The 44 year old humpback was known to everyone in the
national park so it was a tragic day when her lifeless body was discovered
floating in the bay, the victim of a cruise ship hit and run.
After providing many meals for bears and wolves, Snow’s
skeleton was cleaned and reassembled and put on display at the Glacier Bay
National Park visitor’s center in order to help educate visitors about humpback
whales. Needless to say, it is a large skeleton.
Today we traversed the length of Glacier Bay, the most
pristine place I’ve ever seen. There is
no development at all. Just miles and miles and miles of turquoise water,
glaciers, icebergs, mountains up to 15,000 feet, and forest. The only way to
get in and around the park, which is the size of Rhode Island, is by boat.
Unfortunately the mystique of the wilderness is compromised when one of those
gigantic cruise ships races by.
From the ship’s deck, we saw mountain goats, a family of
bears (a sow and three cubs), and most
exciting of all: a pod of Orcas. They were wonderful to watch, their dorsals
bobbing up and down in glassy water.
The whole day was narrated by a couple of guests: a park ranger
and a representative of the Tlinket people, both who told stories and
educational facts about everything we were observing. I’m sure those hoards on
the big cruise liners don’t have a fraction of the experience we are getting.
Just another day in Alaska on the National Geographic Sea
Lion.
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