Big scale fishing

We are so glad we came here yesterday and that Marcus got those 6 pink salmon. Today two fishing boats are fishing all the salmon out on behalf of the hatchery. The sale of these makes the budget for next year. The fishing boats put out a huge net at the places where the salmon group up, so by rivers and stream, one of which is right behind us. They circle the net and then have a small boat pulling the fishing boat in circles (so they don't catch the line). Once the circle is closed they make it smaller and smaller by pulling the outer lines up until it is so small that all you see is salmon in the net. Then the collection barge comes. They tie up to it and then with a gigantic vacuum hose they vacuum the fish out of the net (that's still in the water) onto a slide where the fish slide down via a conveyer belt into the big storage room under deck. Just in that little cove behind us they must have gotten tons is salmon, at least over 100.000 pcs. That's how Marcus could get so
many yesterday, the bay was just full. Had I known this is coming I would have let him go fishing first before heading off to the bears. But, we didn't know.
So I got more pictures and he is out trying to catch one of the left-overs. Today I got a mother with two little baby bears. And a bigger one (maybe a year old) fishing. I watched that one bear for a long time from a secure standpoint behind the electric fence. All he wanted is females for their eggs. He pulled one out, squeezed the eggs out, left it on the side and pulled the next one out. Now let's talk about food waste. They don't eat the whole fish. The only other parts besides the kaviar that I saw him eat was the eyes and the cheeks.
The mom with the little ones left once she smelled me. But I could see them far away at the stream. They walked down, the little ones behind mom. Then they had to sit and wait (which they did) until mom had a fish. Then the three of them (with the fish in mom's mouth) left for the bush to eat the salmon. Once they were done, the whole thing repeated. Oh the little ones are soso cute....
We're gonna move on today. But we loved our stop.

Salmon and black bear

After 2 days in the shoestring bay on SE Esther Island we moved to the Esther Bay with its hatchery. I was hoping to see bears here. The hatchery calls itself the biggest hatchery of North America, but that information must be old. Kitoi hatchery in Kodiak is bigger, they do double the amount of fish with the same staff. Anyways, it's still a rainy day. The cruising guide says nothing about good bear sight and Marcus does not want to be here where it's less secluded. We gave it a try anyways. Looking through the binoculars when we first came in at first I did not see anything. At the second look I was able to make out 4 black bears. That convinced Marcus and so we went and anchored at the back of the bay. I immediately put my raincoat on, put the camera's raincoat on as well, jumped into the Dinghy and motored back to the Hatchery, close to the barricade to the basin where they collect all the salmon before leading them to the basins where they wait to be killed and taken the
eggs (they would die anyways once they lay the eggs).
I saw and photographed jumping salmons as well as feeding sea lions, gulls, sea otters and black bears. Yes, I finally got to watch bears eating salmon!!!
Three employees of the hatchery came down to the pier and started fishing. I drove over to chat with them and ask for permission to go to land to get a bit closer to the bears. Their fishing was so successful I checked out how they do it. It turns out they use fly fishing gear. I went back and told Marcus, who, despite the rain still going on, grabbed his fly fishing gear, left in the Dinghy and came back with 6 pink salmon!! The freezer is full. He wants to go again
Tomorrow (as I want to go take pictures again with hopefully more light and less rain). I will have to can some fish, hope it works with my equipment. I like this place here, there is lots of life. I am always happy if I see animals. The whole evening already two sea lions have been swimming around Alita. Fun to hear them. I love Alaska. And with the sight of beaaaaaars, I don't even care about rain.

Another gorgeous day

Well, we had an amazing "night". I spent half if it outside taking pictures. Then again at sunrise. You have to know we have 19.2hrs if sunshine (daylight) these days. So I had very little sleep, but well worth it. So calm, so beautiful. I waited for stars, but it was a bit hazy and not really dark enough. I'll set my alarm for 2.30 tomorrow morning to see if I get something. We're at the same amazing anchorage after a full glacier day. Water is still flat calm, a beautiful mirror. Alita is hardly moving, that's why I can even think of taking night shots from the boat. Once in a while it works.
This morning I paddled Wickie, my kajak, over to the flat underneath the anchorage glacier. This glacier is fed by three glacier fields. But, as most of them, not much is left. This face here is covered in rocks and dirt, but is still about 100m high. I walked over the flat and up a hill for a couple of meters to get a good view of the ice cave. Boy it's huge. And lots of break-offs lying around. The melting ice there feeds a strong river that makes its way through the bed. Because of all the dirt, gravel and sand dissolved in the water those ways get blocked from time to time and then the water makes itself a nee path. Even in the firm (do you thing) gravel flatland you can hear water flowing somewhere underneath, which is a bit spooky, like walking over those lava fields. You never know what'd underneath.
The view was great and it was fun to paddle around. If only I hadn't lost my sun glasses there....
The rest of the day (noon to 6pm) we spent checking out these other two glaciers here at Harimans Fjord. The first one,
fed by the roaring glacier, releases lots if big ice chunks. We still managed to get all the way to the front, it's not too bad to drive around those big chunks. Many small ones would be worse. Too bad nothing big happened while we had the front row seat. Only once we had left a huge chunk came down. I saw the waves...A lot of tour boats are coming and going to that one. But we still managed to get some (Charly) time on our own.

In the afternoon we drove up to Hariman's glacier. It is wider, not as high because it is coming long ways out instead of that steep drop. In terms of construction it was the most beautiful one so far. Lots of blue ice peaks. Lots. Beautiful colour, with light coming from behind and thus shining through. Marcus drove all the way up to it, we were maybe 50m away, right in front of its morray, that it's just building. Because its end is already on solid ground (the gravel that he has pushed there), it's no danger to get that close. There can't be any wave. But, nothing broke off- to my disappointment. However it was just amazingly beautiful to just sit there in Alita, float with motor off, enjoy evening sun and just look at the glacier and be grateful for that opportunity and that another blue sky sunshine day. I probably got too much sun today....AMAZING. Alaska, you've got my heart.