Previously posted on: CNN CNN blog in Spanish: CNN Spanish Huffington Post: HUFFPOST I just read, ” A Veterinary and Behavioral Analysis of Dolphin Killing Methods Currently Used in the “Drive Hunt” in Taiji, Japan,” in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. And as we’ll see, the “new” method creates such terror that it […]
Amazing. A few years ago in the Gulf of California, we found ourselves surrounded by a pod of female sperm whales sleeping peacefully like massive logs in a calm sea. One, followed closely by a seemingly protective companion, had a baby so new that it still trailed an umbilical cord as it swam with tail […]
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 […]
