Yakutat, Alaska ~place where the canoes rest~: Disenchantment Bay

Last Thursday my supervisors, our boat captain Glen (a commercial fishermen who also works for the USFS) and I went on a journey to see Haenke or Egg Island in Disenchantment Bay. I bet there's a funny story behind the name “Disenchantment Bay”, like the early explorers traveled way up it in search of a passage and all they found was ice, haha! Disenchantment Bay is where the famous Hubbard Glacier is.

crazy looking cave in the rock

The reason for our trip in Glen’s skiff was that local Tlinget elders had been requesting the USFS survey Egg Island concerning the potential to burn some vegetation to free up the gull nesting habitat. A Tlinget tradition involves going to Haenke Island to collect gull eggs for harvest, and apparently generations ago less vegetation was crowding the island and many more gulls nested there. Although this subsistence harvesting isn’t necessary for survival anymore, it is still an important part of Tlinget culture and tradition. Susan concluded that we will have to speak with the elders more about their observations and what they know from years past, but now the Forest Service has a better idea of what the habitat on Haenke Island looks like.


Why hello there, ice berg!

The view that morning down at the dock in Yakutat was only the beginning of views unlike any I had ever seen. My camera couldn’t begin to capture the view of fishing boats tied at the dock with evergreen islands in the background and deep blue water, bordered by white-capped mountains in the distance.

This trip up to Haenke Island and the glaciers, while maneuvering our way in between ice bergs and surrounded by snow-covered mountains was by far the coolest thing I’ve done in Alaska (no pun intended)! People here keep telling me how lucky I am to have had the chance to go up there- especially within my first week here! Most volunteers never have the opportunity, even though Disenchantment Bay is a hotspot for the cruise ships that come through Yakutat. I really can’t describe the trip up there, and the pictures hardly do it justice. We had a gorgeous day for the trip, which was good because it was cold for me even in the sun and had it been colder and rainy (as is typical in SE Alaska, but sure hasn’t been so far for me) I would have been really freezing. We motored our way through the islands in Yakutat Bay and between Knight Island and shore. The view of the mountain range and Mt. St. Elias was breathtaking. We passed point Latouche and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees as we rounded the corner in the skiff to Disenchantment Bay. Numerous porpoises glided out of the sparkling glacier-blue water (which is very similar to Caribbean blue water, but quite a bit colder!) High on a mountain peak we could see bear tracks in the snow, heading right over the top of the mountain down to the other side.

Haenke (Egg) Island

On the island we saw many glaucous gulls, kittiwakes, and a few oystercatchers either resting on the cliffs, searching for food, or a few even nesting on shore. We also saw a peregrine falcon and got a good look at him through the binocs. We could only walk a small part of the island because the beach was blocked on either side by rocky cliffs or bolders. On the way back in the boat we did a little bit of trolling but didn’t have any luck, though we ran into several other groups of fishermen who said they had caught lots. We did however, see many eagles and a few brightly colored seastars as we trolled along slowly near the shore.