National Park Mystery Photo 37 Revealed: It Floats On Water

Boomer II is a real workhorse for the National Park Service at Glacier Bay National Park. Kurt Repanshek photo.

To find this boomer, you really need to travel far in the National Park System.

That's because Boomer II is a patrol boat berthed at Bartlett Cove in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. And she's got quite a history, according to Gus Martinez, the park's Bay District Ranger.

It turns out the boat came to the National Park Service in 1999 when the agency bought out a dungeness crab fishery company. While it sat idly by for several years, in 2006 the boat was modifed "with a push bar and tow bar/guides and launched to replace the Boomer I, an old NPS Boston Whaler," notes Ranger Martinez.

"The primary purpose of the vessel is to stand by for a response to oil spills at Bartlett Cove, to pull boom," he adds.

Today Boomer II is used not only for pulling boom when necessary, Ranger Martinez says, but for "doing patrols in Bartlett Cove, checking sports pots, quick response to Lower Bay Whale waters violations, and since she is a heavy metal boat she does great for shore landings."

"She has been used for oceanography trips, moving gear up the river, she was even used for transfer of our interpretive staff to a cruiseship once," the ranger said.

In other words, while Boomer II might not look like much, she's certainly useful on a number of fronts.