Thursday | May 19th
June 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under InnerSea Discoveries
Endicott Arm is a glacial fiord with stunning scenery. This morning, one could cut the tension and excitement with a knife. We had a long day onboard whale-watching yesterday and folks were eager to get off and explore in our small boats. Most of the excitement surrounded a very narrow portion of the fjord that makes a sharp 90-degree turn.
5 miles of fjord lie above the turn and a lot of water drains, thereby creating standing waves. We get off and see ice bergs stranded by the lowering tide and amazing diversity and numbers of intertidal invertebrates such as limpets, green urchins (has the longest scientific name that I know of: Strongilocentrotus drobrachiensis), mussels and fish eating anenomes.
Harry Ford, exploring the area in the late 1800’s, took rowboats during a slack tide and had a harrowing experience on his way back out.
Later, we enjoy small motorized boat tours to within ¼-mile or more from the face of the Dawes Glacier. Stunning sunshine shining on teetering seracs or ice pinnacles formed from the flow of the glacier over protuberances on the valley floor, thereby leading to crevasses. Glaciers act plastic-like…they can bend to a certain extent then end up cracking.
