The boat tour that took us out to the Aialik glacier while we were in Seward showed us all sorts of gorgeous scenery, but it also brought us to see some pretty cool wildlife, too. We had already seen bald eagles and Dall’s porpoises, but there was much more to come. The big draw at the glacier itself were the harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). When we first began to approach the glacier the guide told us that all the little black dots on the sea ice at the foot of the glacier were the seals. At that point, he turned off the motor and told us to start taking our photos. Everyone except a couple of photographers with very long telephoto lenses groaned! Then he turned the motors back on and brought us in somewhat closer. When we did stop, we were still about a mile out from the glacier and the animals, but the boats purposefully don’t go any closer so as not to disturb the animals. Without a telephoto lens, the seals were still pretty small, but at least we could make them out to be seals.

As our driver turned the boat slowly to give everyone a chance to see everything, someone pointed out a seal in the water about a quarter of a mile out from the boat. It seemed to be somewhat curious about us, but definitely didn’t want to get too close. It was still a little way off, but it was close enough to get some decent shots. Again, in hind sight, I wish that I had gotten out my telephoto lens. I didn’t have much hope of using it effectively without my tripod, which didn’t fit in my luggage (and heaven knows I tried to make it fit!). At a later part of the trip, I did use the telephoto lens and figured out a way to use the ship’s rails as a tripod that worked pretty well.

I have seen harbor seals before, both in Maine and in Oregon, but that was a long time ago, long before I started doing any kind of photography or keeping a life list. Although the photos I got of the seals will not win any awards, I’m happy that I was able to get something recognizable (instead of just the black dots). I also greatly appreciate the fact that the boats don’t go close enough to disturb the animals or habituate them to people. One of the things I learned from this trip is that I need to be more aggressive in my thinking about ways to get the images. I missed out on two possible opportunities for photos by not trying them (telephoto lens here and video with the porpoises). It’s all part of the learning process, I guess.