Wednesday, August 10, 2011Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2007. Mattie received this toy from Peter's parents. Basically the toy came in parts, which Mattie could assemble and design in any way he wanted. However, if the parts were interlocked the correct way, then the whole object would move using a battery powered motor. Well needless to say, my little engineer had absolutely NO problem with this toy. He designed all sorts of motorized vehicles and they usually would land up moving around our home to find me or Patches.
Quote of the day: Grief is hard on friendships, but it doesn't have to be. Sometimes, all it takes is a little honesty between friends. If we gently and lovingly explain what we need from the relationship during our time of grief. ~ Margaret Brownley
Today was a very full day that started, for at least Peter, at 5:45am! We saw sights today that we could NEVER have imagined and are almost too difficult to describe. We have seen Alaska before on TV or in movies, but seeing such natural beauty in person was an unforgettable adventure. Even despite the fact that it was frigid, about 30 degrees and raining!
The ship traversed the Tracy Arm fjord this morning. A fjord is a valley that was created or I should say carved out by a glacier. Such a journey took us about four hours! Tracy Arm fjord is an incredible stretch of passageway that is lined with all sorts of ice pieces, growlers (which are building size or larger pieces of ice), and views of Sawyer Glacier (one of 17 tidewater glaciers in the world). Tracy Arm is also comprised of mountains that are over 4000 feet tall, with Sitka Spruce trees lining them. The naturalist on our ship describes these trees as “pine trees on steroids.” That may sound funny, but when you see these trees which are over 250 feet tall, you begin to see there is a lot of truth in jest.
I must admit that I did not know much about glaciers before this trip. But I have had a steep learning curve over the last two days. Not unlike us, a glacier also has a life cycle. It is formed by layers of snow that gets compressed and turned into ice. Over time, due to intense pressure, large pieces of ice get separated from the glacier. The separation process is called calving and the pieces that are severed off are called growlers. You can tell a newly formed growler because it is bluish in color. Apparently the ONLY color ice reflects is blue. Growlers eventually lose their bluish color and turn white/clear, and assuming the air temperature is above freezing, growlers eventually melt and as they melt they form smaller ice pieces the size of cars.
Glaciers, due to their movement, are able to create amazing effects on mountains and their terrain. In fact, as glaciers move passed mountains, they land up taking some debris with them. The debris gets embedded within the ice. Over time, as the ice melts away, glaciers form bodies of water, but they also leave behind their embedded sediment. This left behind sediment can look like the sand one would find on a shoreline of a beach. However, it is not sand at all, but the materials that glaciers have picked up and embedded over time. This sediment is called moraine. Let me share some pictures with you to help you visualize what I am talking about.
In this picture you can clearly see the ice pieces floating around within the fjord or valley. These ice pieces came off of growlers and the glacier itself. In so many ways, as our huge ship navigated this challenging icy terrain, one couldn’t help but remember the Titanic and the tragedy that ensued when a ship hit a massive piece of ice.
Here you can see what the fishing ladder looks it. This is the obstacle course all adult salmon go through at the hatchery in the hopes of spawning.
This is a beautiful picture of Sawyer Glacier. A tidewater glacier is ice that has formed from the land all the way into the water.
Here is a close up of a growler and the ice pieces that can be severed from the growler and glacier.
This picture captures all the grand beauty of the tidewater glacier and the incredible vision of ice that surrounded us. Peter loves the symmetry of this picture and the amazing way the mountains are reflected within the water.
This afternoon, after a zumba class, we headed on a tour of Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. The hatchery’s main purpose is to sustain and enhance the valuable salmon resources for the State of Alaska for the economic, social, and cultural benefit of all citizens.
These are not farm raised salmon, but they are definitely salmon who are helped along in the process. Salmon are salt water fish. However, they spawn once a year in fresh water. But not any fresh water. They ALWAYS return to the fresh water they were born in and they will travel great distances to get back to their birthplace in order to mate. However, at the hatchery, fish NEVER mate. Instead, when the adults come back in the summer, they go through fishing ladders and are then sorted and basically killed. Once killed eggs are removed from the females and milt is removed from the males. Baby salmon are formed artificially and after spending time in incubators, they are then placed in rearing pens for 9 to 12 weeks where they get imprinted. The imprinting enables them to recognize the scent of the fresh water within these holding tanks. A scent that they will then seek to come back to when it is time to spawn. Once these baby fish reach a certain size, they are released into the ocean and spend the next 2 to five years cruising the waters of the Pacific Ocean. When it is time to spawn they return to the hatchery and then go through the fishing ladder process. Basically these ladders look like an obstacle course, in which the fish have to jump hurdles to get “up river.” Once up river, or up the ladder (which replicates the jumping process they would do in the wild), the fish are killed for their eggs and milt. Though I was absolutely appalled by this process you have to keep in mind that even in the wild, when salmon spawn, the adults die thereafter.
This afternoon, after a zumba class, we headed on a tour of Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. The hatchery’s main purpose is to sustain and enhance the valuable salmon resources for the State of Alaska for the economic, social, and cultural benefit of all citizens.
These are not farm raised salmon, but they are definitely salmon who are helped along in the process. Salmon are salt water fish. However, they spawn once a year in fresh water. But not any fresh water. They ALWAYS return to the fresh water they were born in and they will travel great distances to get back to their birthplace in order to mate. However, at the hatchery, fish NEVER mate. Instead, when the adults come back in the summer, they go through fishing ladders and are then sorted and basically killed. Once killed eggs are removed from the females and milt is removed from the males. Baby salmon are formed artificially and after spending time in incubators, they are then placed in rearing pens for 9 to 12 weeks where they get imprinted. The imprinting enables them to recognize the scent of the fresh water within these holding tanks. A scent that they will then seek to come back to when it is time to spawn. Once these baby fish reach a certain size, they are released into the ocean and spend the next 2 to five years cruising the waters of the Pacific Ocean. When it is time to spawn they return to the hatchery and then go through the fishing ladder process. Basically these ladders look like an obstacle course, in which the fish have to jump hurdles to get “up river.” Once up river, or up the ladder (which replicates the jumping process they would do in the wild), the fish are killed for their eggs and milt. Though I was absolutely appalled by this process you have to keep in mind that even in the wild, when salmon spawn, the adults die thereafter.
Here you can see what the fishing ladder looks it. This is the obstacle course all adult salmon go through at the hatchery in the hopes of spawning.
Peter captured a fish actually jumping over one of the ladder hurdles
A picture of Peter and I right near the Mendenhall Glacier.
A panoramic picture of the glacier and the growlers right near it
A close up of “Mendy (as the natives call her)” and its waterfall. The waterfall is basically water runoff from the glacier.
My mom and I by Mendy.
Our final stop on the tour was the city of Juneau. Juneau is the capitol of Alaska and is approximately 3108 square miles with 30,000 people. I love the picture that Peter captured of the town, because you can see the amazingly thick layer of fog hanging over our heads.
Tomorrow we will be in Skagway, Alaska. Our day starts very early and the rhyme of the ship is quite different from a Caribbean cruise. People get up VERY early, 5am or so, and go to bed early!!!
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