Still Reflecting: A Beluga Story

As is my previous post about reflecting back on past accounts left undocumented, so is this post. I remember events gone by mostly through pictures, or something I see will trigger a memory. I recently was looking through some pictures from my summer guiding anxious anglers for salmon, trout, and grayling on the Kvichak River, in The Bristol Bay Region of Alaska. I can remember one gloomy day, towards the end of the sockeye salmon run and early into the silver salmon run. A large white object appeared in the waters in front of the lodge. A group of us stared at this object wondering are we really seeing something? What could it be? There is only one aquatic animal that large in this region of the world that is white. Then we saw the animal's blow hole come up and take a breath. No doubt about it. A beluga whale.

 This mammal swam 50 to 60 river miles up river chasing salmon, and according to the villagers of Iguigig, they haven't seen one this far up river in over 30 years. My colleague and I sprang into a boat and grabbed the camera. We were able to get close enough to get some good pictures, yet we wanted to push the envelope and see how close we could get. The whale bolted when it felt our presence near, but it only moved a hundred yards are so. We repositioned ourselves to take some more shots, and then the whale moved again and we decided to leave it be.

The beluga stayed in the area for about two weeks, harassing salmon and amazing anglers at it's presence. Another wondrous wildlife moment for me in Alaska.