Too Many Eagles; Not Enough Fishheads. 7/1/02

I walk to a nearby fish process plant, where I pick up a dozen black cod fishheads, gratis, stuff them in a plastic bag, and head back to the dock. The heads weigh about two pounds each. An arm of the dock, facing the shore with a spruce-forest backdrop, provides the stage. I slide my 500mm f/4 onto the tripod mount, check the balance, and lock it down. Then my wife and I make a big show pitching fishheads into the harbor, dangling them overhead before the twenty or so bald eagles roosting in the trees. We pitch them up in a high arc, and they make a big splash as they hit the water. The birds ignore us. Many other eagles are soaring in the good weather, though, so it doesn’t take long for them to drop down and start snatching fish.

With perfect efficiency.

Hundreds of eagles have arrived here in Sitka, to feast on fish parts discarded by the seafood plants. The local processors grind up the fish remains, then flush them straight into the harbor. A feeding frenzy ensues. Eagles swoop down to snatch fish parts - often eating on the wing - then swoop down for more. Thirty or forty eagles bank and wheel together. It’s quite a show - but difficult to photograph. The action is too far out in Sitka channel to photograph from the dock or shore, and it’s backlit. On the water - in a kayak or skiff - there’s a lot of boat traffic to contend with. Hence the fishheads.

My wife was appalled to read in a nature photo tour company’s brochure that they planned to feed eagles fish so tour photographers could get photos. I thought advertising it was bad form. The fact is, most fish-catching eagle photos are made by photographers who toss fish. Is this a bad thing? Feeding wild animals can have large, usually negative, consequences. Especially feeding predators. BC eagle biologist David Handcock told me last year that it is only a matter of time before the increasingly habituated eagles in Vancouver, BC - now nesting there in many residential neighborhoods - snatch a dog from someone’s backyard. Eagles are opportunistic feeders. On the west coast they feed on salmon carcasses much of the winter. When it’s available, they’ll take road kill, which includes dead cats and dogs. Nesting in a residential neighborhood, stockpiling food for the brood, it isn’t much of a stretch for them to carry off a family dog. As the biologist said, "It’s going to happen". I suppose there’d be rough justice if a Blodel manager’s wife lost Fifi to an eagle because the buzz cut they’ve done to BC’s forests forced the eagles to nest in town.

Envisioning an eagle taking a dog in Sitka is more of a stretch. Many of the burly boat owners here favor little dogs, and they go ashore for a walk under the watchful eye of roosting eagles. But Sitka is rather lacking in road kill, and eagle nests are mostly well away from town. Todo is far less likely to be considered a prey species. Still, it’s a good thing there is plenty of fish to eat in Sitka. I felt ok about feeding the eagles.

So . . . back to the photo shoot. After a single roll of film, the fishheads ran out. The eagles went 12-for-13, quickly snatching them up. The sole eagle that missed was an immature bird.

And me? I went 0-for-13 trying for a talons-out eagle, just before it hit a fish. Also 0-for-13, getting an in-focus picture of an eagle as it struck the water. I got one shot I envisioned, though - a soaring, dark-feathered eagle, with the dark forest behind. Even better was a shot of a soaring eagle with a misty backdrop that to me says "Alaska!".

Shortly after the fish ran out the fog rolled in, closing out the good light.