Originally posted on National Geographic 6/14/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/14/gyre-expeditio…nesday-june-12/ In the “morning” of the never-ending daylight, as the sun has swung round to the east and climbs the sky once more, we awaken in our windowless cabins. We’ve spent the short night at anchor in Hallo Bay. We head shoreward, trying to beat a dropping tide. […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/13/gyre-expeditio…uesday-june-11/ We spent several morning hours steaming west across Shelikof Strait to Hallo Bay in Katmai National Park, and landed the skiff on a rocky ledge at one end of a long bite of black beach backed spectacularly by the snow-peaked Alaska Range and Hallo Glacier. The highest peaks, […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expeditio…late-afternoon/ ODILE’s Magic Desktop Lab – Odile Madden has brought two amazing pieces of equipment from the Smithsonian. One looks like a microscope stand without the microscope. The other looks like a little hand-held vacuum cleaner. Both fit on a desktop, and they’re incredible. The first shoots laser […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expeditio…monday-june-10/ In late morning we head toward Wonder Bay on Shuyak Island. On the way we run across a huge, nearly blond Brown Bear foraging on the beach. The world’s largest Brown (Grizzly) Bears live in this area and nearby Kodiak. As we approach, it gets concerned enough […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expeditio…-sunday-june-9/ I wake to find us motoring off the Kenai Peninsula. We have passed the Chugash Islands, passed the Barren Islands. We are headed south toward Shuyak, which looms large far ahead. Islands are so high here that some are visible from distances of up to 100 miles. […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expediton…aturday-june-8/ A discussion: Why bother to clean beaches never visited by people? If it’s just an ugly mess, why not just leave it? Answers vary, even among our group. “Seeing this offends my dignity,” says one colleague. “I am embarrassed as a human to see how much trash is […]
Originally posted on National Geographic: 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expediton…aturday-june-8/ Morning we wake in Tonsina Bay, one of many coves ringed by near-vertical forested slopes. The beauty takes my breath away. So do a half-dozen mountain goats, each with a small baby, above the treeline, above a grass slope, on a rocky precipice. How do mountain goats […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expeditio…-friday-june-7 From Seward, we left Resurrection Bay, past Rugged Island, and felt the full roll of an ocean swell addressing us broadside from the southeast, rolling us as we plowed forward. Around us, some of the world’s most spectacular coast. Sheer shores spired by eagle-topped spruces rising to snowy […]
Originally posted on National Geographic 6/11/2013: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/11/gyre-expedition-all-aboard/ All Aboard- Our expedition is called Gyre. Our route is from Seward, Alaska west toward Kodiak, stopping at several places along the way, bearing witness, perhaps witnessing bears, and talking trash. It’s a uniquely creative approach to the issue of plastic garbage washing up on the world’s […]
Guest blog by Stephen Dishart, Executive Director, Blue Ocean Institute To view Carl’s TEDx Oil Spill lecture click here. Safina points to gross negligence as the cause of the spill With a remarkable agenda of speakers, the hottest topic on the planet and a crowd of environmental experts and others eager for the latest word […]
