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The Oohs and Ahs of an Alaskan CruiseOn Board with 17 passengers 10 years after the Exxon Valdezarticle and photos by Stuart Wasserman
Out of this disaster came the birth (mostly with Exxon money) of a world-class marine science center that opened last June in the town of Seward. It is called The Alaska Sea Life and it makes for a great family visit. Built with $36 million dollars in Exxon fines, the center is part educational facility and part research facility. It's mission is to study the full effects of the spill and the life cycles of the inhabitants of Prince William Sound.
Special pleasures on the boat came when we sailed through passages and into coves the big ships can't reach because of their size. We got close to sea lion rookeries and felt like we could almost reach out and touch the glaciers. There are 100,000 of them in Alaska.
Our five-day journey took us through narrow passageways to the College Fjord where many of the glaciers were named by the famous 1899 Harriman Expedition. We saw one of the glacier granddaddies -- the 42-mile-long Columbia Glacier, which seems to litter the sea with calving icebergs the size of Volkswagens. And we visited Cordova which features the nearby Copper River Delta, the largest estuary in North America. Though we saw bald eagles, sea lions, harbor seals, otters, black-legged kittiwakes, trumpeter swans, moose, and other assorted wildlife, it was the jumping and diving humpback whales that brought the greatest joy, the greatest memories and the greatest cacophony of sounds from the passengers on board. Prince William Sound -- 10 Years After
There are plenty of hotels with high price tags that range up to $300 a night. The growth of B &B's has been phenomenal. In 1990, B&B's numbered 95. Today there are 350. I found the Copper Whale Inn, built originally in 1930 as the Romig House to be reasonably priced and near the center of everything. It is owned and run by a former fish biologist whose twin goals are to "accommodate and educate." View rooms available overlooking Cook Inlet. Tel: (907) 258-7999 http://www.alaskaone.com/copper/ Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West: 800 426-7702 This largest of Alaska's small ships company also runs boat tours of the Columbia & Snake Rivers in the Pacific Northwest, the California Wine Country and this years opens business in the whale watching area of Mexico's Baja California. Anchorage Visitors Bureau: (907) 276-4118 Alaska Sea Life CenterLocation: 125 miles from Anchorage along the Seward Scenic Byway, one of just 30 scenic highways in the country. The drive is an easy 2 1/2 hour from Anchorage on the southern shore of the Kenai Peninsula. State officials expect the center to rival Denali National Park within a few years. The 115,000 square-foot center was built for $56 million dollars with $37.5 coming from Exxon as a result of the oil spill. The center is a research facility, a rehabilitation center and a tourist attraction. Open: year-round. Telephone: 800-224-2525. http://www.alaskasealife.org © Stuart Wasserman 1999 |
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Looking back, the passengers gathered together on the bow of the small ship sounded very much like the audio portion of an x-rated movie,
inappropriate as that is to say.
Luckily no one was recording us! The oohs and ahhs and other moans of exclamation we produced in unison watching a pod of humpback whales
leaping from the depths of these deep blue Alaskan waters sounded very much like, well, ah,
ahhh, sex. And although sex can be good with the right person -- seeing the whales was better!
We were a small group aged 14 to 80-years-old and cruising along the Chugash and Kenai Mountain ranges among some of the 15,000 square miles
that make up Prince William Sound, Alaska.
While some Alaska bound passengers seek out those gleaming big ships that hold 2,000 people or more and offer certain amenities like weight
rooms and swimming pools, the ship we were on, the Spirit of Glacier Bay, offered proximity ---proximity to glaciers and proxmimity to whales and
birds and sealions and otters. The Spirit of Glacier Bay, which is one of Alaska Sightseeing's half dozen ships, holds only 52 passengers and that's
when it is filled to capacity. This five-day mid-June 1998 cruise had only 17 passengers aboard: among them, a retired gentleman from Vermont, a mom
and her son from Iowa, a family of four from Minnesota, newlyweds from Montana, a couple from Wisconsin celebrating their first anniversary, a
woman from Australia and a writer/photographer from Oregon. On the very first evening of the cruise this motley crew huddled together at the back
of the boat and watched as we trailed three humpback whales bouncing around playfully in the sea.
The waters around us were pristine. Yes, you can use that word again to describe this piece of wondrous earth.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill that discolored the Sound. Eleven million gallons of crude oil contaminated a
portion of the area and spread along 1,500 miles of shoreline. It killed more than 250,000 sea birds, 2,000 sea otters, 300 harbor seals and 250
bald eagles. Most scientists say little evidence of the spill is visible to the eye anymore. Most of the wildlife have rebounded from the spill
but not all species have. "We're just getting back the herring fishery," one Cordova fisherman told me, but the stellar sea lions have undergone a
steady decline in their numbers. And dig down two feet, scientists say, and you may hit oil.
Many of the fishing towns around the sound like Seward have had a rebirth since the spill with a meteoric rise in tourism. One of them is the
town of Valdez. Today Valdez is a friendly thriving place with 4,500 residents and a new marina waterfront area filled with eateries and shops.
Not a drop of oil hit Valdez. Because of the tide and current the oil spread away from town. Though my ship offered several land packages that
ranged from fishing to sea kayaking to a flight over a nearby glacier, when we docked in Valdez I took off for a free hike along a brand new
waterfront trail that leads away from town for several miles and into great meadows. The new Shoup
Bay Trail features nicely crafted wooden bridges and a path that offered exquisite views. That walk helped me understand why
some people call Valdez the "Switzerland of Alaska."
Our captain wanted us to see as much wildlife as we possibly could. The Spirit of Glacier Bay provided high-quality binoculars for their
passengers. Using them, we got magnificent close-up views of bald eagles. The bald eagle, many of us were surprised to learn, received their common
name from North American colonists at a time when bald or "balled" meant white. The adult has a snow white head and tail and a bright yellow bill
while the young immature ones have a dusky brown head and tail and blotches of while on their bodies and wings. The adult's six foot wing span is
indeed awesome, especially when you see them swoop overhead.
Anchorage:
Most trips begin in Anchorage, now an attractive city with a very international feel.
Most likely your taxi cab driver at the airport
will be Pakistani and you'll find tasty cheap eats at the Thai restaurants scattered around town. Catch the sunset at the Resolution Park, walking
distance from downtown. Resolution was the name of Captain Cook's ship on his 3rd trip around the world.