14 July. Valdez, Alaska. Watching Sea Lions rip salmon to shreds.

Valdez (pronouced Val deeez) is a small fishing village. It has a few nice restaurants, a Safeway grocery store, a couple of gas stations, and some majestic scenery.  It is also the terminus for the Alaska Pipeline that extends from Prudoe Bay on the north edge of Alaska.

Near the terminus of the pipeline is a salmon hatchery.  The place collects eggs and sperm.  The hapless salmon are DNA coded to return to the same spot to spawn.

They attempt swimming upstream...

...to this river on the other side of a bridge to the east.  But are stopped by a gate ... a "wier," whatever that is ... a gate that stops them.  

Waiting in the wings are giant sea lions.  I mean huge.  Notice in this photo the "Pink Salmon" is peaking out of the water above the sea lion. Bad plan.  He won't last long.

The fish are reasonably smart, but are tired from traveling across the Pacific ocean. When they sense the sea lion, they scatter.  The dark area is fish so densely packed, you cannot see water between them.

This is a little brutal. Cover the kids' eyes.  The sea lion simply dips his head in for a tasty snack.  Sea gulls stand by for whatever slings out. And it does.  The sea lion shakes from right to left to rip the salmon into bite-sized chunks for swallowing.

Then he does it again. Then again. Think eating french fries at McDonalds. "...I'll just have one more."

And the gulls, mostly Glaucous-winged gulls here, pounce in for scraps.

I'd have to study sea lion behavior, but it looked like there was a pod of smaller ones waiting their turn. That is, waiting for the dominant bull to finish up.

A Black-legged Kittiwake looks at the action.

Black-legged Kittiwakes nest on the nearby bridge.

Most readers will be interested to know how can a birder distinguish between Herring Gulls, Thayer's Gulls and (pictured here) Glaucous-winged gulls.  Easy if you can see it.  Glaucous-winged gulls have a pink orbital rings, dark irises, and a pink gape.  I know most everyone knows this, but I thought I'd review for emphasis. :-)