We 
do not stop for harbour seals when they’re in the water because they are terrified of everything (rightfully so, they are near the bottom of the food chain), and we are not here to stress out our wildlife. ~ Onboard Marine Biologist
It has been a very long time since I went whale watching. At home whale watching is kind of something we tend to only do when we have family visiting, and despite having done several seasons in Alaska, the only whales I have ever seen while working have been from the vantage point of the promenade deck railing.
But…that is when I am working. Which I am not currently doing. So, ha!
Since at the moment I am not working, and since Amras is saddled with IPM today it seemed the perfect opportunity to go and chase some humpback whales.
These are such beautiful creatures, and they are so massive! The scale of them is almost impossible to comprehend. And of course, they go where they like, so there is never any actual guarantee that they’ll be where we are. But we did manage to get extremely lucky as the day went on; hanging out with two solitary whales, once at the beginning and once much further out where a ‘local celebrity’ by the name of Flame (known because of the distinct patterning under her fluke) came close enough the boat that it felt as if we should have been able to touch her
Given all that we have done to their home it is amazing how much these gentle giants seem to trust humans.
Leaving the whales to themselves, we turned about and started to head back to where we started, with the onboard marine biologist providing occasional commentary as we went along.
We got a couple of bald eagles on our port side, a glacier over on the starboard side and a working fisher-boat right in the middle, this is what it’s like to live in Alaska. No big deal!
Fun side note that I was not aware of: Bald eagles do not scream or caw, they chirrup! Seriously! So, all those adverts that have a bald eagle emitting a majestic screech, have actually been dubbed over with a red-tailed hawk. The eagle’s natural call is not considered ‘masculine’ enough for commercials!
There is an irony to that that I’m sure will strike me much harder later on.
Our whale watching adventures over for the day we had an hour of free time to explore Mendenhall Glacier, which is as stunning as I remember it being seven years ago…except…except it is shrinking. It is substantially smaller than it was several seasons ago, and as much as you try not to see it, you can’t shut that knowledge out. It is a victim of humanity, like so much else. Perhaps, just perhaps, we will be able to become wise enough in time to save it; but at the current rate of melt the entire Juneau ice field will be gone by 2200. That sounds like such a long way off, it sounds like an eternity, but it isn’t, it’s a flicker, a blink. Wisdom has been too long delayed and cannot come fast enough.
But the glacier, with it’s tragic shadow, is breathtaking ,and the landscape it has carved perhaps even more so. I wish I could capture properly the way it smells, somehow cleaner and clearer than anywhere else I’ve encountered. Despite it all, places like this give me hope that….that there is hope. That maybe, just maybe, on this whole planet, there may be somewhere we haven’t completely screwed up yet.
It’s late in the evening so there are not many people in the park save for those few of us who are there on tour. I was the only one on the trail in may instances. Just me, the trees and the sense of feeling oh so very small…
Just a flicker, that’s all any of us have…just a flicker.
Be wise with it my friends, be wise with your light.
Places like this are few, and they are getting fewer.
And there is no Planet B
… but Heron’s, have you ever heard the noises that they make? Beacon Hill Park a few weekends ago was terrifying with the sounds of them in their nests by the bandshell.
I think I now know where they foley Pterodactyl sounds from.
I so enjoy travelling to these places through your blogs. It is a wondrous, at least to me, job you have where you can get to experience so much of this planet.
A decade ago when Master came to Australia, I took Him to some of the places I used to love for their natural beauty and the sense of peace I found in them. Without fail, every one of them showed the ravages of humans’ effect on our planet and it was heartbreaking.
Just a flicker, indeed.