Whale music

Winter has arrived (it was -20F at the cabin this morning), so maybe it's about time to stop thinking about summer and accept the fact that winter is here to stay. But before moving on, here's one last anectdote from summer.

During a field project in August, Inari, myself, and a professor from Juneau traveled around Southeast Alaska by boat to try to quantify rates of post-glacial rebound. (Uplift rates in Glacier Bay National Park are some of the highest in the world.) One day while traveling through Frederick Sound, we came across a pod of humpback whales, who spend winters in Hawai'i and summers in Alaska. The largest populations are found in Frederick Sound.


The whales surprised us at first - we nearly hit a couple of them while going 30 mph. Once we realized how many whales were around we decided to kill the engine and enjoy the moment. We must have been surrounded by 30 whales, each surfacing and "singing". One even jumped completely out of the water. (That's a 45 ton cannonball!) We got the feeling they were enjoying the wonderful weather even more than we were. Every being was happy, except for Tracy the dog, who was perturbed by the incredibly deep vibrations produced by the whales.