They let us on the ship around 12:15 in Seward. We had lunch, found our rooms, and got back off the ship to go have a look at Seward.
There is a very nice Sea Life Center in Seward.
They have a lot of very cute birds. The first three pics are tufted puffins.
Next, another sort of puffin.
What the camera and I failed to document, alas, is that these birds fly under the water as well as in the air. You could go downstairs and watch them under the water.
They fly, just as they would fly in air, only it's harder. Their bodies want to be on the surface, and they must work to fly down into the water, trailing streams of bubbles. The moment they stopped flying, they would pop back to the surface.
These little guys could stay under for a long time. I watched one, and thought at one point "He's been under a long time." I'll bet he didn't come up for air for two minutes after I noticed he'd been down a while.
It was very cool to see, and the camera utterly failed to record anything comprehensible. "What's that, a piece of fish?" No, it was a lighter cyan streak on a darker cyan background, and even after I figured out from the order of the pics that it was a puffin flying under the water, I still couldn't tell what it was. Sigh.
At least you can tell this is a harbor seal.
The Sea Life Center does a lot of rehab for sea creatures in trouble.
I discovered, chatting with one of the staff, that the Animal Planet show "Growing Up Walrus" began right there. I had seen the show, and had watched the orphaned baby walrus as he was nurtured by the staff. The woman I was talking to opened her folder of notes and pulled out a picture of baby Nereus with one of his care-givers.
She told me that while baby seals are hardwired for swimming, baby walruses must learn. Nereus would not go into the water until one of his keepers got into a wetsuit (to protect her from the icy temps walruses are designed for), and went into the water. He grabbed her shoulder with his front foot, and held on tight when he gingerly went into his pool. It took several sessions before he was confident enough to go in by himself.
I remembered they helped him learn to swim, but had forgotten that someone had to go in with him.
Nereus thrived, and got bigger, and eventually went to the Indianapolis Zoo, where he lives with two grown up walruses. If you click on the link for the Indianapolis Zoo, and scroll down, as of August 4, 2007, there is an update on Nereus, who is still just as cute as ever.
I thought it was really cool that we were in the place where they had saved Nereus, and I will watch his show carefully the next time I see it on Animal Planet.
Another really cool thing we did at the Sea Life Center was touch various critters. I wasn't particularly eager to touch starfish or anemones, but figured when would I get that chance again?
There were several different kinds of sea stars, and they felt different. Some were sort of mushy, and some were harder. They had scattered hard bumps on their backs.
The water was cold. Really REALLY cold. Makes-your-bones-ache-after-only-a-minute cold. 40f, we were told. Cold. (Thinking about the water that Nereus learned to swim in.... Brrrrrrrrrr.)
We were also allowed to touch sea anemones. I wondered if such creatures *wanted* to be touched, and, in fact, this one shied away from my fingers.
They also had the kind of anemone with long tentacles. Hmm. On tv, I've seen fish instantly paralyzed by such animals. "*Touch* it?" I was assured that this particular kind didn't have the sort of weaponry that would allow it to puncture human skin, so I very tentatively put my fingers near it.
I'm here to tell you that maybe it couldn't "get me" but that surely didn't stop it from trying! It *reached* for me with multiple tentacles, and I had my fingers out of there as fast as my reaction time would allow! Eek! (Oddly enough, I didn't get a pic of that one.......)
There were urchins in the same tank with the anemones. If you put your finger between two of their spines, they would close the spines on your finger. It wasn't scary -- slow and deliberate............ I didn't get their pic, either. Sigh.
After we touched critters, I wanted hand sanitizer and couldn't find any. I bet they don't want alcohol and whatever else in the tanks with the critters.......... I found a bathroom and cleaned my hands the old-fashioned way.
Before we leave the Sea Life Center, here's another critter who said he would be happy to get me, if only that damned glass weren't in the way!
Or maybe he was just trying to get out and get back to the ocean............
One thing we heard over and over was that, in Alaska, people really use things up. Shipping stuff there is very costly, and shipping stuff away equally so. We saw lots of rusty vehicles in back yards in Alaskan towns -- no smelters up there, and shipping things somewhere else for recycling is too expensive....
We have a soft spot for VW bugs, as my dad had one in the late 60s and 70s. Here's one that is apparently still in service.
Before we go back to the ship -- the life cycle of poppy flowers, all in a square foot. Seen just up the street from the VW.
In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.
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