Week Fourteen 

Hold on a second... where has all the time gone?! 

While this week began with a fabulous trip out to Peterson Bay for our second and final round of group intertidal surveys, we're all realizing we only have a few weeks left to be in each others' company. 

However, that means it's also time for our highly anticipated trip to Seward for the Alaska Sea Life Center and a boat trip on Ressurection Bay! 

During this incredible tour, not only did we luck out with some of the best weather we've had in weeks, but we also saw humpback whales, dall's porpoises, sea otters, and more! 

(The humpback's name is Dove, if anyone is curious!) 

We were able to positively identify the humpback as 'KFZ37 (Z92)' a female who was last spotted ~2,000 miles southwest of the Kenai Fjords off the coast of Hawaii. These massive baleen singers migrate down to warmer waters to reproduce, then make their way back up here to filter feed on the high abundance of phytoplankton developing under the midnight sun. 

This particular individual (Dove) demonstrated some curiosity with the cruise ship, swimming underneath and then around us to get a good look before fluking. Fluking occurs when the tail breaches the surface like the picture above, and the underside is visible. Not only does this show us the paint-like underside splotches, but it also is a sign they're nose-down, about to dive deeper into the water. After a deep dive for a particularly long time, they'll resurface to breathe and recover for a few minutes at the surface before diving again. 

Seperately, Prairie and I finished our First Aid and CPR training with Dr. Whippo and both of us are now certified through Diver Alert Network!