From Patagonia to Alaska

In 1987, I met Dr. Roger Payne on a windswept beach in Patagonia, Argentina. I was with John Atkinson and Jean Paul Gouin. It was a fateful meeting for John and me, our lives were forever changed. I have made my life’s work Ocean Alliance’s mission, and as well as being my closest friend, John has been the aerial photographer for our annual Southern Right Whale Program (with ICB) since 1990. Risking his life every year to hang out of a small airplane and photograph these animals for an aerial census.
 

John worked with us on our most recent trip to Alaska, here is his blog:
Having just returned from the September 2017 Parley SnotBot expedition to Alaska, many people have asked me, what was it like up there in Alaska? Not a simple question because Alaska is a vast, empty and incredibly beautiful place where Mother Nature still lives mostly un-tethered by the hand of man.
Andy Rogan and John Graham, two of the usual SnotBot team members were not available for this expedition, so Iain asked me to help. My job was to manage the drone systems, remotes, batteries etc, launch and then catch the drone when returning from a flight, along with keeping all the gear clean, dry and organized.
After flying from Toronto to Edmonton and then on to Seattle on two separate airplanes, I boarded a third airplane that flew north alongside the rugged British Columbia coastline and on into southeast Alaska. Finally, after picking up a few passengers in the village of Ketchikan, in the midst of a torrential downpour we landed in Juneau.
Iain arrived the next morning with the Intel and the Parley for the Oceans team. After a get-acquainted dinner at a local restaurant, Iain and I were up early to catch the eight-thirty Alaska Seaplanes flight on a Cessna Caravan floatplane that flew us and our nine cases of equipment over the snow-capped mountains and down the foggy Chatham Strait. I figured the cell phone service in Alaska would be terrible but in the midst of that flight, much to my surprise, my cell phone rang. My brother was calling and I was able to share the spectacular scenery with him as we flew on down the windswept coast.
Forty minutes after departing Juneau, we landed on calm waters by the isolated village of Angoon, population 400 and dwindling, located on Admiralty Island, a ninety mile stretch of tall trees and rocky coastlines that the pilot told us contained the highest density of brown bears in the world. Much to our disappointment, during that whole week, we never saw one bear. Maybe just as well.
Waiting for us dockside was the Glacier Seal, a sixty foot custom built tour boat that would be our home for the next week. Onboard was Captain Marc, first mate Nate, and chef Collette who made sure we ate like kings and queens for the entire week. As we stepped on board, thermoses of steaming hot coffee, fresh baked bread, assorted fruits and cheeses awaited us. There was ample table space for our equipment and eating area, below deck were the sleeping quarters, and upstairs there was a huge open platform from which we would search for the whales, and fly the drones over them.

Two hours after Iain and I arrived, a second airplane landed with the Intel and Parley group. Last to arrive in his thirty foot research boat was Dr. Fred Sharpe, founder and lead scientist for the Alaska Whale Foundation. I first met Fred back in 1994 when we were up in Alaska making the Imax film Whales. Between then and now, I had only seen him once, for five minutes at a marine mammal conference. He is a really gentle soul with lots of great stories and it was really nice to reconnect with him.
After everyone’s gear was loaded onboard, we cast off all lines and for the next week we motored up and down vast fiords, all the while looking for whales, and when we found them, everyone cheered as Iain flew the drone over the whale and through the exhaling breath.
There is no better way to speak of the caliber of the people you’ll find in Alaska other then telling you this. On our last day, the majority of our team departed on the completely full morning flight back to Juneau. Because of incoming stormy weather, the captain of our charter boat was anxious to begin his twelve hour journey back home. This left Iain, Fred and me standing on the dock in the rain with all of our gear and four hours to wait for the next seaplane. We stored the gear in Fred’s boat and walked over to the fishing boat fueling office at the end of the dock. Inside was a grey-haired gentleman who greeted us kindly and offered us a cup of hot coffee.
We accepted the coffee and asked. “We have four hours to kill and thought we might take a tour around the village. Is there a taxi we can call?”
The man replied, “There are no taxis here in Angoon. But you can use my pickup truck.”
Our jaws dropped.
“You don’t even know us.”
The man smiled kindly and said, “The winters are long up here in north country. You learn real quick about who you can trust and who you can’t.”
We took it as a real compliment when he handed us the keys to his truck and said, “Welcome to Alaska boys.”
Thank you John, for your part in making this trip the success that it was – on that front I need to borrow a Tesla for a quick drive down to Florida – offers?
All the best.
Iain