8/31-9/4

On 8/31/22, Serena and I went out with Debbie and Marc from 1:45pm-6:00pm on The Otter Woman for harbor porpoise research. We had a count of min-2 max-3 harbor porpoises with 1-2 possible mating displays. There was also a possible river otter, 4 sea otters with pups, 2 harbor seals, and a kingfisher.

On 9/2/22, I helped respond to a stranded barely alive sea otter on the Spit. Marc walked us through the stranding, but watching this animal take its last agonizing breaths before passing in front of me was painful (I'm glad he didn't suffer any longer than he had to since the cause of death was internal). Later that night, I helped respond to a stranded sea otter pup, but it ended up going back into Kachemak Bay.

On 9/3/22, the SBB group went to the Sea Life Center to be properly trained by the stranding network. On 9/4/22, we went on a whale watching trip out of Seward and saw 50-70 resident orcas including calves, over 200 stellar sea lions, around 5 sea otters, Bear Glacier, Northwest Glacier, Anchor Glacier, horned+tufted puffins, mountain goat, and 2 pods of Dall's porpoises.