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A Kenai Fjords Tours boat returns from an all-day trip through the fjords. This is the kind of boat we'll be aboard for our Sunday field trip. | ||
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A humpback whale noses around the charterboat. Laws strictly define how tour boats must operate when they encounter marine mammals. A whale like this nearly capsized a fishing charterboat a couple years ago off Homer, Alaska. | ||
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Ben Sherman watches for bears or something as he scopes out the landscape after a tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. The day Ben took his tour, it was pouring rain in the morning and sunny and bright in the afternoon--so as he will attest, be prepared for anything. |
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On a good day, you can see humpback whales, puffins, Steller sea lions, porpoises, dolphins, sea otters, and other critters during charterboat rides in the fjords. On a bad day, you might not see any marine mammals except for the ubiquitous sea otters. Here a close encounter with a humpback whale thrills lucky viewers aboard a Kenai Fjords Tours boat. This is the company we are booked with for our Sunday field trip. The whale, unfortunately, has a previous engagement lined up for October in Hawaiian waters. | ||
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Kittiwakes perch on a rock outcropping in Kenai Fjords. Most seabirds will have headed south by October. | ||
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A 30-foot long humpback whale shows off its fluke as it heads underwater in Resurrection Bay. | ||
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Steller sea lions bask on a favorite haulout in Kenai Fjords National Park. Some populations of Stellers are endangered species and are the focus of research by Alaska Sea Grant. |
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Marine educator Madelyn Walker (left) lectures to school teachers aboard a Kenai Fjords Tours boat. Madelyn is coordinator of the company's marine science explorations program, wherein school kids and teachers learn how to do a variety of hands-on marine sampling tasks in Resurrection Bay aboard a specially equipped tour boat. Madelyn will accompany us on our Kenai Fjords field trip, giving us the inside skinny on the region's marine environment. | ||
