Working with Nature

On the Snow Goose one of our main goals is to establish protocol for reducing impacts on air, water, and natural soundscapes. We continue to make improvements to our existing systems and to create new ways to reduce our impact. This year, we installed solar panels on the top of the wheelhouse that will supply power to our general battery bank.

The installation of a diesel kitchen stove in 2018 improved life on the boat in a lot of ways. There is a water circulation pump integrated into the diesel stove system so we can use the heat from the stove to heat water for sinks and showers. While the stove is running, this produces endless hot water at very warm temperatures! The stove is primarily used to cook meals aboard the Snow Goose, but it also heats the entire salon and wheelhouse so effectively that we rarely, if ever, use the heaters in these areas. We also pump warm, dry air into the downstairs hallway, further reducing need for heaters. These systems have reduced our generator usage by 75%.

We prioritize reducing our impact on air quality by staying on top of mechanical maintenance, installing systems to reduce fuel consumption, and refraining from idling the engines whenever possible. We also operate the vessel at maximum efficiency, which is a fancy way of saying we cruise along at a slow but steady pace – better for spotting wildlife! In 2019 we created a salt-water bypass system for the heads to reduce water consumption, therefore reducing energy needed to make fresh water.

Waste can be a challenge on a boat, but our systems have been continually improving over the years. We installed systems to improve wastewater-holding capacity and updated heads with macerators. The wastewater is treated with organic microbes that speed up break down. On the boat in general, we only use organic, biodegradable cleaning products. For trash and recycling, we built a bigger contained storage area so we can contain all of our waste until have access to proper disposal.

Being a human inherently impacts the surrounding environment, but we believe it is important to continually work toward reducing that impact while still exploring the natural world around us.

Ocean Acidification in the News

Unfortunate news about the effects of ocean acidification on Dungeness crab larvae has been circulating through major news networks this week. It follows the recent release of a NOAA-funded study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The study provided evidence that Dungeness crab larvae are already being affected be current levels of ocean acidification, a conclusion that came as somewhat of a surprise. Prior to the study, “scientists thought that Dungeness crab were not vulnerable to current levels of acidification” (NOAA, 2020). They had simulated what they thought would be future effects in the lab, but had no evidence that it was already a regular occurrence in the natural environment until now.

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On top of this newfound evidence, the study also provided information to researchers about the damage caused by ocean acidification on the external shells and legs of post-larval Dungeness crabs. Scientists are concerned that this damage could cause developmental delays and interfere with normal growth pattern, as the little creatures are required to expend more energy on growing and repairing their shells. 

In an even more alarming discovery, scientists found that hair-like bristles on young crabs have been damaged or are completely absent due to low levels of pH in ocean water. These bristles, called mechanoreceptors, are sensory structures that help crabs navigate, and their absence may explain a change in behavioral patterns currently being observed in Dungeness crabs.

Click on the links below to learn more!

• NOAA Article: Dungeness crab larvae already showing effects of coastal acidification

• Science of The Total Environment study: Exoskeleton dissolution with mechanoreceptor damage in larval Dungeness crab related to severity of present-day ocean acidification vertical gradients

What kind of traveler are you?

Last summer, one of the largest cruise ships in the world set sail in Alaska with 4,000 passengers. This summer, another megaship (with an onboard go-kart track and laser-tag set) will more than double that number. As these massive cities on the sea migrate into remote Alaskan waters, we are beginning to wonder, what makes someone choose them over us?

We get it, small ships may not be for everyone. In Southeast Alaska, it seems there are three main categories of passenger vessels: colossal cruise ships, medium-sized “small ships,” and even smaller ships like the Snow Goose. 

Obviously we’re partial to the ‘Goose (and you may be, too). But, to be honest, we find it misleading that many vessels carrying over 100 passengers refer to themselves as a “small ship.” So, to illustrate the differences between all of your cruising options, we made a handy-dandy chart to help you find out what sort of travel suits you best. 

Alaskan Cruise Ship Comparison ChartDownload

Aboard the Snow Goose: Crew Log

Take a walk in our shoes (or boots!) and read the daily highlights of a trip aboard the Snow Goose from Gustavus to Juneau, Alaska. Click here to learn more about our 2019 trips along this route!

Day 1:

Snow Goose crew welcomed everyone aboard the boat as we always do, with hot coffee,  tea and a late-morning snack (homemade blueberry muffins, freshly baked cookies and fresh fruit). Everyone settled in to their cozy cabins as the captain and first mate wasted no time getting off the dock.

We ate a lunch of Thai carrot soup and quinoa pilaf underway, while keeping an eye out for curious sea otters bobbing along in the calm seas. Less than three hours had passed and we spotted our first whale! It was a humpback feeding along the shore, below the steep granite walls that extend deep into the sea.

Once anchored in Geikie Inlet we set out in kayaks, secretly hoping the whale would come pay us a visit. As we became familiarized with our swift and sleek vessels, we also settled into the rhythm of a trip in Alaska and began to take note of the abundance of wildlife surrounding us. Before long the warm lights of the boat called us home, so we paddled back toward our mothership for our first dinner aboard the Snow Goose.

That night we feasted on furikake crusted Wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon, fried rice with miso butter, sugar snap peas, and a fresh green salad.

Day 2:

Woke up to a Humpback lunge-feeding right outside our front door. It’s good to be back in Alaska! Had a morning navigational update over charts and coffee, and pulled anchor.

Further north, a hike up the accurately named Gloomy Knob gave us a chance to use the Snow Goose naturalist library to identify an array of Alaskan wildflowers.

Later, we anchored in Blue Mouse Cove and went for a 3-4 mile paddle where we were surrounded by a family of sea otters. The colossal peaks of the Fairweather Range hovered in the distance.

Day 3:

Today we enjoyed lunch while viewing the Johns Hopkins Glacier.

We kept our distance due to the harbor seals that were pupping near the face of the glacier. Seals give birth on floating icebergs to protect their young from predators. It’s a good move, as seals and iceberg formations look surprisingly similar.

The tide was low so we kayaked along the intertidal zone to our anchorage in Reid Inlet. We saw pairs of oyster catchers guarding their nests on the rocks and a raucous flock of surf scoters along the way.

Day 4:

As the Snow Goose ventures further north into Glacier Bay, the changes in the landscape are evident. Fewer trees, towering granite peaks and icebergs drifting in the turquoise waters as far as the eye can see. We took a morning hike along the terminus of the Reid Glacier and had breakfast underway while we moved on to the next stop.

Later, the group got the full Glacier Bay experience while kayaking at Margerie Glacier: gigantic slabs of ice calving off the face of the glacier and disappearing into the water with an echoing crash. A huge colony of cormorants and kittiwake gulls nested on the sheer granite walls adjacent to the glacier.

It was an incredible day, immersed deep in the inlets of Glacier Bay. The icing on the cake? Homemade chocolate mousse for dessert!

Day 5:

Breakfast was served underway as we cruised to our next stop: a hike-about along the shores of a river of icebergs, floating peacefully yet swiftly into the sea. Some folks in our crew were slightly weary of running into a bear; just yesterday we cruised along a similar shoreline, watching a brown bear overturning rocks with his giant claws as he visited the intertidal lunch buffet.

In order to warn any local bears of our presence on our hike, we made up songs to sing loudly as we marched through the tall shrubs. We ended at a group of angular glacial ice formations, abandoned on the sandy beach by the high tide. We identified the bright purple flowers along the way as fireweed, well known in the ethnobotany world for its many medicinal uses. We saw no bears that day, and returned to the Goose in our trusty skiff, greeted with hot chocolate and another delicious lunch.

Day 6:

The group took a mid-day break from cruising to circumnavigate South Marble Island, home to an important colony of pigeon guillemots, on kayaks. In stark contrast to the dainty seabirds (weighing in at a whopping 1.1 pounds on average), a group of stellar sea lions also call Marble Island home. You can see, hear, and smell the sea lions from a considerable distance. As their belches and barks echoed over the water, we paddled faster to get up-wind.

Day 7:

Cruising out of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, everyone once again begins to notice differences in the landscape, the vegetation and the color of the water. As we enter Icy Strait our eyes are trained on the horizon, and eventually we see the telltale sign of a humpback whale. The health and happiness of wildlife is our number one priority, so the captain shut off our motors and allowed the Goose to drift in the current  at a safe distance. It turns out to be a whole group of whales; we see them surfacing before each deep dive, lunge feeding with their gigantic jaws wide open, and slapping their pectoral fins and flukes on the surface of the water to make a thunderous clap.

The whales stay, so we stay. The group opts to push lunch back and in order to tide us over, we have a mid-day snack on the deck. The sun has decided to show itself from behind the clouds and there’s no where else we’d rather be. As other boats cruise by without even a glance at the whales, we suppose they must be in a hurry. For the Snow Goose crew, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Day 8:

As they say, all good things must come to an end. We have our final breakfast aboard the Snow Goose and head to port at Auk Bay in Juneau. While it is exciting, in a way, to get back to ‘civilization’, contact our loved ones, and start uploading our best photos from the trip, we do our best to take our time getting back to reality. Southeast Alaska has provided a rare experience, beyond even the wildlife and glaciers; it has given us the opportunity to slow down, observe, and soak in the world around us.

Marine Science Aboard the Snow Goose: Stormwater & Stewardship

As we close the door on another season of Marine Science aboard the Snow Goose, it seems to be the perfect time to post about a lesson from our 6th grade science program. Each day begins at the storm drain near our gate at Squalicum Harbor. Before heading down the dock, students gather to explain the significance of the storm drain and its effect on Bellingham Bay.

While our storm water lesson is often considered one of the most difficult to teach, it is the station where students make their strongest connections. They begin by reinforcing their existing knowledge on dissolved oxygen and salmon through a group discussion.

After collecting data on oxygen levels in the bay, students identify the ways in which humans affect dissolved oxygen and the potential situations when runoff could contain bacteria, hydrocarbons, or an overload of nutrients.

We also talk about stewardship and personal action one can take to improve the health of the Salish Sea. We hope that students will learn to observe their role as stewards of the watershed and feel confident in sharing the details of that responsibility with with those around them.

In this post we thought we would highlight just one small part of this lesson: rain gardens as an alternative to storm drains. As the first major rain event of the season occurred just this week, we find this topic currently relevant in Bellingham.

Rain gardens are usually built in a small bowl in the land, where runoff can absorb into the ground. The garden is planted with native flowers and shrubs that can handle large fluctuations in water flow.

Balanced & well-drained soil in a rain garden is essential to absorb runoff and treat the pollution carried with it. An article from the Sightline Institute explains the results of a 2015 study that proves rain gardens are an effective way to clean up pollution in stormwater.

As the rainy season in Washington begins, now is the opportune time to begin planning your rain garden. This guide is a great place to start!

https://extension.wsu.edu/raingarden/

Keep Learning:
Click here to watch a video about storm water runoff solutions. For more information about the science behind rain gardens, click here.

Humpback Whales and Bubble Net Feeding in Southeast Alaska

Humpback whales have learned to employ an ingenious method of feeding as a group. Bubble-net feeding is the process of rounding up a school of salmon, herring, or krill with only the help of bubbles and sound.

This feeding method involves about a dozen whales working together to blow a ring of bubbles around the school and drive them upward using some sort of ‘feeding call’. The ‘net’ can be as large as 30 meters wide. The fish do not cross the bubbles, and instead swim upward. The whales follow and lunge toward the surface to capture the fish.

Researchers still have a  lot of uncertainties about how whales learned to employ bubble-net feeding and about the specifics of how it works. After all, the first time this method of feeding was documented was less than 90 years ago. Not all humpbacks employ these methods; as few as 100 humpbacks have learned bubble-net hunting skills. Our 2018 northbound crew was lucky enough to witness it on their trip from Bellingham, Washington to Glacier Bay, Alaska.

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Learn More!

BBC Earth Video | Ingenious Bubble Net Fishing | Nature’s Great Events

National Geographic Video | Whales Team Up in Amazing Bubble Net Hunt

NOAA study on bubble-net feeding in Humpback Whales

 

 

 

 

 

Springtime Aboard the Snow Goose

It has been a busy spring aboard the ‘Goose. We welcomed over 1,400 students from local schools for daily trips on Bellingham Bay for our Marine Science Program. The Snow Goose also traveled between Bellingham and Sucia Island six times to transport students from the Environmental Education program at Huxley College, a college within Western Washington University. The Huxley group led high school students from the Seattle area on a five-day camping trip at Sucia Island State Park.

Later in May, we brought geology students from Whatcom Community College on a day trip to visit the geological formations of Lummi and Sucia Islands. That same weekend we took a group of folks on a sunset cruise to benefit The Somero Project, a nonprofit that has a goal of educating children and empowering youth in Kotolo, Uganda.

Below are some photos of our adventures this spring. Enjoy!

Students aboard the Goose in the middle of Bellingham Bay

Fishing for mylar balloons in the bay

Our amazing teacher/naturalist Molly after a big catch!

Snow Goose school program in Bellingham Bay

 

The Wheelhouse

Sunset over the San Juan Islands

Cruising on the Snow Goose

An evening cruise to Sucia Island aboard the Snow Goose.

 

The Somero Project sunset cruise in Bellingham Bay.

Fun Facts About Boats: The Log-line, Knots, and Navigation

Fun fact! When referring to boat speed, the word knot originated from an antiquated form of measuring speed on a sailboat. Sailors would tie knots in a rope at an equal distance apart, and throw a flat board connected to the end overboard. The board would create drag and sailors could measure the distance that the rope went out over a specific period of time.

The only problem? This method gave them a speed over water, but didn’t account for ocean currents.

 

What’s the difference between knots and nautical miles? https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nauticalmile_knot.html
Learn more about navigation: http://oceanmotion.org/guides/n_1/n_teacher_1.htm

Take a Gander at Life Aboard the Snow Goose

We are excited to share our new video of our adventures in Southeast Alaska. The footage spans from Petersburg to Glacier Bay National Park, including Baranof Island, Admiralty Island, George Island, Elfin Cove, Hoonah and Icy Strait.

 

Cruise remote Alaskan waters with us!

www.snowgoosealaska.com

Southeast Alaska: Unpredictable yet Irresistible

A trip aboard the Snow Goose is not your average summer vacation. Due to the nature of our excursions, a number of uncertainties arise about life aboard the Goose in Alaska. What do the state rooms look like? How often do I get to kayak? Can I go back for seconds at dinner? Most of the questions have clear answers, but others remain a bit more fickle.

Although we can predict which months are the least wet and rainy, daily weather in Alaska is consistently erratic. April, May, and June have the lowest average rainfall, while the warmest months tend to be July and August. In September, when the Snow Goose makes her southbound trip to Washington, the rainfall average jumps to over 8 inches per month.

Not only is June one of the driest months, the long days surrounding solstice enrich the Alaskan experience. On the longest days of the year we receive over 18 hours of sunlight, giving us ample time for daily adventures.

Wildlife is another unpredictable aspect of each trip, and we consider the long days an opportunity for a flexible schedule. Downtime is essential for that moment when we spot humpback whales bubble-net feeding, or a family of brown bears ambling down the shoreline. Taking time to observe wildlife is one of the best parts of exploring Alaska aboard a small ship.

While it seems like June might be the ultimate time for a trip in southeast Alaska, the reality is that nearly anything can happen when it comes to the weather. Which is why we just layer up, get out in the elements, and simply enjoy life in the great outdoors.

 
For available 2018 trips, visit our website:  www.snowgoosealaska.com