The cool mist feels like someone opened a refrigerator, and in the distance appears a tiny rocky island. As you approach closer by boat, however, you can see the brown rocks are alive. Steller sea lions lumber around the rock outcropping, while others lie still, looking like so many long sandbags. A sea lion lets out a single long deep-throated bellow that eerily pierces the air like an elephant's roar. A sea otter pops its fuzzy head above water in the foreground of this stunning scene at Procession Rocks in Alaska's western Prince William Sound as skipper Alexandra Von Wichman watches from her 58-foot-long charter yacht, The Babkin. Two or three humpback whales swim far off to the right, near shore, their long backs curving above waterline, forcing Von Wichman to ponder an enviable question for people in the tourism trade. Should she give her half-dozen charter passengers a better view of the whales or stay within binoculars view of the sea lions, both rare enough to be listed as threatened or endangered species?
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