Lynn Canal is not really a canal. Captain Cook hoped it was when he named it after his home town of Lynn, England, but It's actually the largest fjord in North America. At 90 miles long it cuts through snow capped mountains three to eight thousand feet tall. The water is an opaque blue green, the hanging glaciers an icy blue. Hillsides are covered with Sitka Spruce and full of bears and moose.
Whales swim in the channels and seals lie on the rocks.
Eagles soar overhead and on cold winter nights wolves howl at the northern lights hissing and waving above the jagged peaks. No one is saying just how much bad stuff was dumped overboard, but no matter how you look at it, it's not good. It's more than a little ironic that Haines doesn't even have a dry cleaner, in part because it costs to much to get rid of the chemicals. And a lot of people are wondering if the unexplained disappearance of the once strong sockeye salmon run on the side of town the cruise ships frequent is just a coincidence. While fishing remains a good income for some 100 families, the Alaskan salmon fishery is highly managed to protect the resource and limited to fisherman with permits.