Alaska Inner Passage Cruise, July 26 – August 2, 2023
We finally got some typical southeast Alaska weather: rain. This part of southeastern Alaska gets 120 to 140 inches of rain each year. In Ketchikan, we had an unmemorable lunch, and visited a very nice Forest Service museum before heading off to tour the temperate rainforest and see bald eagles.
As our ship approached the dock in Ketchikan, we got ready for a rainy day ashore.
The temperate rain forest is known for biomass (lots of plant life) and not biodiversity that is typical of a tropical rainforest.
Because there is very little soil in the area (5 to 6 inches) plants grow on other surfaces such as dead wood. Moss hangs from the trees, and trees sprout on fallen trees
Gap under the tree where dirt ought to have been.
Skunk cabbage! It grows much larger here than we’ve ever seen in the Midwest or East.
Shell fungus on the side of the tree.
Sitka spruce tree with an opening at the bottom big enough for people.
Cup fungi. And the heart-shaped leaves are called deerheart.
Our guide Gina points out the devil’s club – a poisonous yet medicinal plant.
Gina holds a banana slug.
Bear claw marking territory on a red cedar tree. You can tell that it is an older marking, because the sap has dried and turned black.
Another banana slug on another devil’s club leaf. Note the devil’s club thorns, and the slug’s multipurpose orifice.
Note all the young trees growing out of this fallen tree.
We left the forest and entered a marshy/grassy area with a stream where bears and eagles like to fish for salmon
A juvenile bald eagle approaches us.
We could see bear trails of tramped grass in the marshy area.
Here comes another eagle.
Mature bald eagle. We saw this bird lose a feather.
Here is the feather shed by the bird in the previous picture.
A fish ladder on the right and the outlet for disbursing hatchlings on the left. Mature salmon sometimes try to climb the outlet to get back to their spawning location in the hatchery.
Bald eagle.
Injured red-tailed hawk at the Alaska Raptor Center at the rainforest sanctuary
Injured bald eagle
Injured owl (named Owlison) has a hole in her wing. As a result she cannot fly silently, which prevents successful hunting for her.
Gina shows us a totem pole in progress. The plastic bag is covering a recently-glued-on piece.
The artisan creating this totem pole was not present, but is a member of the Tsimshian tribe. Elaine asked about the colors on the totem pole, and Gina explained that they use standard house paint now, because the natural dyes were found to be too toxic and didn’t last long.
The totem pole workshop is in an old saw mill, as is this old saw milling equipment.
Juvenile bald eagles hang out in the creek fishing for salmon
The voice you hear in the video below is Gina, our guide, explaining the poor survival rate of salmon that spawn naturally as opposed to those that spawn in the hatchery. The natural survival rate is 4% versus 94% for hatchery fish. Don’t miss the fish jumping.