Several skipped highlights:
Harbor porpoises dominate SE AK, but just before we got to Cape St Elias a pod of Dall's porpoise joined us. They are very different, larger and black and white almost like an orca, compared to the harbors. They also like people better. For about an hour we had at least a dozen of them riding the bow wake staying with us. A lot of pixels were generated there, though I have no idea if any really good pictures came of it. I drove the boat and did not take any.

Lots of folks think they are just playing when they run in the bow wake, but I think they are just using the boat as part of their hunting technique. The boat creates a distraction and a flushing device which moves the prey fish just enough to give the porpoise pod an advantage in cornering a school.
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While running toward Knight Island Passage a humpback whale in the distance breached, coming completely out of the water, then slowly falling over to create a huge splash. And then repeated the jump over and over and over again. Several times the whale laid on the surface and flashed incredibly long flukes around, just playing.
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The Situk River is currently in danger of being flooded, washed out, ruined, or at least disabled for some time. The Enormous Hubbard Glacier is advancing across a very narrow neck at the entrance to Russel Fjord, from Disenchantment Bay at the top of Yakutat Bay. There is an island there and the ice is flowing almost over it. If it plugs off the outlet to Russel Fjord will change from Yakutat Bay to flooding due south to the Situk. If it starts heading that way it might cut a channel which could not be fixed quickly enough and it would scour the Situk.

The river is absolutely clear now and the glacial run-off would greatly reduce what may be the best steelhead river in the World.
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In Icy Bay the ice was too thick to drive through with some huge bergs. Seals were hauled out on lots of them, hundreds of seals in total, just along a short drive in the bay. The glaciers are calving an incredible amount of ice. Some bergs showed signs they had been dragging along the bottom while others were brilliant blue in the highly-diffused, flat light.
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Glacier ice lasts an incredibly long time in an ice chest and makes the best drinks. The bubbles are pressureized and there is a steady "fizz" with an occasional larger pop. Riley got hit in the face with a little soda blown up by a larger bubble.
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While waiting in Yakutat another boat came in to get out of the weather but did not have time to stay. They tried to make the run to Icy Bay and spent three hours without getting out of the Bay and gotten badly beaten up in the process. They finally quit before things got really serious and flew home intending to return in July and finish the trip.
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Fishing in SE AK saltwater scares me... the obvious mismanagement of the resource was amazing. It does not hold a candle to better places to the north. "Dinglebarring" for lingcod is one of the better examples of "You gotta be kidding" ever devised.

A steel rod about 6' long and 2" in diameter is literally dragged over the reefs with a chain of one-pound leadhead jigs behind. Each jig has a float to keep it somewhat off the bottom. The bar gets the lingcods' attention and they bite the trailing jigs. They had a 66,000 pound quota for Yakutat Bay this past spring and it was caught in 8 days. The average fish (in the round) weighed just 13 pounds, a huge drop from the first year in '06.

It is also a spring fishery when the fish are supposedly nesting. They do not start the Kodiak and Prince William Sound fishery until July 1 to allow the fish to finish guarding the nests. Greenling and sculpins are known to destroy a nest immediately if given a chance.

And all of this is being done to create an entry level fishery to allow young fishermen to work their way into the industry... This is because they only fish that actually work that way, halibut and salmon, require very expensive permits or quota shares to fish... Bad politics being chased by worse politics with horrible science in tow...
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A fellow on the dock was bummed about having to leave. He had just spent a week fishing and thought he was in the greatest place on Earth. In 7 full days of fishing he had caught enough fish to bring home 100 pounds of fillets.
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A charter boat Captain I spoke with many times finally allowed as to how he had caught exactly two king salmon so far this year on his boat... That involves fishing all day, everyday for weeks... And he was doing better than average...
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