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During the
morning, the expedition traveled down the emerald
waters of Tracy Arm. (Photo by National Ocean
Service, NOAA). |
I am proud to serve as a member of the Pew Oceans Commission seeking to better understand our oceans to guide future policymakers. Our marine waters are essential to life on earth, but it's been said that we know more about the moon than we do of our oceans.
There's reason to be concerned about this lack of knowledge:
- The oceans play a critical role in the earth's physical processes and climatic changes are apparent in Alaska and elsewhere.
- We see fluctuations in populations of fish species and marine mammals that we do not understand.
- We are now learning how pollutants migrate through the ocean currents.
Policymakers need scientific information to guide decisions that respond to these challenges and help shape our future. The same was true in Harriman's day.
Just consider how Alaska has changed since Edward Harriman first called.
In 1899, the public perception of Alaska was dominated by the Klondike gold rush. Harriman's observations helped shed light on the reality of the gold rush and the majority of miners who lost everything in their hopes for fortune.
Mining remains a major industry in Alaska today, including gold and silver, and less flashy metals such as lead and zinc. But the Gold Rush had far less impact on Alaska than oil.
When Harriman encountered the oil industry in 1899, it was located offshore, off Port Clarence near Nome. It was the whaling fleet at anchor.
Whale oil lamps, though, soon gave way to kerosene and with the invention of the automobile a few years later, national demand was growing for petroleum.
There were reports in Harriman's day of a tarry peat burned in lamps by the Eskimos of Alaska's North Slope that hinted of the oil reserves later discovered at Prudhoe Bay.
North Slope crude later met 20 percent of the nation's oil needs. And it bought opportunity and prosperity that profoundly changed Alaska's economy and population.
Not all changes were for the good. We learned the price of complacency with the Exxon Valdez spill but used the lessons learned from that tragedy to build what is now considered the worlds safest transportation system for oil.
Alaska's fisheries in 1899 were limited to canned salmon. Fishermen that year caught a record 15 million salmon and George Bird Grinnell warned that unless the fisheries were properly managed, salmon could easily go the way of the buffalo.
His concern was well founded. Now, we routinely catch ten times that amount of salmon, but Alaska's fishery management is up to the task, considered one of the best management systems in the world.
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Juneau's
public library is decorated with artwork
celebrating Alaska's heritage. Note the cruise ship
bow behind the building on the right. (Photo by
National Ocean Service, NOAA). |
Grinnell would be pleased to learn that Alaska salmon is one of the few fisheries in the world recognized as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. And with other species such as pollock and crab, Alaska produces five billion pounds of seafood products for the world annually.
Alaska success with salmon is also due to protecting the habitat that is essential to maintain fish and wildlife species.
Alaska encompasses more park and refuge land than the rest of the nation combined. About 40 percent of the state, an area roughly equal to Texas, is reserved as parks, refuges, forests and wilderness, something that would please Henry Gannett, who observed:
The Alaska coast is to become the showplace of the earth, and pilgrims will throng in endless procession to see it. Its grandeur is more valuable than the gold or fish or the timber.
But even that throng of pilgrims brought challenges of its own. The tourism industry that Gannett envisioned also brought concerns about their discharges of wastewater and smokestack emissions, overcrowding and noise pollution.
Members of the original Harriman Expedition debated back then issues of development and conservation of Alaska and its resources, and that debate continues today.
Although some frame it as an either/or debate, I don't accept that paradigm. I think development and environmental protection go hand in hand.
Certainly in Alaska that's what we have done, responsibly developing our resources such as oil, gas and fisheries to meet national needs, while protecting the environmental values that we all respect.
Some of these things you will witness during your expedition, others are far off the path that Harriman took.
Wherever your travels take you over the next month, I leave you with two thoughts. First, that your expedition enjoy the same smooth sailing that the original Harriman Alaska Expedition did.
As John Burroughs wrote: "No voyagers were ever more fortunate that we. No storms, no winds, no delays or accidents to speak of. We had gone far and fared well."
I hope similar words are written into your logbook.
And secondly, that you find the experience as informative and inspiring as they.
I won't leave you with Harriman's own concluding words. You might recall he later said, "I don't give a damn if I never see any more scenery."
But rather with John Muir's description of the Fairweather Range as they returned home:
He wrote, "Every mountain stood transfigured in divine light, the crowning grace and glory of the trip, and immortal in the remembrance of every soul of us."
May your journey be as safe, and as rewarding, and leave you with memories that are equally awe-inspiring.
Go far and fare well. Thank you.
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For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu |