Beluga Monitoring on a Sunday Morning in May

The excavator’s clamshell bucket grabs the glacial till from the seabed, piling the grey slurry on an adjacent barge, stopping only as a tug comes along side.  Two tugs leave the dock to intercept the inbound Alaska Marine Lines ocean-going tug and barge. Mid-channel, the ocean going tug surrenders its tow and the harbor tags coax the barge sideways towards the AML wharf.  Off in the north part of the harbor, two muck barges pushed by tugs move about.  Atop the cargo containers on the AML barge, I see a great deal of construction equipment, tanker trucks, passenger buses and small boats.  The heavy equipment no doubt will support the unfolding Alaska construction season.  As the saying goes, we have two seasons in Alaska, “winter” and “construction.”  The buses and boats support the summer tourist and recreation activities. Cargo containers roll off the TOTE ship and the adjacent Matson containerized cargo vessel berthed in the port.  A steady stream of trucks carries these containers out of the Port of Anchorage up C Street.  A train whistle sounds as if to remind us that it carries cargo as well.  An occassional small aircraft buzzes overhead crossing Knik Arm, inbound to or outboand from from Merrill Field.  

 A bit after 10 am on an overcast Sunday morning in May the Port of Anchorage is abuzz with activity.  The time of day does not dictate the level of activity, that is left to the rising high tide.  As the tide falls the activity level will moderate as the vessels in Port become landlocked by the tidal flats that expose at lowest tide. Three weeks ago, the waterway was covered in pack ice and there was little activity.  Today, only a few pieces of relict floating ice lingers, entrained in the tidal currents. The boat ramp floats have not been installed, but a few small boats have already trailer launched from near the peak of the tide when the water level approaches the top of the ramp.

I observe the maritime choreography from the vantage point a park bench of the north jetty of the boat ramp.    I note movement and times the vessels on my log sheet and scribble other details in my Field Notes.  Today, as part of the Alaska Beluga Monitoring Project, I am observing the area for signs of the Cook Inlet beluga as they slowly return to the upper Inlet.  I wonder what if any, if any, all this activity might have on the presence or absence of beluga.  Last fall, while at this same location, I observed the beluga feeding around the mouth of Ship Creek.  They seemed unaffected by the Port activity, but most of the times I saw beluga there was less activity.

In the last few days, my fellow AKBMP volunteer observers have seen beluga along Turnagain Arm, but I have yet to see any in Knik Arm.  The day before, the Protected Species Observers hired to monitor marine mammal activity during Port construction, reported seeing a few around Port McKenzie on the far shore of Knik Arm.  That area is just beyond my scanning zone.  The PSO’s in their elevated Hilton-like covered observation post atop a conex box on the ramp’s south jetty have much more high tech equiment including high powered optics than do I from the park bench.

The 10 power binoculars, inherited from my grandfather 40 years ago, and my Fujifilm digital camera provide more than adequate resolution and detail for the monitoring I do in the area immediately adjacent to the mouth of Ship Creek and the Port of Anchorage.  The PSOs have their schedule (they are absent this morning) dictated construction activity, mine depends on the time of the rising and falling tide.  Today, the time is from 0839 to 1039, with the tide forecast to peak at 1139.  As Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “time and tide wait for no man.”  It would seem this day neither do the beluga.

Beluga Field Notes--Returning to Ship Creek

 

 

With today's observation period from 8:11 am to 10:11 am. on a rising tide at Ship Creek, this monitoring session is what I refer to as "the dawn patrol"--an early morning session with the sun just barely peeking over the crest of the Chugach Range.  Despite the early hour, the port was already busy.  As I approached the closed-for-the-winter boat ramp, I noticed three tugs returning to theit float adjacent to the ramp.  Three large cargo vessels were tied up to the wharf on the far end of the port.  I am sorry I was not able to witness the choreograph between the tugs and the most recent arrival  being wedged sideways into the wharf.  The sounds of port activity carried over still morning air as the vessels disgorged their cargoes, mostly shipping containers from what I can see from my vantage point.  A steady stream of tractor trailers were entering and leaving the port area on the bridge that fed into C Street in downtown Anchorage.  Across Knik Arm, Sleeping Lady lies cloaked in her blanket of white, the shifting light highlighting the topography.

A high overcast filtered the light from the early morning sun.  The flag on the causeway to the tugs' floating dock hung limp in the still morning air.  Ice entrained in the cuttent created by the rising tide passed the observation point for the entire two hours.  Just a week ago, the area had been completely covered by pack ice.  Now, the area was mostly open water.  At the mouth of Ship Creek, large dirty ice chunks remained where they grounded at the most recent highest tide.  They soon will be gone, mostly melted by the warming spring temperature and the perpetual tidal cycle of Cook Inlet.  With the huge rise and fall of the tides, Cook Inlet has been described as a "bathtub".  If that is the case, the remnant ice marks the ring around the tub.

While no beluga were observed during today's session, wildlife activity continues to increase along the shoreline.  The variety of birds seems to be increasing.  Shorebirds are becoming more numerous along water's edge, geese fly overhead as mallards flitter into the creek.  A lone eagle skimming the surface of Knik Arm caused a cacophony of warning among the gulls as it approaches the shoreline.  Just two weeks ago, the birds consisted mostly of the ever present raven.  I expect pretty soon we will see beluga in the area.  The observation station for the marine mammal observers associated with the Port of Anchorage construction monitoring has been moved to the edge of the breakwall in anticipation of their return.  They are directly opposite the location where we do our observations.

Like the wildlife, more people seem to be making their way back to the park and boat ramp area.  I spoke with more visitors today that I had seen in my last three sessions combined.  I spoke briefly with Norman, an elder who grew up in the Seldovia Village and the Aleutians.  He goes down to the boat ramp area every day.  He too has noticed an increase in activity.  All winter the statue inspired by Grandma Olga who fished the area when it was a Native fish camp has been a lone sentinel over the Inlet.  We beluga monitors have joined her perpetual vigil in the area--if only for two hours at a time.