What was the best moment of the day? How can we pick?

Was it the humpback whales that some people saw when kayaking, or was it the pond lily - newly in bloom? Maybe it was the magnificence of the hundreds of square miles of forest. Could it be that there was a beautiful view in whatever direction you might be pointing? Or was it observing the fishing boats on the east side of Admiralty Island working their 24-hour season for a load of hatchery-reared chum salmon. As one guest put it "you would have to go to The Discovery Channel to see that". The fishing operation was most interesting with a small boat running the net out and circling around to the fishing boat again, while the main boat draws a bottom line or a "purse line" to catch the fish in a big circle net. The salmon industry is tightly regulated in order to correct the problem of over-fishing in the past, and to be sure we have a plentiful supply of salmon in the future. Wild salmon are encouraged to spawn while the hatchery salmon are subject to more intense fishing. This is all in an effort to strengthen the genetic stock of the salmon runs.