Marine Mammalogy

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This weekend I will be taking my trip to Sitka with my Marine Mammalogy class. It should be amazing and I hope to come back with great stories and even more wonderful photos. It is promised to see whales, herring, sea lions, seals, as well as many other migrating marine life as the herring spawn begins. More to come soon...

UPDATE!
We arrived in Sitka late in the evening. Then we hit up the town for some mexican food all washed down with a few good glasses of beer. The following morning we arrived at 9am sharp over at the harbor and boarded the Allen Marine boat for a "food web cruise" which took us into the bay to search for marine mammals. The food wek ended up being a potluck breakfast- but there was a bunch of food, and most of it fairly good. Definitely wished there was some warm food though. On this trip we saw right away sea otters and one even had a baby on its belly. Then plenty of humpback whales, sea lions, and beautiful locations.

After the cruise we returned to Sitka and began our observations at designated locations. Jenn was my partner and we were dropped off our the road south of Sitka near the sawmill where we observed for three hours. Here we saw sea lions grouped in packs, humpback whales foraging, and plenty of seabirds squawking away. There were even several eagles that were working with the sea gulls to feed and attack.
The following evening we went for dinner at the Sitka University. They had a BBQ prepared for us with hot dogs and hamburgers, chips, and soda and for desert we had cookies. I walked over to the harbor and enjoyed sitting by myself for a short time just watching the herring boil and seeing the boats. I love the harbor and I love being near and on the boats. I definitely feel more at peace when I am near the water and surrounded by boats. HA.
Sunday we woke 530am sharp, and Jenn and I were dropped again at our site to watch for 3 more hours for marine mammals. When time came to be relieved one of the previous girls was a no show, which might or might not have confounded our data... We were definitely upset especially considering the previous day they did not gather data on the sea lions we watched.
All in all we had a great trip. On our return trip home we were lucky enough to see Killer Whales. There was a HUGE pod of them that we passed and stopped and sat watching for quite some time. We also saw a baby killer whale. it was so adorable and you could tell it was new to the environment as it came flying out of the water just to breathe. Just shortly after we ended up being able to see porpoises which the captains got to surf with out boat. It was absolutely amazing. There was so much that I had not seen before that I got to see on this trip.
I definitely felt blessed. And felt like I might have made some potential friends in the process. I got to room with a great girl from Iowa was just as excited as the rest to see all the things we saw.
I can't wait to get to do this again.

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Photos

Killer whales!!
This was my first time seeing killer whales

The Girls
Tearin it up in Sitka... :)