In 1995 as an aspiring young natural history illustrator, I met Kate Wynne, marine mammal specialist extraordinaire. I was summer commercial fishing around Kodiak and I was diligently drawing every fish, bird, and mammal I came across. I was using the Guide to Marine Mammals of Alaska to identify bigger species.
Because of hours memorizing every page, I considered myself somewhat of an expert.
One sunny day, in mid season, while ebb tide picking a gill net with my good friend and site owner, Erik Van Eaton, a skiff approached from a site across the bay. Holding the gunnels with one hand and her other on a pair of binoculars, was a woman introduced by the fellow bay fisherman as a Sea lion and Harbor seal specialist.
Although Erik and I weren't fond of what the shredding and Sockeye stealing seals and Sea lions did to our nets and catch, we both knew they were making a living just like us.
During a brief, skiff alongside skiff, conversation, I told the specialist I knew a thing or two about harbor seals and offhandedly rattled off some Harbor seal stats like I was an expert. When the specialist told me I was actually incorrect, I went "um" and couldn't wait to get back to the cabin where I kept my references.
After the skiffs were safely secured and pulled out on the running line, I shuffled up the beach, stripped out of my Grundens and immediately checked my knowledge by finding the marine mammal guide.
My friend Erik was the first to laugh when he saw my realization that I had just met the author of the book I so revered.
I tried to contact the site she was working at by CB, but by then the Widgeon float plane, her and all her gear, was off the water.
Returning to town after winterizing all the the gear and settling with the cannery, I met Kate again at her office in Kodiak. She liked my species drawings, and a couple years later she wrote and I illustrated the Guide to Marine Mammals and Turtles of the U.S. Atlantic. A response of multiple printings, a national outdoor guidebook award, and years of approved on the water use by marine species observers on the Atlantic, showed a need for a Pacific companion.
Now in 2013 Kate Wynne and I are finishing her marine mammal and sea turtle guide series with this new Pacific guide.
Working on the Atlantic guide I was only illustrating, but with this new book, my years of newspaper work pays off in that I also get to lay out and InDesign the entire book :)