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So first stop in the morning was at Kenai Fjords National Park office. We saw a short film about the fjords and the history and people of the area. We heard about the glaciers and how much they have been retreating over the past 20-30 years. They have pictures from 100 years ago that the National Park took and they have been re-creating them from the same location (or as close as possible). In some cases, the pictures then were taken from on top of the glacier and now the glacier has retreated 10-15 miles so they are trying to take the pictures from the water instead to get similar landmarks.

After that, we decided to head over to the fishing beach so Joyce could try her luck. The salmon run tends to coincide with high tide – an hour or two before and after seems to be the best chance.

Despite putting heavier line on her reel, Joyce had a lot of trouble with the line tangling during casting and winding it in. The line is too heavy for her reel and so we headed back to the hardware store and found a heavier duty pole and reel.

After supper she headed back out to try her luck – the first one she lost before she could land it but she did get a small 2 pound red salmon before we packed it in for the night. The fishing here is much different than anything we do at home. It is done by way of snagging the fish. What you have is a triple hook with a large weight in the middle of it. You cast out your line, and then with jerking movements, you reel your line in. The weight drags the hook lower in the water, close to the bottom of the water. The idea is you snag the fish somewhere as he swims along. It is the legal way to catch them in the sea and you simply stand on the beach where they tend to be swimming. There were probably 50 + people fishing from the beach when we were out.

Tomorrow we plan to head for a hike to a glacier and then Joyce will try her hand at fishing again in the afternoon. High tide is 4 pm so we’ll head there around 2 pm for another try.

With the weather dreary and more rain threatening, we decided on an indoor activity today. Another of our 2 for 1 deals was at the Alaska Sea Life Center. It was a good four hours of education and enjoyment. We managed to catch a few events – including the staff feeding their sea lion and baby walrus.

Approximately a month ago, an abandoned, newborn walrus was found off shore of Alaska. After leaving it to see if the mother would return, wildlife experts determined it was at risk and brought it to the center. It was underweight and malnourished – the suspicion is something happened to the mother. The Sea Life Center has an intensive care where they care for their sick so this baby walrus has been in the ICU since it arrived 4 weeks ago. It is certainly an intensive job – they have someone with the walrus 24×7 to try and mimic what the mother would do. There is lots of cuddling and touching. The baby has put on about 20 pounds now and weights over 140 pounds. Two days ago they moved it into a water tank so now the staff has to wear a dry suit and be in the tank with it. They have a plastic board they have for the walrus to rest on most of the time, but they are introducing it to the water for short periods to let it learn to swim! It feeds every 3 hours with a formula of Pedialyte and milk using a big bottle for animals. It consumes one and a half gallons a day! They said that walruses are on the no release list back to the wild so it will be with them probably for the next year while they look for a location in the rest of the States to locate it permanently.

A lot of the work that is done at the Sea Life Center is done in order to learn about the creatures and the sea and the effects that our environment is having on them and subsequently humans. It was a great place for kids of all ages and certainly adults were able to learn more about being better stewards of our oceans. They had a few interactive areas where people could touch some of the small sea life as well. They had a number of outdoor pens and tanks including ones for sea birds including puffins as well as seals and sea lions.

Later in the afternoon, the rain cleared and Joyce bought a fishing licence for the next 3 days and we headed down to the beach to try it out. No luck tonight but one fisherman had pity on us and gave us a nice red salmon he had caught! We’ll give it a try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow – fishing…..