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| This is the 7th Flag Expedition, with sculptor Terry Woodall travelling to Lake Baikal in Russia to observe and record the rare Baikal Seal in its habitat.He hopes to support conservation efforts through fundraising and education both inside and outside Russia.
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| Orcas Make Appearance at Wildlife Art Event |
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A Significant Happening at a Wildlife Art Expo
All the relevance of wildlife art exhibited in an area of wildlife habitat applied to the 2009 Fort Worden Wildlife and Nature Art Exposition in Port Townsend, Washington. To the North and East, rippling tidal currents and lengthy island ridges front the eastern tip of the Olympic peninsula, the site of this unique wildlife and nature art exposition.
Each year this early October weekend art event highlights a specific wildlife subject by designating a featured animal, and for this fifth annual show the Orca was honored. Nature artists exhibited many renditions of orcas and the local Marine Science Center set up a display which included a laptop connection to a hydrophone submerged from their nearby dock.
Within a half hour after the Saturday morning opening of the show, the hydrophone activated to the sing- song pings of orca activity, and it was announced that part of the resident L-pod of orcas were entering the immediate area. This was claimed to be the first appearance of orcas in months, as they passed by Ft. Worden State Park following the seasonal salmon runs of Puget Sound. The Marine Science Center personnel also anticipated the other half of L-pod to pass by within a couple of hours.
Although the first group passed a good distance out in the middle of the wide sound, two hours later the second group of L-pod turned a tight corner from the Juan de Fuca Strait, which borders the park to the north, and into the sound. They continued their cruise close along the beach in a wonderful display of marine activity. It was noted by a local marine photographer that he had never seen orcas this close to this shoreline, as they generally stay closer to the opposite shore when navigating the sound.
Through the windows of the art exposition building, a corner of blue is visible and beckoned me after the news of the second orca sightings, and I break away from my display of carved orcas and quickly cross the hundred yards of parade grounds to the bluff overlooking the Puget Sound. Although I am late for the initial sightings, I see a spotting boat far out in the waterway and barely discern the orcas it is following as they rapidly disappear to the South. Suddenly there is some heavy splashing and a dark body in front of a red buoy perhaps a half mile out. Then it reappears half again closer, and I can plainly hear its large tail slapping the water. Two and three times I am treated to the orca antics a short distance south of the Marine Science Center dock, until the whale activity ceases and I return to the Commons Building and the orca art of the exposition.
With the orca as the theme of this wildlife art show, the subsequent L-pod cruise-by on the opening hour of the event was a magical moment, and together with the afternoon orcas, eclipsed all I had hoped for in a wildlife art show combined with subject viewing potential. Another level of significance in the combined realm of wildlife and wildlife art occurred here, at this 2009 art event.
Of course the resident orca pods of the region are well established, monitored and studied by scientists, and observed by hundreds of people on whale watching vessels. But the fact remains, even categorized as coincidence, that the wildlife art show threw a party for the orcas, and they showed.
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