Lesson 8 (Nas'gadooshu): Seal Guts

On our last day in Juneau we were lucky to spend time at the Alaska State Museum. They had a temporary exhibition I just loved! It focused on a group of Native people from Northern Alaska called the Yup’ik.
They are from way up here.



In my opinion, these native people live in one of the harshest environments in the world – snow and ice, constant daylight in the summer and constant darkness in the winter. Their diet is almost all fish but sometimes they eat sea mammals too.

Man, those Yup’ik were creative and smart. Things may be different for this group today, but even 50 years ago they figured out ways to adapt to their wild and harsh environment with no modern luxuries. Take for example how they used every part of a seal. Of course they would eat the meat, but what about all the other stuff? Click on the exhibition website to see lots of ways the Yup'ik used sea mammals. (You may want to explore the rest of the website too. Can you find the "sun glasses"?)


Pretty impressive, huh? Could your mom construct a diaper like this when she's out of pampers?




At the museum I took a billion pictures of this jacket.



Isn’t it a nice rain jacket? It is thin and waterproof. Translucent enough to show your fashion fur underneath for warmth.It would be excellent protection in a sleet storm - or if wanted to keep your mukluks dry when fishing in your kayak for dinner.



It is sewn out of seal intestines – or if you prefer the more common name – guts. After eating the seal meat, the Yup’ik would get started with the leftover parts. They would turn the intestines insideout, scrape them clean with a clam shell, let them soak in salt water then blow air into them to dry. The women would hand sew the strands together to make this super duper waterproof coat. Just another day on the tundra....



This lesson focused on the Yup'ik people. Here is a link to learn more about the Tlingit tribe, those native to southeastern Alaksa. We saw many beautiful, tall totem poles in our travels. Click here to learn about the different totem pole symbols and click here to make a make a totem pole craft at home.

Lesson 9 (Gooshuk): Glacier Bits

One thing you are sure to see while sailing in Alaska’s Inland Passage is a glacier. Glaciers are solid fields of ice that erode rock and create large valleys. This website has great time lapse photography showing a glacier moving. Click on videos and give it a moment to load.

Many glaciers are filthy. They have rock and dirt mixed in the ice making them grey and brown. Dawes Glacier was different. It was clean and pretty. I’ve decided I like clean and pretty glaciers the best.



The ice is so dense and compact that it appears blue.



We took our zodiac boats out to get a closer look.



It was very exciting when we saw it ‘calve’. This is when ice falls off the end and crashes into the water. Click here to see a great example of a glacier calving. You may want to turn down the volume on your computer. Those people are pretty excited…

When bits of a glacier break off, scientists call them different names depending on their size. The biggest ones are called icebergs.



”Bergie Bits” like this are smaller.



“Growlers” are the little ones.



Did you notice some of the glacier bits contain rocks? These rocks were once part of the mountain. As the iceberg slowly melts it takes those rocks far away from where they once rested.

Captain Minnoch was very careful to avoid the icebergs on our trip. It can be hard to tell how large they are beneath the water and can cause a lot of damage to boats. Remember what happened to the Titanic? Thank you Captain Minnoch.

Look what we found hanging out on the floating ice. I can think of few animals cuter than a harbor seal.




Harbor seals give birth to their pups on glacier bits. Their thick layer of fat keeps them warm on the ice.



Click on the video below. As glacier ice gets more and more compact it traps ice bubbles. Those pops are the air bubbles releasing from the frozen ice as it melts.



Doesn't it sound sort of like a soda fizzing?

Lesson 10 (Jinkaat) : Three VIPs

I want to introduce you to three Very Important People aboard the M.V. Sea Lion, our cruise ship. Let's learn a bit about their jobs. Perhaps they might inspire you!

VIP #1: Boat Captain, Jody Minnoch
See him up there in the Bridge? Don't bother him. He is busy making sure we don't run into an iceberg.


Main Job: monitor everything on the ship. He drives about 8 hours a day.

How he became a cruise ship captain: Jody started working on boats when he was 22. He was a deckhand. He loved being on the water and soon knew he wanted to work his way up to the captain position.

Advice for kids who may want to be a ship captain: Work hard in school and learn math. You need to know math in order to nagivate a ship. Get a summer job on a ship to see if it is something you are interested in.

Curious Fact about Alaskan Cruise ship captains: We follow summer! On the Sea Lion we work in Alaska in the summer and in Baja California in the winter.

Favorite Food: homemade mac ‘n cheese and ‘authentic’ Mexican food.

Captain Minnoch wanted to say hi to you.


VIP #2: Naturalist, Gretchen Pederson
There is Gretchen. She is taking people closer to Dawes Glacier on a zodiac.



Main Job: Share interesting and amazing information about the wild and natural world the boat guests see.

How she became a naturalist: Gretchen has always enjoyed being outside and being with animals. She picked a job that allowed her to share her passions with others.

Advice for kids who may wnat to be a naturalist: Be curious. Learn everything you can both in and outside of school. Study animals, plants and rocks.

Curious Facts about Alaskan naturalists: We get dirty! We get wet! We get to catch frogs!

Favorite Food: Fresh berries.

Naturalist Gretchen wants to say hi to you.



VIP #3: Chief Engineer, Matt Foster

Matt is wearing ear protection. It can be loud around some of those engines.



Main Job: Takes care and fixes anything mechanical on the ship

How he became a boat engineer: Matt started out as a really good truck mechanic. He wanted a change and answered an advertisement to work on boats. He found almost all of his skills were the same on a ship.

Advice for kids who may want to be a ship mechanic: Study math and science. Also, you need to be able to communicate with people very well.

Curious Fact about Alaskan cruise ship mechanics: If something goes wrong in the middle of the night, the crew wakes me up!

Favorite Food: Mexican

Engineer Foster wanted to say hi to you too, but it was TOO LOUD!

Lesson 11 (Jinkaat ka tleix): A Fishy Post

I’m not much of a fisherwoman. However, if you give Dude a rod and line not only will he catch you dinner, he'll probably scale and gut the fish too. He won’t eat it though. He’d prefer a bowl of Cheerios, hold the milk please.

If you are a "The Deadliest Catch" fan, like I am, you know that fishing is very important in Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has some pretty strict rules. They want to make sure there will always be healthy fish to catch in the ocean. Here are some of the rules for catching salmon.



We spent a few hours in Petersburg, a town devoted to the fishing industry.



If you buy fish at the grocery store, there is a good chance it was processed in Petersburg! We watched boats coming in full of fish and preparing to leave again. We watched folks scrub the boat decks and rebait traps.



They didn’t seem to mind our company.

Since Dude likes to fish, someone suggested we go to the hardware store. We wandered through the fishing tackle aisle and stopped to admire the neon orange, glitter-encrusted, squid-scent slathered fishing lures. Those were meant for BIG fish, not the trout Dude bags in Colorado streams. Mr. Jim and Dude also visited the Fish and Game office and picked up roughly 40 pounds of information on fishing in Alaska. (I think Dude has a plot brewing.)

Dude was fascinated by a neat and clean store called Tonka Seafood. After watching Dude pick up and look over every fish product in the store, the friendly lady behind the counter asked if he wanted to see how they process the fish in the back room. Did he ever!

We walked past heavy vinyl flaps and met three people processing Lingcod that day.



As you can see a Lingcod is roughly the size of an almost fifth grader. James answered Dude’s questions as he worked. First he hauled a huge fish from the bucket, cut it open and cleaned it out. Next, in one quick motion James sliced the fillet off one side, flopped it over and did the same on the other side.





Finally, he picked up the now cartoon-like fish (only the head, tail and spine) and got rid of it. Thanks Tonka Seafood for letting us peek in on your operation.



Do you like smoked salmon? Dude does. In honor of the only fish my avid fisherman will willingly eat I offer you this easy smoked salmon recipe. It’s a Kennedy family favorite.