Le Conte Bay & Petersburg
Waking up this morning on the National Geographic Sea Bird we found ourselves in a beautiful bay named Le Conte Bay. Putting all our layers of clothing on, we grabbed our binoculars and cameras and climbed into the Zodiacs.
Weaving our way through the chunks of ice that had calved off from the Le Conte Glacier we were delighted to see so many different sizes and shapes of ice. Some of the icebergs seemed artistically carved and were a brilliant blue that reflected in the sea. We learned that the Le Conte Glacier is the fastest flowing glacier in the world, the southernmost tidewater glacier in the northern hemisphere, and is constantly calving. We spotted an immature bald eagle perched on the top of one of the icebergs. Marbled murrelets and glaucous-winged gulls were observed floating on the sea in search of food. Every direction we looked presented a wonderful photo opportunity!
After lunch we visited the small fishing town of Petersburg, named after the Norwegian Peter Buschmann. He tried his hand at farming and, not having much success, he turned to fishing and “struck gold.”
Petersburg is located on Mitkof Island and is a charming town to explore. Some of us took a dock walk and learned about the different kind of fishing vessels moored there. Others crossed the channel to Kupreanof Island where our naturalists led informative hikes through a bog. We walked on boardwalks built over the spongy terrain and learned about the plants such as the round leaf sundew, bog cranberry and the ancient lodge-pole pine that are unique to this habitat. We also used bicycles to ride around town and stop and visit with the local people. Finally, some viewed Petersburg and the spectacular surrounding snow capped mountains and glacier by float plane.
Fred Sharpe from the Alaska Whale Foundation came on board and gave a fascinating talk about his research with humpback whales. Then we were treated to a most delicious feast of Dungeness crab. Alaska doesn’t get any better than this!
