Karin Eberhardt writes:
What do gray whales and fermented cabbage have in common? The same unbelievable stench!
Clear blue skies and wind continued today as most of the team crossed the dubious rotting ice over the channel to explore parts of the 50 kilometers-long alongshore gravel spit to the east of the village.
It was a day for seabirds, with flying flocks of several thousand scoter, Long-Tailed Duck, and eider (including Steller and King).
But back to the whales—not only could we smell them before we saw them, but we could hear them blow from across the channel. Numbering at least two hundred, the whales spouted in the distance, spy-hopped in the middle distance, and wallowed like water buffalo just 5 meters offshore, showing fins and tail and humps of head and back as they rolled to feed in the rich sea bottom off of Meinypil’gyno.
