Whale Watching in Juneau Alaska

Bubble Net Feeding in Humpback Whales

This absolutely tops my list of the most incredible things I have ever seen in my life.   I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Alaska this summer with my husband and 2 daughters.  It was the trip of a lifetime....one that we had saved and planned for for years.  Of all the amazing wonders of Alaska, perhaps the most amazing was our day of whale watching.

My expectations prior to the excursion were very basic.  I expected to see one or two whales at great distance.  Maybe I would see a few tails break the surface of the water, and if I was very lucky, perhaps I would see a breaching.  My actual experience was so much more.  My actual experience was one like you might see on a National Geographic video!!

Of course, I had a camera, but I was not prepared to take video of the whales.  I really didn't think we would get close enough to get a good video.  So when a pod of 16 HUMPBACK WHALES suddenly surfaced beside our boat, I was totally unprepared.  You are about to see several segments of video, all taken with my iPhone!  The commentary you will hear is from my family.  The references to "crying" are about me.  I became quite emotional watching the whales.  It was something I had only dreamed of, and I had no idea how awe-inspring this experience would be.

As you watch this first movie, make sure that you set your computer to full screen and that you have the volume turned up. Listen to the sound of the whales!  The sound of their breathing was incredible, and we were close enough that the spray from their blow holes hit us in the face.    Humpbacks have an enormous lung capacity.  This makes it possible for them to dive to depths of 500 feet and remain underwater up to 20 minutes.  And when they surface...WOW!!! ... the blow is loud and the water vapor shoots up into the sky.

Also, you will notice quite a few boats around the whales.  Do not be concerned about this!  I am the biggest "nature lover" on the planet, and I can promise you that the whales were unconcerned about the boats or the people talking.  The captain of our boat explained that they (boat captains) are not allowed to chase the whales.  Our captain took us to an area known to be frequented by whales.  One we arrived in the area, the captain was required to kill the engine and let the boat drift.  All of the boats that you will see were doing likewise.

Now comes the really, really amazing part.  We witnessed the bubble net feeding technique!  Apparently this method of feeding is not seen in all pods of whales.  It is unique to the humpbacks that migrate to the southeastern areas of Alaska, and it is a learned behavior.

This pod of humpbacks numbered 16.  In the above video, when you see their tail come out of the water, they are diving.  They dive to a depth of about 50 to 60 meters to find a school of fish.  The feeding technique involves an amazing division of labor.  Each whale has a job to do to ensure that the fish (herring in this case) are rounded up for maximum feeding.  One whale is the bubble blower.  This whale releases a stream of bubbles from the blowhole while underneath the school of fish.   As the bubbles rise to the surface, the herring are caught in this bubble net and carried along with the bubbles to the surface.  Other whales begin vocalizing to scare and confuse the fish into a tighter ball.  Other whales herd the fish together and force them upward.  From below this tightly gathered school of fish, the whales lunge to the surface with their mouths wide open, scooping in large numbers of fish.  Before the whales surfaced we could actually hear their vocalizations under the water.

Quick facts about humpback whales:

• They grow up to 50 feet long and may weight 70,000 pounds.
• They give birth to a single calf and their gestation period is 11.5 months.
• They are baleen whales, and filter their food from the water.  Food may consist of tiny frill and small fish.  

For more information, you might want to check this site called the Juneau Humpback Whale Catalog.  It has great information and really great pictures!

If you want some lesson plans and activities to do with your students, check out this lesson on Humpback whales on the National Geographic Education web site.

Byer's Lake: Our 7- Mile Hike in Alaska

Byers Lake Nature Hike

Talkeetna Area, Alaska

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Alaska.... a trip that has been a dream of mine for many years.  I have been writing about some of my experiences there. If you have missed the first few posts, you can read about the Fairbanks area and Denali National Park by clicking these links.

Byers Lake is a small lake located in Denali State Park.  "Small lake" is a relative term.  Everything in Alaska is HUGE, so I guess this qualifies as a small lake.  The lake is 1.23 miles in length and .6 miles in width, and has a shore length of 4 miles.  Our hike was not limited to the immediate circumference of the lake.  We trekked through the woods quite a bit, extending the length of the hike.  According to the Wikipedia, the maximum depth of the lake is 160 feet.  As you can see in the above photo, the lake was still partially covered in ice during the first week of June.

I would like to dedicate this post to our trail guide, MacKenzie.  MacKenzie is a college grad spending the summer in Alaska before continuing on with graduate school this fall. Mackenzie was fantastic!!  (Thank you so much, MacKenzie for an awesome outing!!) She is knowledgable, fun, has a great personality, and in short, she made the hike a most enjoyable day.  I was very much impressed with her ability to identify just about anything that I spotted in the woods.  As you will soon see as you continue to read this post, MacKenzie has a thing for fungi, especially the bracket fungi!

Bracket fungi, or shelf fungi, are types of fungi that belong to the phylum Basidiomycota.  They typically have fruiting bodies called "conks" that are grouped together in interconnecting rows.  MacKenzie can spot a conk a mile away...and she had interesting information on each and every different species we saw!

This is called chaga.  It is a parasite on birch trees, and is, oddly enough, a sterile conk.  It is not the fruiting body, but rather, a mass of mycelium.  It is black due to large amounts of melanin.  Apparently chaga can be brewed into a tea for medicinal purposes.

This is called the Tinder Conk fungus.  A well known use of tinder conk is its use as tinder in making a fire.

Beware this Devil's Club!  It is covered in brittle spines. The plant can grow 3 - 5 feet tall.  The spines easily break off and are painful in the hand!!







As expected, the lichens were gorgeous and plentiful.  Air quality around Byers Lake must be exceptional if judged by the proliferation of lichens.

Fairy Horn Lichen

Fairy Puke

Leaf Lichen

Old Man's Beard

This is False HelleBore.  It is a beautiful plant, but it is extremely toxic!!  If eaten, symptom's begin with nausea and vomiting.  If untreated, toxins will slow respiratory and cardiac function, leading to death.

This, however, is wild cucumber, and is delicious!!

A big highlight of the hike was a visit to a waterfall!

As we progressed around the lake, i did not think that the scenery could get any better....but it did.  These are two of my favorite photos.

The reflection in the water....priceless!

A rare view of Mt. McKinley.

It was a fabulous day!  The only thing missing??  I wanted to see a bear!!  I did see a really cool bear track, though.....  Better luck next time.

My Alaska Trip -- Denali National Park

Denali National Park:

One of the Most Amazing Places I Have Ever Visited!

I have just completed the trip of a lifetime!!  Since school is out for the summer, and I have nothing to currently share from my classroom, I thought I would share a bit of the biology of Alaska.  I apologize if Science Stuff becomes more of a travel blog than a science teacher's blog.

This is my second post about the land of the midnight sun.  

The first can be viewed by clicking this link.

What I quickly realized about Alaska is the diversity.  As you travel about the state, it changes so much.  If you plan a trip, you must not go to a single location.  If you do, you will see only a fraction of what Alaska has to offer.  On our trip, we moved from Fairbanks to Denali National Park to the Mount McKinley area to Anchorage and finally to the glacial areas of the inside straits passage.  Each location was completely different than the one before.

All of the photos of this blog post are from Denali National Park.  We were blessed with fantastic weather on this trip.  In 17 days, we had only one day of rain.  All of our days were filled with sunshine (a little unusual for June in Alaska) and temperatures ranged from 60 - 75 degrees each day.  We could not have asked for more perfect weather!  The mountains were absolutely gorgeous, and these pictures do not do them justice.  

Wildlife was abundant ..... but my ability to capture the wildlife on camera, not so good!

There are four caribou in this photo, but my photo is more like a "seek the picture" type of puzzle.  Snow was still plentiful, but was quickly melting.  It was very common to see a bright green meadow right along side a huge snowbank.

Thankfully, my daughter is a much better photographer than I.  She captured the caribou perfectly!

  You are not allowed to drive a car in the National Park.  There is only one road into the park, and to enter you must take one of the park buses.  There is a driver/guide on each bus.  Our guide, Lindy, was especially knowledgable, entertaining, and had the patience to endure my many questions.  The rules are simple and strictly enforced and are designed to protect the park and all of its many plant and animal inhabitants.  You cannot stick anything out of the bus window.  This includes arms, cameras, etc.  You may not speak in a loud voice while viewing animals.  And, of course, there is no feeding of the animals.

I was very pleased at the behavior of the park visitors.  Everyone went out of their way to follow the rules, making a wonderful experience for all.

The animals were plentiful.  We saw moose, caribou, bear, and eagles.  While the caribou were easy to photograph, the moose were not!  Usually the moose would leave before I could get my camera ready.  This was the best moose picture I could get!  You'll just have to take my word for it...it is a moose!

I had much better luck photographing the moose food!  This is a willow bush/tree and is the favorite food of the moose.

The lichens were beautiful.  I love the lichens and look for them wherever I go.  Good, healthy lichens are a sign of excellent air quality.  As expected, the lichens in Alaska were very healthy!

I initially thought this (see photo below) was a type of liverwort.  It was in a very damp, boggy area.  But i was told that it is a lichen and is called Frogs Pelt Lichen.

I love to identify wildflowers.  Unfortunately, most of the wildflowers had not bloomed during our trip. Evidently, Alaska had a very late spring this year.

This flower is called Pasque flower....and it is beautiful!

 This is wind flower.

Here are some facts about Denali National Park that you might find interesting:

• The park is 6.2 million acres bisected by one single road.
• As you enter the park you travel through taiga forests that gradually give rise to tundra.
• The park is home to Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America.
• Denali National Park is home to an abundance of wildlife, but the most striking inhabitant is probably the wood frog-- the only amphibian to call the park home. Denali's wood frog is different from the others of its species by virtue of it evolutionary adaptation that causes it to actually freeze solid during the winter. The frog's heart stops beating and its lung do not breathe again until the spring thaw.
• 400,000 people visit the park each year.
• The only road into the park is 91 miles long.  The first 15 miles are accessible by private vehicles.  If you wish to go further into the park, you must use one of the park buses.  Only a small fraction of the road is paved.

I will leave you with a few final photos...

Our Alaska Trip - First Stop Fairbanks!

We have just returned home from the trip of a lifetime.  After much scrimping and saving for several years, we took our family on a trip to Alaska!  I promise not to bore you with all the details, but this is a summer slump of a time to try to post about biology teaching.  Since there is A LOT of biology going on in Alaska, I thought I would try to share a bit of it with you.

First stop.....Fairbanks!!

The Riverboat Discovery tour took us on a river cruise aboard a sternwheeler.  We cruised up the Chena River to the point where it meets the Tawana River.  The Tawana River is the largest glacial fed river.

The Tiwana river is carrying silt from the glacial runoff.

Along the way, we stopped at a replica of an Athabascan Indian Village.  It provided a wonderful insight into their traditions and customs.

These animal pelts allow for survival during the bitter cold winter months when the temperatures can reach 40 - 50 degrees below zero.  This photo shows the pelts of timber wolves, lynxes, ermines, minks, muskrats and wolverines.

From left to right:  caribou, moose, grizzly.

Domesticated reindeer!

Salmon being smoked for a winter food source.

Another highlight of Fairbanks was the Gold Dredge 8 tour.  I was very excited to see the Alaskan Pipeline.

Panning for gold.....

Between four family members, we netted a total of $72 in gold flakes.

Next stop......Denali National Park!