Tour 1
Boat: St. Aquiliana
Weather: Overcast, breezy with a drizzle of rain.
After almost two weeks of painful crew training I went on my first official tour! It was a 4.5 hour charter and I was one of the three Naturalist on board- Chad and Laramie also had the pleasure of talking about wildlife during the tour. It was so much fun that I didn't manage to have anytime to take photos but we saw.... Eagles, several Humpback whales feeding (terminal fluke dives only), Stellar Sealions, Dall's Porpoise, 3 Moose! and Killer Whales.... Talk about an amazing tour.
The Eagles are every where in SE-AK if you don't see them then your blind, so that isn't too new for me but 3 MOOSE! That is unheard of! It was 1 cow and 2 calves hanging out on the beach across form Point Retreat, Admiralty Island - on the beach of Alaska mainland (Chilkat side). Very cool to see- we don't have any moose living in Juneau or Douglas Island. The last moose sighting on a Juneau Allen Marine Tour was in 2004/5 and was just one moose alone swimming! Officially those are the first moose I have ever seen in person :)
At the end of the tour we were lucky enough to also catch a pod (4 or 5) of Orca (Killer Whales) traveling through Favorite Channel they were speeding right along - so we didn't get a long look but they breezed right by the side of the boat long enough for me to see that it was a few females and at least one adult male. Males have very tall (6ft) and straight dorsal fins and females have shorter (3ft) curved dorsal fins. I thought that they might be a transient pod of Orca traveling through in search for food -because of the small pod size but there was no may to be sure.
A great way to start the season! Can't wait for more- hopefully I will be on the ball with my camera next time!
Cheers, Sarah
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2 comments:
I guess all that rough training was worth it?! So how does it work? Are you walking around talking to people on the boat or do you give some kind of presentation? I guess your tour company isn't kidding with their "Guaranteed Wildlife" promise?! You got to see a lot of animals on your first time out! I've seen moose before but that's it out of the animals you saw. The pod of Orca swimming by must've been a cool sight! Sounds like a great start to hopefully a very auspicious summer for you. Can't wait to see some pictures!
Adam
Nice fluke photo! I almost hit a moose while mountain biking on campus at UAF. They're very intimidating creatures close up. You'd never know they're belligerent brutes to see them standing around munch on swampgrass and lilies.
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