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