Show Navigation

Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

  • Portfolio
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Facebook
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area

Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

Search Results

48 images

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x
Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)

Loading ()...

  • My friend and I came across this “stagnating” glacier in Glacier Bay and because it was stagnating there were ice caves that had opened up beneath it. A stagnating glacier is a glacier that is neither advancing nor retreating, but melting in situ, in totality. It was amazing being able to walk beneath a glacier although somewhat precarions because stones were being dropped from the ice as it melted. The colour of the ice with the light shining through it from above was extraordinary; it was definitely one of the most “other-wordly” places that I have ever been to. If you looked closely into the ice you could see and hear all of the tiny capillaries of melt water that were gradually draining the life from the glacier. I wondered how long it had been “alive” for?Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period.
    Alaska-ice5.jpg
  • My friend and I came across this “stagnating” glacier in Glacier Bay and because it was stagnating there were ice caves that had opened up beneath it. A stagnating glacier is a glacier that is neither advancing nor retreating, but melting in situ, in totality. It was amazing being able to walk beneath a glacier although somewhat precarions because stones were being dropped from the ice as it melted. The colour of the ice with the light shining through it from above was extraordinary; it was definitely one of the most “other-wordly” places that I have ever been to. If you looked closely into the ice you could see and hear all of the tiny capillaries of melt water that were gradually draining the life from the glacier. I wondered how long it had been “alive” for?<br />
Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation9.jpg
  • The Glacier Bay Basin is a myriad combination of tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes that provide widely varying land and seascapes, and hosts a mosaic of plant communities, and a great variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife. It has many branches, inlets, lagoons, islands, and channels that hold prospects for scientific exploration and a visual treat for the visitor.<br />
Glacier Bay, the body of water, covers an area 1.375 square miles (3,560 km2) of glaciers and accounts for 27% of the park area. It was a large single glacier of solid ice until early 18th century. It started retreating and evolved over the centuries into the largest protected water area park in the world. It was formerly known as the Grand Pacific Glacier about 4,000 feet (1200 m) thick and about 20 miles (32 km) in width, which has since then, over the last more than 200 years retreated by 65 miles (105 kms) to the head of the bay at Tarr Inlet, and in this process left separate 20 other glaciers, including this one, in its trail.<br />
Glaciers are very dynamic entities and there are seven “active” tidewater glaciers in Glacier bay, which are advancing into the sea and thus calve off large chunks of ice that fall into the sea with a thunderous noise, raising large waves.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation1.jpg
  • My friend and I came across this “stagnating” glacier in Glacier Bay and because it was stagnating there were ice caves that had opened up beneath it. A stagnating glacier is a glacier that is neither advancing nor retreating, but melting in situ, in totality. It was amazing being able to walk beneath a glacier although somewhat precarions because stones were being dropped from the ice as it melted. The colour of the ice with the light shining through it from above was extraordinary; it was definitely one of the most “other-wordly” places that I have ever been to. If you looked closely into the ice you could see and hear all of the tiny capillaries of melt water that were gradually draining the life from the glacier. I wondered how long it had been “alive” for?<br />
Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation8.jpg
  • I made several trips to the amazing Glacier Bay National Park, in Avalon and just with my kayak.
    Southeast-Alaska-Avalon9.jpg
  • The Johns Hopkins Inlet is probably the most spectacular glacial inlet in Glacier Bay, but it was usually so heavily choked with ice that it was virtually impossible to get anywhere near the face of the huge glacier.
    Southeast-Alaska-Avalon22.jpg
  • Based on differences in their lifestyles and food preferences, orcas are characterised as "resident" and "transient". These are transient orcas that were probably hunting for seals up in the glacial inlets of Glacier Bay. Transient orcas generally form smaller and more variable social groupings than residents, roam over a larger area of the coastal waters, and their appearance in particular places is not so predictable. They feed primarily on sea mammals such as seals and sea lions. The name "killer whale" probably stems from observations of transient orcas hunting.<br />
Resident Orcas.<br />
"Residents" are more predicatable because they frequent the same areas where they have a regular source of food in the summer and fall. They feed on salmon, live in close and extended family groups (matrilines and pods) and are highly social. Families can be distinguished from one another by their dialects.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca2.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-glaciation2.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-glaciation3.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-glaciation6.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-glaciation4.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska-glaciation5.jpg
  • I took this photo from the deck of my sailboat Avalon rather than from my kayak. Trying to keep up with orcas in a kayak is an entirely different proposition, especially in difficult sea conditions against the wind and tide; that is an extreme workout!
    Southeast-Alaska- orca1.jpg
  • My friend standing under a stagnating glacier at Wolf Point, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
My friend and I came across this “stagnating” glacier in Glacier Bay and because it was stagnating there were ice caves that had opened up beneath it. A stagnating glacier is a glacier that is neither advancing nor retreating, but melting in situ, in totality. It was amazing being able to walk beneath a glacier although somewhat precarions because stones were being dropped from the ice as it melted. The colour of the ice with the light shining through it from above was extraordinary; it was definitely one of the most “other-wordly” places that I have ever been to. If you looked closely into the ice you could see and hear all of the tiny capillaries of melt water that were gradually draining the life from the glacier. I wondered how long it had been “alive” for?<br />
Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period.
    ice.tif
  • My friend and I came across this “stagnating” glacier in Glacier Bay and because it was stagnating there were ice caves that had opened up beneath it. A stagnating glacier is a glacier that is neither advancing nor retreating, but melting in situ, in totality. It was amazing being able to walk beneath a glacier although somewhat precarions because stones were being dropped from the ice as it melted. The colour of the ice with the light shining through it from above was extraordinary; it was definitely one of the most “other-wordly” places that I have ever been to. If you looked closely into the ice you could see and hear all of the tiny capillaries of melt water that were gradually draining the life from the glacier. I wondered how long it had been “alive” for?<br />
Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation11.jpg
  • The McBride tidewater Glacier, Glacier Bay national Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
The Glacier Bay Basin is a myriad combination of tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes that provide widely varying land and seascapes, and hosts a mosaic of plant communities, and a great variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife. It has many branches, inlets, lagoons, islands, and channels that hold prospects for scientific exploration and a visual treat for the visitor.<br />
Glacier Bay, the body of water, covers an area 1.375 square miles (3,560 km2) of glaciers and accounts for 27% of the park area. It was a large single glacier of solid ice until early 18th century. It started retreating and evolved over the centuries into the largest protected water area park in the world. It was formerly known as the Grand Pacific Glacier about 4,000 feet (1200 m) thick and about 20 miles (32 km) in width, which has since then, over the last more than 200 years retreated by 65 miles (105 kms) to the head of the bay at Tarr Inlet, and in this process left separate 20 other glaciers, including this one, in its trail.<br />
Glaciers are very dynamic entities and there are seven “active” tidewater glaciers in Glacier bay, which are advancing into the sea and thus calve off large chunks of ice that fall into the sea with a thunderous noise, raising large waves.
    ice-5.tif
  • Meltwater stream emerging from the base of a tidewater glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve at low tide, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    ice-4.tif
  • They originated in Asia and crossed into North America shortly before the Bering Land Bridge between Asia and America flooded about 11,000 years ago, and then dispersed throughout Beringia ( prehistoric Interior Alaska and northwest Canada). About 10,000 years ago an ice-free corridor opened up between the huge continental glaciers that covered Canada, allowing animals like moose, grizzly bears and bison to move south from Berangia to the Pacific Northwest into the continental United States.<br />
Moose subsequently evolved into four North American subspecies (and other sub-species found in Scandinavia and Russia). Alaska is home to the world’s largest, Alces alces gigas, as well as a smaller sub-species, Alces alces andersoni. Gigas, also known as Alaska moose or tundra moose, is found in Alaska, the Yukon and northwest British Columbia; andersoni, or anderson’s moose, is found in Southeast Alaska, the eastern Yukon, and central B.C east to Michigan.<br />
Impeded by mountain ranges, icefields and glaciers, moose did not colonize Southeast Alaska until the 20th century. They are far more recent arrivals than Sitka black-tailed deer and wolves, which moved up the coast from the south about 8,000 years ago as the glaciers melted and land was exposed. Moose from British Columbia accressed Southeast via the river corridors and arrived in the Taku River valley south of Juneau and the Stikine River basin near Petersburg about 1910.<br />
I had a memorable encounter with a large herd of moose in Adam’s Inlet in Glacier Bay in the middle of winter. I was standing on the mudflats at low tide and set up my tripod to photograph the moose on the shore. Gradually they started to walk towards me until eventually I was surrounded by at least 20 moose who were more curious about me than afraid; apparently their protected status in the National Park had made them fearless of humans.
    Alaska-wildlife-moose1.jpg
  • The LeConte Inlet and Glacier were only a day's paddle from Petersburg so it was a good day out for me whenever I was living in the town. The glacier is the southernmost tide-water glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. I always enjoyed the challenge of trying to navigate my way through the congested ice floes, and then trying to photograph the seals without disturbing them, which most of the time I was able to do because of the stealth that a kayak provides. Being in a kayak also enabled me to get very close and low to icebergs so that I could take close-ups of the amazing icebergs sculpted into infinite shapes and forms, and luminescent with ethereal shades of blue and green. I always used the Indian method of anchoring with a rock tied to an anchor line resting on the bow, and then an additional longer bow line with the last half metre wrapped around the rock, so that when I pushed the kayak out and yanked on the long bow line the rock and anchor line were dislodged and fell into the water.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking8.jpg
  • All the wolves that I saw in Glacier Bay were black, and the looked particularly striking in contrast with the snow in winter. Adam's Inlet was my favourite place to go in Glacier Bay, and gave the greatest sense of solitude and wilderness; there was always a good possibility of seeing moose or wolves in there. It was quite challenging getting into the inlet because there was quite a narrow twisting channel that flowed into a salt-chuck, and during maximum ebb or flood it was more like shooting the rapids, and there were a lot of hazardous shoals to avoid getting stuck on.
    Alaska-wildlife-wolf2.jpg
  • Ice calving off from the tidewater glaciers of Southeast Alaska can assume just about any shape or form, that gradually metamorphoses as they melt. This was one of the most anthropomorphic icebergs that I ever came across washed up on the shore of the Le Conte inlet where the Le Conte Glacier is situated, the southernmost tidewater glacier in North America.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation20.jpg
  • Two subspecies of wolves are currently recognized in Alaska; wolves in Southeast Alaska tend to be darker and somewhat smaller than those in northern parts of the state. Wolves are social animals and usually live in packs that include parents and pups of the year. The average pack size is six or seven animals, and pack members often include some yearlings and other adults. Packs of 20 to 30 wolves sometimes occur, and these larger packs may have two or three litters of pups from more than one female.<br />
The social order in the pack is characterized by a separate dominance hierarchy among females and males. In most areas wolf packs tend to remain within a territory used almost exclusively by pack members, with only occasional overlap in the ranges of neighboring packs.<br />
This was my first close encounter with a pack of wolves in Southeast Alaska. They are generally hard to see because most of their range is densely forested but the landscape is much more open in Glacier Bay. I was paddling around this island in the middle of winter when I heard some wolves howling. Around the next bend I encountered a pair of cow moose out in the water protecting themselves from a frustrated pack of wolves howling on the shore. I just sat motionless in my kayak and eventually one of the wolves trotted down the frozen beach and stood right in front of me for a few seconds before returning to the rest of the pack. It was a thrilling experience to look a wolf in the eyes at such close quarters.
    Alaska-wildlife-wolf3.jpg
  • Between mid-November and March is when moose typically lose their antlers; younger moose keep their antlers until later in the winter and it is usually only two year old moose that may still be adorned with their antlers come March. Moose are the largest living member of the deer family (Cervidae) and fittingly bear the largest set of antlers. Moose antlers are usually paired and shaped like the palm of a hand with outstretched fingers, thus the expression palmate. After a male moose reaches one year of age he starts to grow antlers that increase in size becoming more elaborate with more points and heavier for each new set of antlers he grows until he reaches his prime. After a male (Bull) moose reaches his prime the antlers start to recede each year until the moose dies. Every year the cycle is the same. In the spring antlers begin to grow from the skull covered with a tissue called “velvet”. By September the growth has completed and the velvet dries and falls off. Moose will often aid the removal of the velvet by rubbing their antlers on trees and shrubs (on occasion they’ll eat the velvet too!). The continuous rubbing on trees, combined with the dried blood and dirt will give the Moose Antlers the brown colour in the fall. They do not serve a useful purpose until the fall and during the mating season (called the Rut).<br />
This was during one of my best winter experiences in Southeast Alaska. There was such a great feeling of wildness and solitude up in Adam's Inlet. Very few boats go right up into Glacier Bay during the winter, and certainly not deep into Adam's Inlet. It was so peaceful up there in winter. It has always been my dream to spend a whole winter camped with the moose and wolves up Adams Inlet.
    Alaska-wildlife-moose2.jpg
  • I think that this was the only time that I ever saw a glacier that had melted like this into very symmetrical fluted ridges. I haven’t found an explanation for this peculiar phenomenon.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation7.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation19.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation17.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation12.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation18.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation15.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation16.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation14.jpg
  • Blue icebergs develop from older, deep glaciers which have undergone tremendous pressure experienced for hundreds of years. The process releases and eliminates air that was originally caught in the ice by falling snow. Therefore, icebergs that have been formed from older glaciers have little internal air or reflective surfaces. When long wavelength light (i.e. red) from the sun hits the iceberg, it is absorbed, rather than reflected. The light transmitted or refracted through the ice returns as blue or blue-green. Older glaciers also reflect incident light preferentially at the short wavelength end of the spectrum (i.e. blue) due to Rayleigh scattering, much in the same way that makes the sky blue.
    Southeast-Alaska-glaciation13.jpg
  • In Southeast Alaska, Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goats, and beaver are the most important sources of food. Research indicates that salmon are important seasonally where they are available, especially to young wolves. During summer, small mammals including voles, lemmings and ground squirrels are taken. Wolves will also scavenge, and coastal wolves will beach comb.
    Alaska-wildlife-wolf1.jpg
  • Ancient “blue” iceberg, Le Conte Inlet, Southeast Alaska, USA.
    ice-2.tif
  • Bull moose (Alces alces andersoni), Adam’s Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
They originated in Asia and crossed into North America shortly before the Bering Land Bridge between Asia and America flooded about 11,000 years ago, and then dispersed throughout Beringia ( prehistoric Interior Alaska and northwest Canada). About 10,000 years ago an ice-free corridor opened up between the huge continental glaciers that covered Canada, allowing animals like moose, grizzly bears and bison to move south from Berangia to the Pacific Northwest into the continental United States.<br />
Moose subsequently evolved into four North American subspecies (and other sub-species found in Scandinavia and Russia). Alaska is home to the world’s largest, Alces alces gigas, as well as a smaller sub-species, Alces alces andersoni. Gigas, also known as Alaska moose or tundra moose, is found in Alaska, the Yukon and northwest British Columbia; andersoni, or anderson’s moose, is found in Southeast Alaska, the eastern Yukon, and central B.C east to Michigan.<br />
Impeded by mountain ranges, icefields and glaciers, moose did not colonize Southeast Alaska until the 20th century. They are far more recent arrivals than Sitka black-tailed deer and wolves, which moved up the coast from the south about 8,000 years ago as the glaciers melted and land was exposed. Moose from British Columbia accressed Southeast via the river corridors and arrived in the Taku River valley south of Juneau and the Stikine River basin near Petersburg about 1910.<br />
I had a memorable encounter with a large herd of moose in Adam’s Inlet in Glacier Bay in the middle of winter. I was standing on the mudflats at low tide and set up my tripod to photograph the moose on the shore. Gradually they started to walk towards me until eventually I was surrounded by at least 20 moose who were more curious about me than afraid; apparently their protected status in the National Park had made them not fear humans.
    wildlife-12.tif
  • A pack of wolves (Canis lupis) on an island in Adam’s Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
Two subspecies of wolves are currently recognized in Alaska; wolves in Southeast Alaska tend to be darker and somewhat smaller than those in northern parts of the state. Wolves are social animals and usually live in packs that include parents and pups of the year. The average pack size is six or seven animals, and pack members often include some yearlings and other adults. Packs of 20 to 30 wolves sometimes occur, and these larger packs may have two or three litters of pups from more than one female.<br />
The social order in the pack is characterized by a separate dominance hierarchy among females and males. In most areas wolf packs tend to remain within a territory used almost exclusively by pack members, with only occasional overlap in the ranges of neighboring packs.<br />
This was my first close encounter with a pack of wolves in Southeast Alaska. They are generally hard to see because most of their range is densely forested but the landscape is much more open in Glacier Bay. I was paddling around this island in the middle of winter when I heard some wolves howling. Around the next bend I encountered a pair of cow moose out in the water protecting themselves from a frustrated pack of wolves howling on the shore. I just sat motionless in my kayak and eventually one of the wolves trotted down the frozen beach and stood right in front of me for a few seconds before returning to the rest of the pack. It was a thrilling experience to look a wolf in the eyes at such close quarters.
    wildlife-9.tif
  • Anthropomorphic iceberg, LeConte Inlet, Southeast Alaska, USA<br />
.<br />
Ice calving off from the tidewater glaciers of Southeast Alaska can assume just about any shape or form, that gradually metamorphoses as they melt. This was one of the most anthropomorphic icebergs that I ever came across washed up on the shore of the Le Conte inlet where the Le Conte Glacier is situated, the southernmost tidewater glacier in North America.
    Alaska-glaciation20.tif
  • We would have been motoring with the sails hoisted, as we often used to do, to assist our speed and stabilise the boat in any choppy seas. Glacier Bay was the northernmost place that I used to travel to in Southeast Alaska, and any trips there were always eagerly anticipated because of the stupendous mountain scenery and all of the dramatic tidewater glaciers and inlets.
    Southeast-Alaska-Avalon21.jpg
  • Dramatic declines in harbor seal numbers have been documented in Alaska, including a decline from approximately 11,000 seals to 1,000 seals during 1976-1988 on Tugidak Island near Kodiak – a site previously considered to host one of the largest concentrations of harbor seals in the world. That decline resulted in the listing of Alaskan harbor seals as a species of special concern by the Marine Mammal Commission. A 63% decline in harbor seal numbers also occurred in Prince William Sound during 1984-1997. Although seal numbers in the Kodiak area have been steadily increasing since the early 1990s and seal numbers in PWS began to stabilize and show signs of increase in 2002, both populations remain severely depressed compared to pre-decline population levels. Similarly, a greater than 65% decline in seal numbers has been documented in Glacier Bay since the early 1990s. Seals in Glacier Bay continue to decline at a precipitous rate despite conservation measures in place to control vessel traffic, commercial fishing, and subsistence harvest. The declines and lack of substantial recovery of some harbor seal populations in Alaska contrasts sharply with other parts of the world, where the species has proven to be resilient and capable of fairly rapid recovery from perturbations. There is no evidence that movements of seals between areas can explain these declines; the cause is unknown, but multiple factors are likely involved. Harbor seals appear to have responded severely to changes in carrying capacity and therefore may be particularly sensitive indicators of future change, such as ocean warming.
    Alaska-harbour-seal5.jpg
  • A pack of wolves (Canis lupis) on an island in Adam’s Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
In Southeast Alaska, Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goats, and beaver are the most important sources of food. Research indicates that salmon are important seasonally where they are available, especially to young wolves. During summer, small mammals including voles, lemmings and ground squirrels are taken. Wolves will also scavenge, and coastal wolves will beach comb.
    wildlife-10.tif
  • Black and brown bears congregate at the salmon spawning streams during salmon to gorge themselves on the bounty of fish choking the rivers. They always squeeze out the eggs with their jaws to extract the protein-rich eggs. I found black bears to be much more of a problem than brown bears because they were much bolder, and certainly very persistent trying to get to my food. On one occasion I climbed a tree and hung some dry bags out along a branch over the river as far as I could reach, but a black bear managed to climb up the tree, and reach out far enough to use its powerful paw and sharp claws to rip the dry bag away from the heavy-duty nylon webbing sealing the bag. Black bears (Ursus americanus) are the most abundant and widely distributed of the three species of North American bears. An estimated 100,000 black bears inhabit Alaska. The black bear is the smallest of the North American bears. Adults stand about 29 inches at the shoulders and are about 60 inches from nose to tail. Males are larger than females, and weigh about 180-200 pounds in the spring. They are considerably lighter when they emerge from winter hibernation and may be about 20 percent heavier in the fall when they’re fat. Black bears can vary in color from jet black to white. Black is the color encountered most frequently across the state, but brown or cinnamon-colored black bears are sometimes seen in Southcentral Alaska and on the southeastern mainland. Cinnamon-colored black bears are also common in Alaska’s Interior. Some bluish-colored bears called glacier bears may be found in the Yakutat area and in other parts of Southeast Alaska. Black bears often have brown muzzles and some also have a patch of white hair on their chest.<br />
Black bears are most easily distinguished from brown bears by their straight facial profile and their claws, which rarely grow more than 1 ½ inches in length. Black bears have adequate sense of sight and hearing, but have an outstanding sense of smell.
    Alaska-wildlife-bearAlaska-wildlifeA...jpg
  • Large fluted iceberg in Le Conte Inlet, Southeast Alaska, USA.<br />
<br />
I think that this was the only time that I ever saw a glacier that had melted like this, into very symmetrical fluted ridges. I haven’t found an explanation for this peculiar phenomenon.
    ice-3.tif
  • This was a breaching whale that left an unforgettable visual imprint in my memory for all time. I was camped in Icy Strait where there are usually many humpback whales, and the scenery is incredible, with a fantastic backdrop of the massive Fairweather Mountain Range bordering Glacier Bay. It was a beautiful, flat-calm, sunny morning and one whale had got off to a flying start. It was breaching repeatedly and I got off to an early start to try to catch up with it on the other side of Icy Strait. <br />
Unfortunately by the time I got there it had stopped breaching, as always seemed to happen. I continued to paddle my kayak on that beautiful peaceful morning, gliding across the mirror-calm sea with the sound of the water dripping from my paddles amplified by the stillness. Then suddenly without any warning I could “feel” something erupting out of the water nearby so I spun around trying to locate the source of the disturbance. Glancing over my shoulder my view of the rising sun was eclipsed by the massive silhouette of the whale leaping out of the water, just a few metres behind my kayak; it had an auro of the sun’s rays around it like a religious icon. My jaw dropped with astonishment, and my heart must have skipped a few beats; and before I could react to protect myself or my camera there was a massive thud when the whale struck the water and I was drenched by a whale-sized, icy cold shower: I suddenly felt very small and vulnerable in my kayak. I had experienced the whales so many times at close quarters, but it’s not until you can actually view one in its entirety hovering above you that you can really appreciate the scale of a whale!
    Alaska-humpback-whale-breach5.jpg
  • Harbor seals show variable movement patterns depending on their sex and age class, with some exhibiting considerable localized travel but noseasonalpatterns,whileothersshowmoreextendedmovements,particularlyduringthewinter. Seasonaluseofglacialfjords,wheremanyfemalesaggregateto give birth on icebergs in the summer, is common. Satellite tagging studies have shown that pups may range up to 232 miles (374 km) from their birth site, although most movements are less than 62 miles (100km) away. Juvenile seals can make more extensive movements of up to 186-310 miles (300-500 km) away from their tagging location; however, most remain within 100km. Adult seals typically make shorter movements and on average are within 37 miles (60km) of their tagging site. More recent tagging of seals that occupy glacial fiords has revealed movements of seals from one glacial fiord to another as well as one extensive movement of a juvenile female seal from Glacier Bay in southeastern Alaska to Prince William Sound, an estimated straight-line distance of ~ 520 miles (830 km). As more seals are being satellite-tagged, much more information is becoming available about winter and summer movements.
    Alaska-harbour-seal2.jpg
  • This was a breaching whale that left an unforgettable visual imprint in my memory for all time. I was camped in Icy Strait where there are usually many humpback whales, and the scenery is incredible, with a fantastic backdrop of the massive Fairweather Mountain Range bordering Glacier Bay. It was a beautiful, flat-calm, sunny morning and one whale had got off to a flying start. It was breaching repeatedly and I got off to an early start to try to catch up with it on the other side of Icy Strait. <br />
Unfortunately by the time I got there it had stopped breaching, as always seemed to happen. I continued to paddle my kayak on that beautiful peaceful morning, gliding across the mirror-calm sea with the sound of the water dripping from my paddles amplified by the stillness. Then suddenly without any warning I could “feel” something erupting out of the water nearby so I spun around trying to locate the source of the disturbance. Glancing over my shoulder my view of the rising sun was eclipsed by the massive silhouette of the whale leaping out of the water, just a few metres behind my kayak; it had an auro of the sun’s rays around it like a religious icon. My jaw dropped with astonishment, and my heart must have skipped a few beats; and before I could react to protect myself or my camera there was a massive thud when the whale struck the water and I was drenched by a whale-sized, icy cold shower.<br />
I suddenly felt very small and vulnerable in my kayak. I had experienced the whales so many times at close quarters, but it’s not until you can actually view one in its entirety hovering above you that you can really appreciate the scale of a whale!
    Alaska-humpback-whale-breach4.jpg
  • If I wasn’t kayaking at sea looking for humpback whales then the Stikine River was one of my favourite place to be. What an amazing, breathtaking river that is, which provides a valuable natural highway for wild animals from the interior and opens out onto a spectacular river delta. When I remember Alaska, it is somewhere that I always return to in my dreams, to feel the vastness of open vistas that Alaska provides.<br />
The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 km (379 mi) long,[1] in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and in southeast Alaska in the United States. Considered one of the last truly wild major rivers in British Columbia, it drains a rugged, largely pristine, area east of the Coast Mountains, cutting a fast-flowing course through the mountains in deep glacier-lined gorges to empty into Eastern Passage, just north of the city of Wrangell, which is situated at the north end of Wrangell Island in the Alexander Archipelago.
    Alaska-trees-waterfall1.jpg
  • The total Alaska harbor seal population is estimated at approximately 141,000 in non-glacial sites and approximately 15,000 in glacial fjords. Harbor seals are difficult to census because they can only be accurately counted when they are hauled out. They haul out at different times of the day at thousands of locations in Alaska; both at terrestrial sites and on glacial ice calved from tidewater glaciers. During any survey, some seals are in the water and not available to be counted while others are hauled out, but the proportion of the total population hauled out at any given time is unknown and must be estimated. One way to arrive at this estimate is to radio tag seals in the area, prior to conducting a survey. When the survey is conducted, the proportion of radio-tagged seals that are not hauled out provides a correction factor to estimate the total seal population (e.g., if 3 of 10 tagged seals were not hauled out, an additional 30% would be added to the count of seals hauled out to estimate the total population).
    Alaska-harbour-seal6.jpg
  • This was definitely one of my favourite camps in Southeast Alaska because Point Gardiner is such a spectacular location with tremendous views across Frederick Sound and Chatham Strait down to the Pacific Ocean, and Baranof Island with its spine of lofty mountains and glaciers. It wasn't the easiest camp to get to after arriving because of the extensive wave-cut platform at Point Gardiner, and if i was exhausted, which I usually was because the crossing from Kupreanof Island to the south was the longest of the crossings I had to do, having to carry all of my gear to the camp in the dark used up the very last of my energy reserves. There was always so much wildlife off the point. The strong currents of Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound converge there creating upwellings and challenging sea conditions, which attracts a lot of life there, from seabirds to whales. There are extensive kelp beds around the point as well. Just offshore from the point is Yasha Island, which was my favourite sea lion haulout for observing Steller's sea lions at close quarters.
    Alaska-camping-kayaking9.jpg