Chatham Strait and Pavlof Harbor, Alaska
Images of a first day in Southeast Alaska:
Night-shadows radiating skyward through the rose-red of morning sunrise. Admiralty Island; the British are proud.
Towers of white mist against dark land, mushrooming skyward from lungs of ocean denizens. Then dissipating. Humpback whales soon to challenge ocean swells - seaward to mid-Pacific.
Calculated choreography among wild whales: our anticipation, thrill, disbelief as humpbacks organize, assign, cooperate and work magic. White-flashing flippers, sounds of terror, encircling bubbles. All herding herring upward, to be engulfed on a circular table.
A cove concealed, its silence broken only by a waterfall of salmon. Bears emerge. Mothers, cubs, yearlings and adolescents, here to feast and fatten for a sedentary escape from winter’s grip. We approach and watch. Then approach and watch again. Transfixed.
Salmon splashes and salmon parts, the latter littering streamside and forest floor; left to nurture other creatures and nature’s floral landscape. Parasites expunged from tortuous intestines, free now to re-infest and infest anew.
A cathedral fashioned of ancient forest. Giants rising from a sponge of moss, duff, litter; organic riches recharged by tree-fall and temperate rains. Home to bears, eagles, deer, jays. Nurtured by ocean riches packaged in migrant salmon bent on reproduction. Then death.
Ocean breakfast melds into dinner. Humpbacks, oblivious to tiny ships: repeat, repeat, and repeat into the evening, their intricate submarine dance. Food is paramount.
We smile.
Images of a first day in Southeast Alaska:
Night-shadows radiating skyward through the rose-red of morning sunrise. Admiralty Island; the British are proud.
Towers of white mist against dark land, mushrooming skyward from lungs of ocean denizens. Then dissipating. Humpback whales soon to challenge ocean swells - seaward to mid-Pacific.
Calculated choreography among wild whales: our anticipation, thrill, disbelief as humpbacks organize, assign, cooperate and work magic. White-flashing flippers, sounds of terror, encircling bubbles. All herding herring upward, to be engulfed on a circular table.
A cove concealed, its silence broken only by a waterfall of salmon. Bears emerge. Mothers, cubs, yearlings and adolescents, here to feast and fatten for a sedentary escape from winter’s grip. We approach and watch. Then approach and watch again. Transfixed.
Salmon splashes and salmon parts, the latter littering streamside and forest floor; left to nurture other creatures and nature’s floral landscape. Parasites expunged from tortuous intestines, free now to re-infest and infest anew.
A cathedral fashioned of ancient forest. Giants rising from a sponge of moss, duff, litter; organic riches recharged by tree-fall and temperate rains. Home to bears, eagles, deer, jays. Nurtured by ocean riches packaged in migrant salmon bent on reproduction. Then death.
Ocean breakfast melds into dinner. Humpbacks, oblivious to tiny ships: repeat, repeat, and repeat into the evening, their intricate submarine dance. Food is paramount.
We smile.
