Checking in. . .

Just a quick note to everyone saying the site has been down, and though I have a ton to blog about, I still can't upload any photos. With that said, once I hit the Mainland this next week be looking for a lot of blogging all at once, as I will do my best to get everyone caught up with what's been going on the last few weeks.

Until then, I'm watching a sparkling Gulf of Alaska glisten off the starboard side of the Tustumina (the state ferry), and the northern end of the Alaska Peninsula fade in the distance off the port side. It's amazing you can get internet from a satellite out in the middle of nowhere for only $12 a day. The world continues to shrink at an alarming rate--even way out here.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last bit of August!

Bri

whaling

You have to have a permit to get this close!

My boss Mark's wife Bree Witteveen (wow! someone who shares my name!) is a whale biologist out of Kodiak. She and Mark flew out here to do a bit of whaling (photo cataloging, biopsies with a dart gun) and let people ride along.

It's pretty crazy watching Bree at work. For one thing, sighting a humpback whale and then hitting the throttle straight for it seems pretty counter intuitive. To top that off, pulling out a firearm once you've reached within 10 feet of it is really exciting. The dart Bree shoots bounces off the whale, taking with it a tiny core of skin and blubber that will later be looked at in the lab.

Check out the tracks on the GPS! We hit an area off of Nagai that had over 20 whales! We must have gone in circles for hours trying to get good pictures of all their flukes (tails) so they could be identified. I'm not exactly sure how long it was because I took a nap. . .

The only reason why I would ever confess to such a thing is because I know Mark will be reading this.

He's the one who took the picture.

Most of these whales spend their winters in Hawaii, and some off the coast of Baja, Mexico.
They are some of the most mysterious animals with the worst smelling breath I have ever experienced in my short lifetime. I feel pretty blessed to have seen so many of them so close!

Summer

The sun is out and I'm melting!!!!
That brown dot in front of the boats is a sea lion enjoying his lunch.

So far, all but 3 days of August have been hot, dusty and sunny. It is without a doubt summer now, and just in time, as the salmon season will start to die down in the next 2 weeks. The pinks have shown up with Area M fishermen catching over 700,000 pounds in a single day. Pink salmon is least desirable for anything but canning, and will be shipped out of town to be processed elsewhere. The Chignik plant canned pinks, but since it burned down there will be no canning on the Peninsula. I'll be putting up pictures of different salmon species for a little fyi blog later.

Lisa and I installed a marine radio in our apartment before she left for Kodiak. I'll miss her, but won't be lonely with all the chatter coming out of the speakers. Thanks Dad for the help over the phone! Thought I'd put up a picture so you could feel like you were kind of there. :)

And finally, my beer is done and delicious! Thanks to James for all the help.