About Observation Post #17
Nelson Lagoon, Alaska, United States
(55.92N, -161.35W)

Some gray whales like to spend summer feeding in bays, such as Nelson Lagoon, along the Alaska Peninsula. The village is located on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula, 580 miles southwest of Anchorage. It sits on a narrow sand spit that separates the coastal areas of Western Alaska from the Bering Sea. The whales feed in the narrow channel. It's still a long swim for the whales before they reach the prime feeding areas in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. The villagers, mainly Alaska Native or part Native, can reach the village only by air and sea. In small village schools, students learn about where "their" whales spend the winter months before they return to the Arctic in spring and summer.

Students in Nelson Lagoon School look at gifts sent to them from students at the other end of the whale trail, in Mexico near the lagoons.