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The Alaskan Response 

January 1, 2011

Q: Where is the best place/time from June 6th to Sept 15th to view rafts of otters?

A: Sea otters are absolutely adorable, and it would be way cool to see a raft of them floating around on their backs, wiggling their whiskers, breaking open shellfish on their tummies, and generally goofing around like wet, furry children. Ask An Alaskan has seen an otter or two or three at various times over the years, but never a raft of them. 

For advice on finding big numbers of otters in one place, we turned to Angela Doroff, an otter expert at the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve in Homer.  She says you can find large groups of male otters hanging out on the protected side of the Homer Spit, a 4-mile long finger of land sticking out into Kachemak Bay – but you’ll have to come in the winter to see them. They hang out from mid-October to March. 

During summer, almost any marine tour in Alaska waters will encounter some otters frolicking in the water. Besides Homer, popular ports for marine mammal tours include Seward, Whittier, and Sitka. Otters may be visible from the city docks in those towns as well. Don’t look for otters in Anchorage, though – Ask An Alaskan’s  hometown is at the head of Cook Inlet, far from the salty ocean waters where otters hang out.

October 20, 2010

Q. “TETO man” is pondering a move from Texas to Alaska and asks:  “Can you help me find a city a little colder than Anchorage but just not freezing (more snow the better)? What is the population of the city? How often does it snow? How are its summers? How are its winters? Are the people friendly? How many schools are there? (I have children). Are there many house availabilities? Is there a long lasting layer of snow in the ground (I would love that)?

A: TETO man, I totally understand your impulse here – I fled the East Coast, with its hot summers and wimpy winters, when I was in my early 20s. To get more snow and a little more winter than Anchorage offers, and still be close enough to civilization to have good schools, housing and friendly people, you want to stay within a couple hours drive north of Anchorage. Go much further north than that, and you’ll hit the brutal cold and less snow found in Alaska’s Interior. Go south of Anchorage, you’ll get warmer winters. Anywhere you go in Alaska, summers are going to be cool by Texas standards. 

Here are three suggestions: Glen Alps, Sutton, and Talkeetna. 

Glen Alps is still officially part of Anchorage, but it’s way up on a mountainside, on the edge of the wilderness, so it is colder and gets a LOT more snow than down in the flatlands. It has good skiing right out the front door, but it’s only a 20-minute drive to the big city, where there are good schools and all the comforts of civilization. By big city standards, Anchortowners are pretty friendly, and there are plenty of other Texans who fled the southern heat.

If you want to be further away from the bustle of the big city, but not TOO far, try Sutton. It’s not a town per se, just a rural area north of Palmer, within easy driving distance to stores and jobs. It’s noticeably colder and has more snow than Anchorage. Some Sutton-area folks will be friendly, some will want to keep to themselves. (There’s a reason some of them live off the beaten track.)

For a real taste of small-town Alaska life, try Talkeetna (pop. 900), 115 miles north of Anchorage. It’s popular with dog mushers and other winter recreationists. Talkeetna has a little hippie flavor to it, but there are plenty of gun-totin’, snowmobile-ridin’ animal eaters around, too.

 For climate info on Alaska locations, check out this website: http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Climate/Location/.

Profiles of every Alaska community are here: http://commerce.alaska.gov/dcra/commdb/CF_BLOCK.htm.

Q: What’s the difference between a brown bear and a grizzly bear?

A: According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, “Brown and grizzly bears are classified as the same species even though there are notable differences between them.”

Brown bears are bigger and live in Alaska’s southern coastal areas, where they have more food to eat, mainly spawning salmon. Those salmon are full of fat and protein, which make it easy to bulk up during the summer and fall. Male brown bears can weigh more than 1500 pounds – almost as much as the entire offensive line of a National Football League team.

Grizzlies are smaller because they live further inland, in Alaska’s Interior and far north, where the food pickings are a lot slimmer. Instead of feasting on spawning salmon, grizzly bears have to chase down moose or caribou calves or grab slow-witted ground squirrels before they disappear underground – which is mighty hard work. Grizzlies spend a lot of time chowing on berries and other scrawny tundra vegetation, so their stomachs are probably growling most of the time. It takes a lot of berries to bulk up a 500-pound bear for the winter. 

Rule of thumb: If you’re near Alaska’s coast and see a BIG bear, it’s a brownie. If you’re well inland and see a brownish bear with a hump at its shoulder, it’s a grizzly  – and a grizzly is more likely to be hungry and surly if you encounter it.

Here’s more info on Alaska’s big bears, Ursus arctos.

October 8, 2010

Q: Can you surf on the bore tide in Cook Inlet with the Beluga Whales?  What is the status of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whales?

A: You can surf the bore tide in Cook Inlet, but don’t count on any belugas joining you. The Belugas of Cook Inlet are listed as an endangered species. (For the uninitiated, a bore tide is a mini-tidal wave, from a few inches to a couple of feet high, that forms when strong tides surge into Turnagain Arm, the upper branch of Cook Inlet.)

Cook Inlet Bore Tide

Belugas used to be a fairly common sight from spring to fall in upper Cook Inlet, the part near Anchorage. But that was back when there were about 1200 belugas in Cook Inlet. The population crashed starting in the early 1990s, to less than 300, possibly due to overhunting by Alaska Natives. (Belugas are a traditional food source and hunting them is an important part of Native culture.) 

Native subsistence hunting has been tightly controlled since then, but Cook Inlet belugas have not rebounded. Their population is stuck at about a third of historic levels. 

The federal government is working to identify what areas are critical habitat for belugas, so those areas get extra protection. (Only federal development decisions would be affected by the critical habitat designation, and development would be barred only if there is no other alternative that protects the beluga.) 

The state of Alaska has sued to reverse the endangered species listing and stop the identification of critical habitat. That suit is pending. 

One last note: If you’re surfing the Cook Inlet bore tide, you you’ll definitely want to make sure your life insurance is paid up. The water is cold enough to kill in minutes, and the tides are so strong you can’t count on escaping their pull for safe return to shore.

September 17, 2010

Q. What is your favorite spot for watching great wildlife in Alaska?

A. Ask An Alaskan’s favorite wildlife watching spot is my yard, right in the heart of Anchorage, where moose wander by on a fairly regular basis. One recent moose visitor stepped over my fence, cruised the backyard, munched on various plantings, and came over for a closer look when I opened a window to take a picture. Apparently it was aiming for a handout, but feeding moose is illegal, not to mention unwise for the human involved. You don’t want to find out what moose molars might do to your fingers.

If you’re visiting Anchorage, you might see a moose on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, which runs from downtown to the airport. Sometimes you can see Dall sheep on the cliffs just above the Seward Highway, heading south out of Anchorage along Turnagain Arm.

Outside of Alaska’s one big city, Denali National Park is the best-known place for seeing wildlife. On a trip along the park road, you can try for a Denali “Grand Slam.” That’s what we call seeing the Big Four of Alaska’s land mammals – grizzly bear, caribou, moose and sheep. If you’re really lucky, you might see a wolf, too.

My favorite out-of-town place for wildlife is bear-watching in Katmai National Park. It’s a remote place, about 275 miles southwest of Anchorage, reachable only by airplane, so it’s a pricey trip. But when the salmon are running in the Brooks River, in early July, the bears show up in force, and they are so eager to gorge on tasty fish, they pay little attention to gawking humans. You can stay in a nice rustic lodge or a park service campground. Park rangers are on hand to keep humans from getting crosswise with the bears. There’s nothing quite like the rush of being within a few yards of a grizzly bear and living to tell about it!

July 22, 2010

Q: When people talk about places like Bristol Bay, what do they mean when they describe salmon as “wild salmon fisheries” or “wild salmon stocks”? Aren’t all salmon caught in the wild?

A: It’s important to realize there are three different ways of producing salmon: some come from salmon farms, some are started in hatcheries and then released to grow up in the wild, and some are taken straight from nature, with no artificial efforts to boost the number of salmon available to catch. This third category is what’s known as “wild salmon” fisheries or stocks. Wild salmon aren’t fed artificial food and aren’t pumped with dye to color their flesh or antibiotics to control disease. They aren’t bred by human hands from a limited strain of captive salmon. They are completely wild–a totally natural gene pool shaped by the forces operating in an intact ecosystem. Wild salmon are hardier than salmon fisheries enhanced with hatchery-reared salmon. They are much higher in nutrient content than farmed salmon. They also taste a LOT better. Ask An Alaskan just had one that’d been caught by a friend in the Brooks River in Katmai National Park. Mmmmm… delicious beyond compare!Salmon fisheries in Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet have all been supplemented with fish reared in hatcheries. But Bristol Bay is one of the few places left in the world where undiluted wild stocks of salmon still exist. That’s why the threat of the proposed Pebble Mine is so great. This gigantic mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay isn’t just a threat to a salmon fishery that makes up a third of the state’s entire salmon harvest. It’s a threat to an irreplaceable wild resource.

July 9, 2010

Q: Why are there so few trees in the Arctic Refuge?

A: Can’t blame loggers for this one. Most of the refuge is above the natural tree line, which occurs where the latitude or elevation is high enough to deny trees the warmth and nutrients they need to grow.

Arctic regions typically have permafrost – soil that is frozen year round — close to the surface, which prevents trees from sinking down the roots they need to stick their necks up very far. The nearly-frozen soil is like a refrigerator – the cold prevents organic matter from biodegrading into food that’s useful to trees.

June 21, 2010

Q: Is it possible to reach any of the AK National Wildlife Refuges by car, bus, train or air? (Ellen)

A:  If you don’t mind flying in a small plane that lands on water, and money is no object, you can charter an airplane and fly to just about any Alaska refuge, no matter how far away it is from the nearest outpost of civilization.

But it sounds like you’re interested in a refuge that’s relatively easy to reach, and your best bet on that score is the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. It’s about a two-hour drive south of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. A major highway runs through it, and it has plenty of good day hikes, plus camping, fishing and canoeing. 

Matt Z., our resident Alaskan at Spencer Glacier.

There’s no bus or train service that stops in any of Alaska’s refuges, though if you want a great wilderness experience by train, check out the Alaska Railroad’s service from Anchorage to Spencer Glacier in Chugach National Forest. You can make a great day trip or overnight outing to beautiful back country. I haven’t seen much wildlife there but the scenery is gorgeous, and you might be able to grab a little chunk of ice from the lake in front of the glacier. 

Q:  Where can I find black-and-white film footage of whales in Alaskan waters? (Steve Levi)

A: I’m guessing you literally want “film,” not digital video – because YouTube has plenty of great digital videos of whales in Alaska. For the casual viewer, here are a couple I liked:

To obtain footage you might be able to use in a film project, I’d suggest contacting Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association in Anchorage. AMIPA has the state’s best library of historic films.

June 1, 2010

Q: What is bear spray? If it gets on my skin do I have to use something special to get it off? (John G., Kansas City, KS)

A: Bear spray is basically a juiced-up squirt gun full of liquid cayenne pepper (technical term: “capsaicin and related capsaicinoids.”) Best not to let it out of the can unless a bear is about to eat you. If you get it on your skin, don’t rub it and don’t bother trying to wash it off with water (it’s not water-soluble).

Wikipedia reports that “Many ambulance services and emergency departments use baby shampoo to remove the spray and with generally good effect.”  I can’t vouch for that advice from any personal experience – thank goodness! 

(ACF Staff Note: Driving down the road one day, a staff member accidentally set off bear spray.  Her experience – pull over immediately because you can’t breath then your eyes burn and water. When cleaning it up, try not to get it on your skin. It burns. When she called poison control they told her there was nothing she could do but give it time to wear off.  The effect lingered in the car for a few days, and it took about 24 hours for the burning skin sensation to subside.)

Q: Do caribou eat meat? (5th Grade Class, Bronx, NY)

A: No, they eat an all-plant diet – it helps keep their cholesterol levels down and their arteries clear. When you have to be ready to flee from a hungry wolf at any moment, Rangifer tarandus want their cardio-vascular systems to be working at maximum efficiency.

Q: What is the biggest environmental threat or problem in Alaska today? (Gina S., New Jersey Burbs)

A:  There’s no shortage of candidates for top billing in this category.

The proposed Pebble Mine would lay waste to a huge part of a watershed that supports the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery, in Bristol Bay. Clearcutting of majestic old-growth trees continues in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. A coal company is eager to strip mine through salmon streams at Chuitna, at the north end of Cook Inlet, not far from the state’s largest city. Off-shore drilling is a serious threat for oceans like the Chukchi Sea, a stormy, ice-filled arctic environment where any spill could mean a repeat of the Exxon Valdez disaster.

But one threat stands out, because it could literally transform life throughout  Alaska and the world: the climate crisis.

“The arctic is now experiencing some of the most rapid and severe climate change on earth,” according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

As the arctic warms up, glaciers are melting. Sea ice is shrinking. Permafrost is thawing.

There are also devastating consequences for polar bears, ice-dependent seals and local people for whom these animals are a primary food source.

Caribou and reindeer herds are at risk, too as warmer temperatures help turn their tundra habitat into scrub forest and more frequent freezing winter rains lock up the forage they need under a coating of ice.

The village of Shishmaref, on a dangerously exposed barrier island in Northwest Alaska, is already falling into the sea as more intense storms strike before ice barriers can build up to protect the area’s shoreline.

At the same time, the shrinking ice pack makes offshore oil drilling easier and invites more shipping traffic, increasing the potential dangers to already-stressed wildlife and ecosystems.

The scientists who did the arctic climate assessment say “Many longer-term impacts could be reduced significantly by reducing global emissions over the course of this century.”

So, what can we do?  At a national level, you can support legislation to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  And at a local level,  join ACF in keeping Alaska’s coal in the ground to explore clean energy alternatives.

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Have a pressing question that hasn’t been answered?  Email askanalaskan@alaskaconservation.org.