Contacts
Mike Boylan 907-786-3329
Mountains of icy green sea, cacophonous bird cliffs, vicious weather. . . just part of a day’s work in the Aleutians! Take a voyage yourself, but save the seasick pills for some other time. Come celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art on Wednesday, October 15 from 7:00 - 9:30 pm. Admission is free. Hors' d'oeuvres at 7:00 pm will be followed by the Anchorage premiere at 8:00 pm of Journey of the Tiglax, a finalist in the "Best Short Film" category at the 2003 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Steve Heiser of Odyssey Productions is director, cinematographer and sound specialist behind the film, and he will present "the rest of the story" including out-takes and comments on what it was like to make the film and voyage for 70 days aboard the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge's 120-foot research vessel, M/V Tiglax.
Journey of the Tiglax tells the remarkable story of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, which consists of more than 2,500 islands and headlands scattered across the Alaska coastline, from Cape Lisburne on the Chukchi Sea to Attu Island at the tip of the Aleutians, to Forrester Island on the border of British Columbia. The Refuge provides nesting sites for more than 40 million seabirds, 80% of Alaska's total seabird population while the surrounding seas support huge populations of marine mammals attracted to food in the nutrient-rich waters. Scientists, transported to field camps by the Refuge's research vessel Tiglax (Aleut for "Eagle" and pronounced "TEKH-lah"), strive to understand the dynamics of the food web as they study and protect the creatures and habitats of a place lightly touched by humans.
"It’s like going on a Jacques Cousteau adventure into a place that’s incredibly alive with wildlife and volcanoes, yet seen by so few people," said refuge manager Greg Siekaniec. "The Aleutians are to Alaska what Alaska is to the Lower 48 - most Alaskans know relatively little about them and haven’t been there. This film will give them a glimpse of the Aleutians and beyond."
Heiser’s camera had to be tied to a rail during a March trip to Adak Island, to prevent it from being thrown across the wheelhouse as he recorded the 25 foot seas and 90 knot winds pounding the foredeck and drenching the windows.
Journey of the Tiglax was a finalist among 550 entries in the prestigious 2003 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and will be the feature presentation at the opening of the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center on December 13th in Homer, Alaska.
Odyssey Productions, Inc., is a full-service film and video production company located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1973, Odyssey has produced award-winning natural history films for a wide range of museums, visitor centers and aquariums from Texas to the Pacific Northwest. In addition to its natural history films, Odyssey has produced cultural history films for Oregon Public Broadcasting, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Columbia River Maritime Museum, the Discovery Channel, and many others. But Heiser says Journey of the Tiglax was logistically the most difficult film he has ever made. He will be available for interviews before and after the presentation.
Learn more about Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge System by visiting us on the web at: http://alaska.fws.gov/nwr/map.dwt For more information on refuges or this event, call 786-3354.
You can subscribe to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Region listserver to have our press releases sent to your e-mail address automatically by sending a message to: listserv@www.fws.gov. Please indicate that you would like to subscribe to FWS-Alaska news and give your name in the body of the message.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the more than 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices, and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
- FWS
For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
visit our home page at http://www.fws.gov
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