Bering Ecosystem Study Journals
Last night was the weekly Science Club meeting. I have a loyal group of about 10 students who are willing to give up sitting in front of a TV, or listening to their music player to spend two hours learning more about science. I don't think I'd want too many more, their questions are so numerous that I have a steady buzz in my ears when we are done.
So it was time to get the learning adventure activity and displays planned and set. here it is two weeks into our second quarter of school, we need to get out to the elementary schools and TEACH! So I turned over what I had been working on over our intersession, display boards with laminated titles and subtitles, with corresponding ideas I thought they could run with. Each group chose TWO boards and they went to work planning their experience...
Being a subsistance people, the Inupiat rely on the animals from their environment for food. I don't want to mislead the general public to think that skin boats and ivory harpoons are used to hunt whales in the Arctic. Whaling and other subsistance hunting have incorporated modern technology.
There are snowmobiles that drag the boats from village to the ocean, and those boats can be aluminum or skin. The harpoons aimed at the whales contain explosive tips that cause great damage, death being the ultimate goal. Afterall, the Inupiat eat these animals. It is a source of food for them. However, unlike the European slaughter of thousands of whales for oil and fashion in the early 1900s, the Inupiat take and store what they need to survive.
And as it is in any society, there are a few that...
The experience of a lifetime is one of the first things I tell anyone about my adventure in the Arctic. My life has been changing for over a year. I moved from North Carolina and left the formal education classroom to pursue a career as an informal educator at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio. Still if that wasn’t enough, I also got engaged and was planning for a July wedding.
So change is good and I have had non-stop change since I left the classroom. It was by coincidence that I even thought to go for the PolarTREC program and it was amazing to have the support of an entire museum behind me. The thrill of finding out that I would be going to the Arctic and getting to do real research was all I could think about.
Once again, I was confronted with...
I have been a teacher for a long time, long enough to know some teaching strategies that work. When you have to teach others about what you know, you truly learn.
So my science club kids are learning all about the Bering Sea and the research done onboard the Healy during the Spring of 2007. They are learning through activities that I have created for younger students. My science club kids are my cognitive guinea pigs.
We meet every Tuesday for two hours after school, crazy Mrs. Prevenas and her eclectic tribe of science quiznos. As we do the lessons, I ask them what they think about it. Are they learning? What works and what doesn't? What needs to be added so that it is a good learning experience? After three weeks of science club, we are making progress.
We have sung songs and jumped up...
Living on an island in the middle of the ocean has it's ups and downs. So does being an indigenous people.
One of the reasons I wanted to be a part of PolarTREC so badly, was that I wanted my students to learn about other cultures who experience their same lifestyle. My wish came through when I hooked up with Tonia Kushkin's class on St. Paul.
Last week I got a package in the mail, an invitation for my students to be penpals, with hers. My students are delighted to join hands with hers and learn more about the Pribilof Islands and their unique culture.
We had our first 'Lunchtime Letters Club' meeting yesterday. My students listened with great interest as I told them about my one day visit to St. Paul. I brought down the calendar that Tonia had sent and their eyes scanned each month's...
Sometimes wonderful things happen to you when you least expect it.
Grant writing is indeed a long and involved process. Don't let anyone convince you that it's not. However, once in a while, you become the focus of OTHERS hard work, and can get funding in a serendipitous way.
That is what happened to me on Friday.
Funding came through for a grant that my 'new' team was involved with last year. It will allow us to take our students to a beautiful preserved spot right on the ocean. The spot was purchased to preserve the land, study the history of how the land was used by the ancient Hawaiians, and do baseline studies to document the land as it is.
Part of the grant will be spent in supporting the curriculum that will be developed by the teachers who use the area in place based education....
So these new lessons require materials to do them. My science budget hasn't changed. So how to finance?
Write grants.
There are often small grants available designed for teachers to get money to implement unique integrated curriculum. The problem is sniffing out those grants, and finding the time to apply. 15 years ago, I was fortunate to have had a job in which a large portion was devoted to getting money to support performing arts. Knowing that most grants are thrown out for not following the directions is a big leg up in the competition process.
So here I am applying for grants to support my new activities. I ask everyone. I have no shame. When it comes to getting money so that my students can do real science, or integrate the arts into science, or to help students 'give back' to...
I am on a mission. My mission is to enlighten all 150 of my students (plus anyone else who cares to sit down and listen to my stories) about Global Warming. My mission is to plant seeds in my students heads and get them to start thinking about the research being done with Global Warming. My mission is to nurture them in the ways of scientific inquiry,to think out side the box, to collect data and problem solve. So where to start? How do you help them learn?
You listen with your eyes.
My students began their learning this week, by learning about the beauty of the diatom. Diatoms are very important in the spring ice algae bloom in the Bering Sea. They ARE the spring bloom. The problem with teaching this to students is that diatoms are so very very small, and our microscopes are so very very...
The first Hawaii Science Standard is all about doing science. Hawaii is big on asking the teachers to change their ivory pali wordspeak into real talk. I give it to my students like this,"I can do science like scientists do!!!" the three exclamation points are very important.
Sounds simple, but I have created a check list of skills that they must achieve before I let them off the hook and allow them to mark the standard as achieved. The check list is down below.
To make learning science more meaningful and to connect what we are learning at school with home or culture is a requirment for me and my curriculum. So I ask students to do a Home Project in which they ask their parent (or adult at home) to tell them a story that they remember being told when younger. Then the student...
OK-
So when school started, my team's math teacher came into my room and bumped into the gigantic shrunken seal that had been soaking for 6 weeks. 'WOW!' he says. 'I want to be a part of this, let's plan on doing something with our advisories to help them brush up their skills of measuring and make it meaningful.'
He agreed to make the prediction sheet and I was to write the story to get the kids engaged.
I seal sat a young spotted seal as her mumma was being tagged.
So I did. His seal was Sami, mine was Su-Sea. We read our students the saga of how we came in possesion of the creatures and what would happen once they were rehydrated.
My first seal sitting customer.
There was a lot of science and math to do inbetween.
This is the reason why I seal sat. Mumma and...
From the morning buffet, I knew my time was counting down and it was very sad. I felt that the past 35 days were just such an incredible learning adventure that I didn’t want it to end. Not to mention, I didn’t want to leave Maggie. I wondered what it would be like to not have any daily contact with her and all her enthusiasm.
So I left Dutch Harbor for a very long day and night of travel. I reached Anchorage, AK and then had a large layover but got the best surprise. I bumped into David Hyrenbach who was also waiting for a flight. So just when I thought my time with all the many friends and scientists was about to end, I got to scrape a little bit of time and tea with him. We had a great catch-up on what we had done since departing the Healy and then I watched him head back...
Ya HUH!
Just because I got off the ship in May doesn't mean my job is over. Actually this is when all the REAL fun begins. This is where I begin to tell my story.
I missed my dear students so much while on the mission. When we were united on May 16, I had so many aloha hugs. It was a block day, so I got to talk story with each of my classes for 70 minutes, share root beer floats (I promised) and give them the IPY Webinar of Marine Mammals. My dear substitute teacher had all 6 of my classes compete to create the BEST welcome back poster so the back of my room was a wash with color! An added bonus was the neatness of my classroom. I saw the top of my demonstration table for the first time since last July, IMAGINE!
The next week, our morning broadcast director asked me to create a slide show...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
As we made our way towards Dutch Harbor the real Bering Sea came to life, the ship rocked back and forth and the front bow was closed off due to the roughness. It was nice to experience the Bering Sea as most fishermen face on a daily basis. Of course, it was even nicer to have had such smooth sailing on the Healy. Still the rough seas drew a large crowd to the bridge to watch in awe as wave after wave crashed into the ship bringing water and spray onto the bow and even spraying the windows of the bridge.
The bow is sprayed with water as a wave crashes into the ship.
The heavy rocking from side to side made it hard to walk and even harder to get from deck to deck. It really was a good thing that we didn’t experience this for the whole trip. This rocking did make it easier to...
It took Robyn and me quite a while to get off the boat. I was waiting around to send my cold weather gear via parcel pick-up. Robyn had a great idea that we could take our time and say our goodbye to our friends, eat one last lunch, and then take a taxi into town.
So we hugged and hugged all our Bering Sea Shipmates and called a taxi to the hotel. Just as our taxi arrived, the Alaska Maritime Shipper did as well, so we departed the Healy and took on a new residence at the Grand Aleutian Hotel in town.
After we hauled out duffels to our rooms, we took time talking to our loved ones still at home, a long shower, and then rendezvoused for supper with whoever was in the dining room. All the food was delicious! We had fresh green salads again, and so much more.
I went back to my room, sprawled...
Monday arrived cold and snowy. I peeped out of the warm hotel room and looked at the snow blusters that swirled and danced across the gravel. I had a number of things to mail, and the USPO was right across the road. Guess I better start my day.
It wasn’t planned, but I made three separate trips to the Post office that day. I needed to mail a beautiful large map of Alaska to Hawaii. I needed to mail the squished decorated styrofoam cups back to my new friends from St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, and I needed to send my cold weather gear back to VECO in Fairbanks, Alaska.
In between the trips to the PO, I was drawn to the edge of the bay as it licks the main drive that curls around the mountains of the island. I heard it before I saw it, the musical sound that cold ocean water makes when...
Hi everyone!
This is my last journal entry- I'm back home in Bellingham, WA. It's beautiful and green here, much different than the Bering Sea (Which was beautiful, but in a different way). It's nice to be home and in my own bed again, but I will definitely miss the USCGC Healy and all the wonderful people I met while at sea for 5 weeks. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I made some great friends and memories. I will be participating in the BEST cruise next year, but the friends and memories will not be the same. Thank you to everyone who read my journal and wrote comments!
Cheers!
Emily
I had learned from Dr. Michael Cameron, that we were about to pass through the most concentrated seal soup of the entire mission around 9:30 yesterday evening. He said that there were so many seals in that region, that the helo opps (helicopter observations) had to take turns recording their seals. Waiting for one to finish until the other could sight verbally.
So what do YOU see? There are two walrus here.
So I rambled up the three ladders to the bridge, and as I have for so many days this cruise, screwed the binocular eye cradles into my eye sockets and swooped back and forth across the magnified ice vista.
I LOVED to go up to the bridge and observe.
What did I see? Lots and lots of seals! There were spotted seals, and ribbon seals, and even a bearded seal pup or two. The Coast Guard...
I had learned from Dr. Michael Cameron, that we were about to pass through the most concentrated seal soup of the entire mission around 9:30 yesterday evening. He said that there were so many seals in that region, that the helo opps (helicopter observations) had to take turns recording their seals. Waiting for one to finish until the other could sight verbally.
So what do YOU see? There are two walrus here.
So I rambled up the three ladders to the bridge, and as I have for so many days this cruise, screwed the binocular eye cradles into my eye sockets and swooped back and forth across the magnified ice vista.
I LOVED to go up to the bridge and observe.
What did I see? Lots and lots of seals! There were spotted seals, and ribbon seals, and even a bearded seal pup or two. The Coast Guard...
So on the ship at some point the science party has got to start to wind down. The actual sampling begins to slow and soon, for some, no more cores to section or mud to analyze. This was just the case with the WWU and UW crew. Bonnie Chang finished the last of her flux analysis and realized she still had a large supply of liquid nitrogen. Usually that means an ice cream social is in order. Maggie went to ask for the necessary ingredients and found there was no cream or half and half on the ship. To spare everyone’s disappointment, Emily and I just had to think of something to do with all that liquid nitrogen. Afterall, there are only so many things you can freeze before that even gets old. So we put our heads together and decided we should make an experiment using the liquid nitrogen.
We...
I’ve been feeling a little sad these past few days because the Healy 0701 mission is coming to a close. There’s been so much data taken, so many measurements done, and more than a few hypotheses tested. So WHAT has been learned?
The CTD was lowered and fired over 200 times.
This research here, this Bering Sea Ecosystem Study, has been some of the first research done with SEASONAL ice during this time of the year. SEASONAL ice is ice that melts and then reforms each year. The algae blooms occur because the seasonal ice melts, creating a stable freshwater layer, a place for the algae to grow. The algae take up nutrients, which act as a fertilizer, and explode in numbers. The nutrients are quickly used up. The bloom for that year is over.
Rob Rember tested the water for a key nutrient....
I went up to the bridge earlier today to do an ice observation and noticed quite a crowd. I found out as I took my three photos of the ice that the ship was heading toward a herd of walrus. Of course, not too close and under the supervision of walrus specialist, Carleton Ray, the ship was approaching the herd within minutes. Carleton had waited in anticipation all day for just the right ice conditions that would bring some walrus into view.
Carleton Ray checks with his binoculars the location of the walrus herd.
Carleton Ray wasn’t always interested in walruses. In fact, his early years were spent at Yale working with amphibians. He continued his work with amphibians and physiological ecology at Berkeley and finished his PhD at Columbia. Even today, he still has a fascination with...
I was impressed with the hypotheses that I received about what happened to the Styrofoam cups…nicely done everyone! I know you all are interested to see what happened…drum roll please…
Perfectly intact! But wait…
Shrunk to miniature proportions!! Behind is the size of Styrofoam cup I started out with, for reference.
A teeny tiny cup for Mrs. Vigre.
As you can see, our cups survived the journey to 3500 meters, but arrived back at the surface much smaller than when they started out!
How does this happen, you ask? Well, imagine that as you travel down in the water, the amount of pressure increases. Take the amount of pressure you would feel on land- not much right?- and increase it with every 10meters (approximately 30ft) you travel down in the water. At 3500 meters the pressure you...
During this scientific mission to the ice pack of the Bering Sea, I have met many new creatures. Let me introduce you to yet one more.
Dr. David Hyrenbach
Scientific name: Hyrenbachia daveediosus PhD
Where does Dr David live?Dr. David lives in Greenlake, slightly north of down-town Seattle. In the summertime he migrates down to central California to rendezvous with black-footed albatross. During the school year he forages around the University of Washington.
Dr. David Hyrenbach has spent two years coordinating the BEST (Bering Sea Ecosystem Study) research mission. Photo from D. Hyrenbach
How many Hyrenbachs are there?Just him. He is an only child, however, there are close species in Spain and in France.
What are Dr. David’s identifying characteristics?David is an exemplary teacher. He is...
The ship hunted for ice today. That’s right. The scientists wanted to get out and do at least one more ice operations before we got too far south past the ice edge. So the Captain and several others found a nice piece and eased the ship ever so gently until we were just rubbing against it. The scientists were once again working on oxygen levels and getting samples of the ice and algae growing under where they walked on the ice.
Several scientists work on an ice area getting a core as the Coast Guard safety swimmer watches nearby.
On this side of the ice, scientists set-up the optode to measure oxygen levels and also get water samples from under the ice.
There was also helicopter survey out with Bill Springer maneuvering over the ice as his passengers counted seals. I went searching for...
Saturday, May 5th- a day of celebration on the ship, for more than one reason. First, it was Cinco de Mayo! This is always a cause for celebration, and it was an especially important day because the science party was in charge of cooking dinner for the entire ship. However, before the festivities began, an equally important event took place- our LAST multicore of the trip. Perhaps the entire ship did not share in our excitement of this event, but you can bet that we sediment folks had our own little celebration as the last deployment of the multicorer occurred late Saturday afternoon!!
The last deployment of the multicorer.
Chris Holm brings in the last tubes of mud for processing.
Why will this be the last multicore of the trip you ask? No, not because we’re tired of playing with...
Saturday May 5, started off ordinary, as ordinary as a Saturday on an icebreaker in the middle of the Bering Sea can be. I was lingering over lunch with Gavin Brady and Dr. Michael Cameron, two members of the NOAA NMML ice seal team. They were telling leopard seal stories and fun factoids about other seals. Unfortunately, I had to excuse myself, as it was time for me to make an ice observation up on the bridge.
In that very short period of time that it took me to lumber up the five flights to the bridge of the Healy, something happened. We were stopped at a station, a ribbon seal had been recorded close to the ship, and the ice seal team was going to try and tag it.
Much of the ice we encountered last week was soft and honeycombed. You wouldn’t want to go ice hopping on this.
I stopped...
Saturday May 5, started off ordinary, as ordinary as a Saturday on an icebreaker in the middle of the Bering Sea can be. I was lingering over lunch with Gavin Brady and Dr. Michael Cameron, two members of the NOAA NMML ice seal team. They were telling leopard seal stories and fun factoids about other seals. Unfortunately, I had to excuse myself, as it was time for me to make an ice observation up on the bridge.
In that very short period of time that it took me to lumber up the five flights to the bridge of the Healy, something happened. We were stopped at a station, a ribbon seal had been recorded close to the ship, and the ice seal team was going to try and tag it.
Much of the ice we encountered last week was soft and honeycombed. You wouldn’t want to go ice hopping on this.
I stopped...
Monday April 30, 2007The ice is here so ice observations take place every two hours. I had a feeling today was going to be a wildlife bonanza and it was. We saw lots of ribbon and spotted seals and birds. As always the time up in the bridge turned into hours.
I learned how to filter seawater and replace filter papers in Dr. Ray Sambrottos Lab. He is measuring the productivity of the Bering Sea.
After lunch I concentrated on getting the ppt to Dr. Ray to edit for the webinar on Thursday. Robyn and I worked out the times for the last webinar and got some images together for the Thursday show. David Hyrenbach as always came through with a good baseline powerpoint for others to work off.
The ship is tracing a path we have gone before. It is tracing the path through the most productive areas...
Cinco de Mayo!!! That meant for all of the science party that we were responsible for the Saturday night dinner for the entire ship. Naturally, we chose a menu with Mexican flair.
Never before had any of us had to cook for over 140 people and organize the entire thing. Scott Hiller and Janet Scannell headed the entire endeavor with zeal. Scott had his enchilada recipe, many others added their recipes, and numbers of scientists volunteered for all the various tasks. By 1:30 I made it down to the galley to see already a flurry of activity in there. Everywhere I looked people were equipped with knives and chopping away. Well, almost everybody as you can see in the pictures below.
Ingrid Spies, Liz Labunski, Jay Clark, and Carleton Ray all cut away at the vegetables
while David Hyrenbach is...
Cinco de Mayo!!! That meant for all of the science party that we were responsible for the Saturday night dinner for the entire ship. Naturally, we chose a menu with Mexican flair.
Never before had any of us had to cook for over 140 people and organize the entire thing. Scott Hiller and Janet Scannell headed the entire endeavor with zeal. Scott had his enchilada recipe, many others added their recipes, and numbers of scientists volunteered for all the various tasks. By 1:30 I made it down to the galley to see already a flurry of activity in there. Everywhere I looked people were equipped with knives and chopping away. Well, almost everybody as you can see in the pictures below.
Ingrid Spies, Liz Labunski, Jay Clark, and Carleton Ray all cut away at the vegetables
while David Hyrenbach is...
I have watched a lot of science happen these past three weeks. I have asked a lot of questions and taken a lot of pictures. See I needed to understand what was happening here in the middle of the Bering Sea. And I need to know it so well that I can go back home and tell my students all about it.
The producers in the Bering Sea ecosystem are diatoms and other phytoplankton. They are productive because there are lots of nutrients in the water.
I have been trying to synthesize ecosystem science and understand. Gradually, oh so slowly, I can see. And it hasn’t been easy. Scientists often do research with a very specific topic or organism. They work in small teams. They need to gather accurate data during the mission and/or store samples to continue research back in their labs.
The scientists...
Do you like playing with fire? What about watching things burn? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions then you are automatically on burn duty. That’s pretty much how the first two were recruited. A.J. LeFevre and Rob Freyer were the original trash burners of the science party. Of course, I now have a new respect for the job they did before it became mine. Yet, they left the cruise at St. Paul and the trash just kept accumulating until the new burners were found.
Several days go by and the trash from the science lab begins to really pile up.
You may also wonder what does happen to all the trash on a vessel when at sea? I mean after all, the garbage trucks don’t come around on Fridays for pick-up. So the ship has devised a plan based on sorting. There are basically three...
I stuffed the cups with some sturdy brown paper towels to keep them separate and then placed them in a mesh laundry bag.
Here is Claire’s cup before we sent it down.
The Marine Scientist Technicans (MSTs) connected them to the CDT sampler that was dropped below 3300 meters!
I took this picture of the screen as the CTD was reeled up from the bottom.
How much pressure was down there? Scott Hiller, from Scripps Oceanographic Institution, plugged some numbers into an equation and told me that there was some 5100 psi (pounds per square inch) acting on those little white cups. The temperature was just above freezing.
The cups were strapped to the CTD. CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Depth. It tells the scientists how salty, warm, and deep the Bering Sea is.
Two hours after...
Today was our third LIVE from IPY event while on the Healy. All of us were a little nervous because we had asked Captain Lindstrom to join us and talk a little about the Coast Guards. We also had asked our principal investigator, Raymond Sambrotto, to speak about the research he was doing on the ship as well. These were two of the most influential people on board the Healy. Ray Sambrotto was the representative of the head of the science party and Captain Lindstrom well, he’s the captain of the Healy.
So by 9:00 AM boat time, we had a phone and began to dial the number but only to find out that the IPY event was actually happening at 9:30 AM. We were at a loss. Emily, Maggie, and I thought for sure it was 9:00AM and even our last email stated that. So we called ARCUS, and Tina answered...
Check the reefer!! That’s the first thing you hear when you ask any scientist down in the lab, “Where’s Bonnie?” The reefer is what the Coast guards refer to as the refrigerated room down in the science lab. Bonnie Chang is a graduate student from the University of Washington working towards her PhD. She was on the Healy about four years ago when she was working on her master’s degree and was studying the continental shelf in the northern Arctic. Did you know that over 25% of all the world’s continental shelf is found in the Arctic? That’s the kind of trivia knowledge you get when you talk with Bonnie.
Bonnie Chang sits on the multi-corer as she fills her bottle full of water from the Niskin Bottle attached.
She loves the Arctic conditions and particularly the activity of the small...
Around midnight, at the start of 5/2/07, we lowered the multicorer down to the deepest station we’ve had this entire cruise- 3,500 meters. That’s over 10,000 feet deep!! The multicorer takes about 3 hours to make the entire trip, and we sent it down twice at this station. We were lucky enough to get 16 beautiful cores, full of mud- each around 1.5 feet in length. This is what we like to get at every station, but aren’t always able to, because of the condition of the sediment, trouble with the multicorer, the weather, or all of the above!!The CTD also made the trek down to the bottom a few hours earlier, and took with it an interesting cargo. For those of you who have also read Ms. Prevenas’ and/or Ms. Staup’s journal(s), this will not be new to you! We sent down decorated Styrofoam...
We did an experiment a few weeks back. Our students decorated Styrofoam balls, bowls and cups. We asked them to predict what they thought would happen to the object if we sent it down to the bottom of the deep Bering Sea.
Some thought it would expand and become huge, others thought it might be crushed. Still others thought nothing would happen.
So one late late Saturday night and super early Sunday morning we strapped the materials to the CTD rosette and let it drop down down down.
Something happened all right.
The opportunity came to us from the St. Paul students to do the experiment again.
So when the opportunity came to us from the St. Paul students, to do the experiment again, using cups that they decorated. We were ready. I gathered them up from teacher Tonia Kushin, tucked them...
The place to be on the ship is up in the bridge. That is the place to see all the animals. We have two different groups of scientists up there from sunrise to about nine at night. We have scientists looking for different kinds of birds and we have scientists looking for ice seals. Sometimes they see other animals. Like today. They saw another kind of cetacean, a porpoise. If you’d like to learn more about them, read on.
Dall's Porpoise
Scientific name: Phocoenoides dalli
Where do Dall's porpoises live?Dall's porpoises only live in the North Pacific Ocean from Japan to Southern California and as far north as Bering Sea.
How many Dall's porpoises are there?We don't know. Although population numbers are unknown, Dall's porpoises appear abundant through their range...
The Healy made a stop at St. George and St. Paul Island this past week. Collectively, they are called the Pribilof Islands. The history of these two islands is very interesting. There is a deep Russian influence as well as Native Alaskan Aleut. The animal that the islands based their economy on was the Northern Fur Seal. Read on if you’d like to learn more!
Northern Fur SealScientific name: Callorhinus ursinus
Where do Northern fur seals live?
Northern fur seals range extends from Southern California, up the North American coast, west along the Alaskan coastline, across the sub Arctic sea to the Russian coast and down to waters of northern Japan.
How many Northern fur seals are there?The estimate of the worlds population of Northern fur seals is 1,130,000. There are about 880,000...
I’m officially on the night watch, at least for now. I wake up in time for dinner and have breakfast right before going to bed- oh boy, what will I do when I get home?? I was awake as we transitioned from April to May…happy spring!
We’re now in the home stretch of the cruise- less than two weeks till we’re all done. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost over and sometimes hard to believe that we’ve spent so much time on this ship, out in the middle of the Bering Sea. It’s been quite an experience.
We’re off our planned cruise track right now, for a couple of reasons. 1. We were (or are) supposed to meet up with the Miller-Freeman, another research ship in the Bering Sea, who is currently a little off schedule, so we’re buying some time so we might catch up with them. It’s always...
Last night I stayed up until the night shift started their day. The main reason was because I had earlier asked to be paged if another drifter would be released off the ship. Dylan Righi said he would and around 11:30 PM, my pager went off. Ana Aguilar-Islas came along also to grab some pictures of the drifter being deployed. Also you heard right, I was paged. The Healy is 420 ft in length and it is hard to find anyone on the ship. So every Coast guard and science party member have a pager that allows people to be located. Just imagine with all the stairs, decks, and passageways that people could easily miss each other if one was on the starboard and the other on the port side. Pagers eliminate that and you can get a hold of whom you need just by getting to the nearest phone.
I check...
It was a dark and stormy day.
Specks of snow dance cross heated window glass panes. Ominous clouds kiss the ocean horizon. A grey cloaked spirit skims icey water. The waves whisper, “Laysan, laysan albatross.”
The waves whisper,”Laysan,laysan albatross.” Photo by Gavin Brady
Shade of grey smudged blended
Over there
look port
then aft
now gone
A wave of grey among waves of grey
There is a Native saying that goes something like this
’You don’t see animals. They choose to be seen by you.’
A Laysan Albatross chose to reveal itself to me today. I have already written a creature feature on these magnificent birds. But I have not yet told you about them, their place in this ecosystem and why they are so very special.
Albatross are the lithe athletes of the bird family.
Albatross are...
Sundays tend to be a little slower paced on the ship. Breakfast has extended hours and there is even brunch from 10 am to noon. The scientists and the Coast guards take advantage of this time to sleep and do things they normally don’t have time to do otherwise. I took advantage of the time to do laundry and so did several others. Nearly everyone on the ship sleeps in just a little longer on Sundays.
When I went down to the mess hall I ran into EM1 Hans Shaffer. The day before while I was getting ready in the helicopter hangar, Hans commented on my PolarTREC shirt. He was the first person that asked me if those were Arctic terns. I said yes and wanted to know his interest in them. He explained to me that he was working on making a kayak and the model was called an Arctic tern. So I was...
Monday April 23, 2007The ice is back so we have resumed our ice observation. Every two hours we haul ourselves up to the Bridge and write down our observations in a form. It averages about 7 times a day, and Robyn and I split up the observations so we have equal numbers. We are contributing ?
Weather was really icky. The morning helicopter observations were canceled because of poor visibility and wind. The wind has calmed down a bit, but the fog is still present. It will make for difficult observations in some areas. The rest of the research team is working steadily in the labs. They are all looking forward to the sampling of the ice algae for tomorrow. Robyn and I are trying to prepare for the webinar for Thursday. The scientists who will be on the show have been super helpful in...
Maggie and I woke up with excitement because today we would be going onto St. Paul. We have been communicating with one of the teachers, Tonia Kushin, for quite sometime. Tonia and her students have even joined our IPY Live events that have been a lot of fun. Besides having the chance to meet Tonia, her students, and other community members, this trip to the island included a helicopter ride. Maggie and I were to be the first to go over and then there would be a lot more flights during the day. Many of the scientists were getting off and others were joining the cruise. Bill Springer, the pilot, was going to have a lot of small trips back and forth from the Healy and St. Paul.
Maggie and I are ready for the flight to St. Paul island.
It was a quick flight to the island and Tonia and some...
St Paul. The other Pribilof Island. Stormy seas were forcasted. To the Coast Guard it was all about safety. To Robyn and me it was all about getting there and back. We had a presentation scheduled for the school from 11-12:30. We wanted to connect with the community.
I was going to St. Paul by helicopter!
St. Paul is larger than St. George. The helicopter was an efficient way to transport people off the boat (those who were going home) and pick up people coming to the boat (those scientists who were joining our adventure). Robyn, David Doucet (air safety manager) and I were the first flight out. Robyn and I were very excited and nervous at the same time.
David’s helmet reminded us to calm down.
Up and off we flew, 6 miles from the ship to the airport over the freezing cold Bering Sea....
Today was an all out adventure. Maggie and I were heading to the island of St. George for educational outreach at their school. Besides us, David Hyrenbach and Stephan Elliott worked out a plan to bring also onshore several other people. Ned Cokelet, Lee Harris, Ray Sambrotto, Emily Davenport, Carleton Ray, Dave Forcucci, and David Shull also accompanied us onto the Healy’s small zodiacs and headed toward Zapadni Bay.
Emily Davenport and Maggie Prevenas wait as the orange zodiac boat above is lowered down for us to get into.
The ride across the sea to St. George was really fun. We went into the port and were met by Rodney, who was driving the bus to bring us across the island to St. George. It is set-up strangely because their port is on one side and their homes and school are on...
The zodiac to St. George. Right after breakfast, the team of scientists and others (us teacher kine) were directed to the helo area (where the helicopter is stored) to put on our survival suits. The MS 900.
Emily Davenport and I were very happy to ride in a zodiac!
Since I was going to have my students try on the suit I was wearing, I was able to keep it on, and change into my street clothes at the school.
The zodiac ride over was so much FUN! Splash, splash, kersplash, the person at the front of the bow got very wet.
The ride over to St. George was so much fun!
The rest of us hid behind him and let him take the salty spray. Once on the island, we were transported to the school via a little white bus.
THAT’S when the fun really began!
Although St. George School is very small, it has a...
Yesterday we got a special treat- a few of us were lucky enough to get off Healy for a day and visit St. George Island, one of the Pribilof Islands. We went to visit the St. George School to interact with the students and give a presentation. A few students, teachers and community members were then going to come back with us to visit Healy.
We started our day off in the helicopter hangar at 8:45am. As I walked outside to go to the hangar, I was greeted with this breathtaking view:
My first look at St. George- beautiful!
In the helicopter hangar we put on our MD 900 survival suits, which we are required to wear when traveling by zodiac or helicopter (or out on the ice). You’ve seen these suits before- I got to wear one out on the ice as well. They are tricky to get into because they...
Today has been quite intense with getting our second IPY Live event done and getting ready for our visits to the Pribilofs Island. We will be going to St. George on Friday and St. Paul Island on Saturday. It has been a constant flurry of planning and organizing between the Coast Guards and the scientists. Maggie and I will be visiting the islands for educational outreach and a chance to make some lasting connections. The scientists are actually planning on about twelve of them to be leaving and another ten will be boarding onto the Healy at St. Paul. Just moving the people is one hard job but also all their baggage not a job that I want to have.
I think our IPY Event went really well even with the problems on our end. We had a conflict of location and we attempted to have our conference...
So there I was just working on my journal entry when a phone call came through into the science conference room. Dr. Michael Cameron, Ice Seal Team leader, was on the line. “We are going to try and tag a seal on the ice,” he said, ”meet us in the helo hanger.” I dropped the phone and exited the conference room as fast as my rubber boots would allow. What a great opportunity this was. I was going to see what it would be like getting a tagging event together!
Imagine my surprise when Dr. Mike came thumping down the ladder from helo headquarters, “Get dressed, you’re coming with.” My heart was beating in my throat.
Me? Coming with! I MUST be dreaming!
The rest of the seal team was casually slipping on their ice gear suits and white overcoat. I wriggled into an extra large survival suit, my...
I posted some zooplankton a little while back, and I thought I’d post some more, just because they are so neat to look at!! All of these were pulled up in the net tows that the zooplankton group does- they have jars and jars of fantastic looking zooplankton. Here are just a couple examples:
Pteropod- a pelagic (swims in the water column) snail. Also known as a sea butterfly.
(Photo courtesy of Dave Forcucci)
Crab zoea, just one of the larval stages that a crab goes through before becoming an adult. Betcha didn’t know that a crab lives in the water column for part of its life!! (Photo courtesy of Dave Forcucci)
Hydra medusa- microscopic “jellyfish” (Photo courtesy of Dave Forcucci)
Medusa eating a copepod…can you find the copepod in this picture? (Photo courtesy of Rob Freyer)...
When it gets really quiet on the ship a small ping or chirp can be heard. I was on a mission to figure out where that sound was coming from. I could think of no better person from the science party than Alex De Robertis. Alex is a Research Fishery Biologist working for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center that is a division of NOAA. He is onboard the Healy working with acoustics to measure the abundance of fish and krill in the northern Bering Sea. So Alex would be my sound expert and I wanted to find out if his experiment was the sound I heard.
Alex is a one-man sound machine. Okay, not really, but he is working by himself using sound to find the fish and krill in the sea during the BEST expedition. He came onboard the Healy in Seattle and worked to get all his gear in order. He had to...
Hi all- phew, it was a long weekend and I had to recover from it before writing another journal entry. We had a very busy sampling weekend- three coring stations in a row!! You may be asking yourself- why is that a lot? I’d like to give you an in depth look at the life of a mud core here on the Healy so you can see why it takes us so long to process a core, and why three coring stations in a row is A LOT.
At every station there is a plan- we have many instruments that need to be deployed on the ship at every station, and they cannot be deployed simultaneously- meaning that the CTD and multi-corer cannot go into the water at the same time. This is mainly for safety- so that they don’t get tangled up underneath the ship. Sometimes at stations they send out a team onto the ice or the...
Today started out like any ordinary day, I woke up and went to breakfast.
Going to breakfast does of course involve going down two sets of stairs and down to the mess hall. I decided on some cereal and some hot chocolate. I noticed there wasn’t many people eating breakfast not like a usual morning. I thought maybe people knew something that I didn’t know. I realized that we weren’t moving anymore either. So I began to think where is everyone? I checked the science lab and you would have thought it was a ghost town. I made my way up to the conference room and said Maggie, “Do you know where everyone is?” She didn’t either so I stepped onto the deck and saw where everyone had gone…the ice. Even the brow had been put down for people to move on and off the ship.
Ice being brought up the brow...
Before I started this adventure onboard the Healy, we were told about the opportunity to run a deep-sea pressure experiment with our students. All that was needed was a Styrofoam object decorated with Sharpie pens. I got some Styrofoam balls and bowls, a package of Sharpies and the students went to work decorating the objects.
They were a bit difficult to pack. The goal was to get them here in one piece. The TSA at most airports did all they could to protect my fragile cargo (NOT!) When I got on the ship, I put them on my desk and waited for the opportunity.
This little mesh bag held the Styrofoam balls.
It just so happened that on Saturday night, April 21, we were going to have a deep, deep, station collection. The CTD (rosette water sampling machinery) was to be dropped down to 2500...
We hit very thick ice last night. That is exactly what the scientists were waiting for. So the ship just tucked up into the ice, let down a metal ramp, and down we went.
The scientists were able to walk off the boat by way of this metal ramp. They had to grasp the handrails and walk backwards down the ramp. It was like climbing down a ladder.
All of the scientists were very excited to get off the boat. They have been researching in a lab since the cruise started. Most of the scientists are doing experiments associated or needing seawater.
Most of the scientists are working with sea water. The collection of sea water
directly from these holes was a new protocol.
The stop on the ice was the first for all of them, to drill ice cores, to collect ice and water directly from the hole.
Dr....
You worry about your budget, but do you ever think about the isotopic budget in the Bering Sea? I know that budget has crossed the mind of most of the scientists on board and especially two post-doctoral fellows, ladies to be exact. From the guidance of Dan Sigman, Princeton University, two women are taking a serious look at the water the Healy passes over continuously.
Julie Granger checks over the recent data collected.
Julie Granger hails from Canada and did groundbreaking work in developing the methods to actually trace oxygen and nitrogen isotopes back to their origin based on their amounts. To explain a little bit better in English, every element that you learn on the periodic table is actually an average of all the possible isotopes it has; this means either having a few more...
I am sure that you know that there are many different scientists on board, all researching pieces of the Bering Sea ecosystem puzzle. Recently, some of the scientists started talking with each other because some of the results have not been what they expected. They asked, why is this happening and what is causing this to happen?
There were some puzzling results that couldn’t be explained from the data samples.
Their conclusion?
No dirty snow here. This ice is covered with ice algae. Ice algae is the producer of the Bering Sea.
What the heck, you might say. How come this piece of the puzzle has gone unchecked? Might I remind you that many of these scientists are doing baseline studies? They are collecting data from one or more of the factors in the ecosystem. Never been done, at...
Weaving baleen baskets is a rare skill. Very few people know how to do it.
Lee Harris, Inupiat Eskimo has a skill that is very rare. Lee weaves baleen baskets. He didn’t start out to be a basket weaver. A skilled carver, he was invited to carve the ivory top and bottom circle for baleen basket weavers in Point Hope, Alaska. After a few years, he decided that he could learn the skill himself and began watching the baleen artisans. After about two years of watching and weaving, he felt comfortable enough to create his own. Today he weaves baleen baskets as a hobby or by special order.
Baleen is attached to the two ivory discs.
The central disc of the top lid is carved. Lee chooses local animals to decorate his lids. The bottom ivory disc that holds the baleen weave and waft is generally a...
Weaving baleen baskets is a rare skill. Very few people know how to do it.
Lee Harris, Inupiat Eskimo has a skill that is very rare. Lee weaves baleen baskets. He didn’t start out to be a basket weaver. A skilled carver, he was invited to carve the ivory top and bottom circle for baleen basket weavers in Point Hope, Alaska. After a few years, he decided that he could learn the skill himself and began watching the baleen artisans. After about two years of watching and weaving, he felt comfortable enough to create his own. Today he weaves baleen baskets as a hobby or by special order.
Baleen is attached to the two ivory discs.
The central disc of the top lid is carved. Lee chooses local animals to decorate his lids. The bottom ivory disc that holds the baleen weave and waft is generally a...
We saw our first walrus herd the other day (4/19/07)!! The ship passed about 30 of them hauled out on the ice- what a sight to see. It was piped over the ship’s system that walrus were outside, so we all rushed out to catch a photo or two. They are funny looking creatures, with their long tusks and giant brown bodies. They looked relaxed as they laid there, sunning themselves, some of them in the water taking a dip!
Walrus on the ice- our first herd sighting!
Another walrus shot.
We’ve also had some other marine mammal sightings, though I haven’t gotten to see them all- we’ve seen spotted seals, bearded seals, fur seals, Orca whales (these are not the resident whales we see in Washington state that eat salmon, these are the Orcas that eat seals), 1 polar bear, and a couple of...
Summary for April 16-April 21It’s hard to believe another week has passed. There have been so many exciting projects, and unexpected problems. I am in awe of the creativity and the toughness of the scientists on board!
Monday April 16We started the rotation last week Thursday. It’s time to rotate into our next scientist group. For me that is the ‘mud guys.’ David Schull and Al Devol. These scientists get samples of the bottom sediment (mud) and are able to figure out what’s going on by measuring the amount and type of gas produced. There is a lot happening in terms of Nitrogen fixing and natural radon gas presence. These are serious scientists that like to play in the mud. Robyn and my ice observations continue to take place every two hours. That’s about 7 or more a day.
Tuesday April 17...
I have seen one of the coolest things ever at least in my opinion of the trip. A pod of 7-8 orcas ended up on the starboard side of the ship just before dinner yesterday. It was really great. Plus I wasn’t the only one excited to see some killer whales, some of the Healy crew showed up to see these magnificent mammals too.
A pod of killer whales can attract a few coastguards.
I wasn’t able to get a good shot of them but the one thing that is nice about being on a ship this big. The odds are someone got the moment captured on film. I was right. By this morning, Dave Withrow had a great shot of a killer whale as it glides through the water and Dave Forcucci was able to capture a portion of the pod all surfacing to breathe.
A quick glimpse of the dorsal fin and saddleback. (Photo Courtesy...
The Healy holds a lot of science pioneers onboard. One group of pioneers is Rob Rember and Ana Aguilar-Islas. Rob is a Research Technician and Ana is a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Jingfeng Wu from the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Rob and Ana are sampling for the first time ever the iron amounts in the ice and the water under the ice here in the Bering Sea.
Iron in some locations can be a limiting factor to the productivity of an area. This is very true of areas that have high nutrients but low chlorophyll levels such as the Gulf of Alaska. The lack of these trace elements, such as iron, is found to actually be the reason for these conditions.
Ana carrying the sampling device for iron back into the science lab.
To test for iron in the water...
For the past few days, we have been seeing bearded seals. Bearded seals are extremely important to the Alaskan Native population that live along the Bering Sea. They use their skins for watertight boats, and their meat for food. They are solitary, love to hang out by themselves and are bottom feeders. Many times their heads appear reddish brown, stained from the benthic muck.
Bearded seal
Alaskan Natives carve beautiful animals from walrus ivory. This carving is located on the
second floor of the Anchorage Airport.
Scientific name: Erignathus barbatusWhere do bearded seals live?Bearded seals live in areas of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans that freeze and form ice during the winter.
How many bearded seals are there?There is no accurate population count at this time, but it is...
The pilot from the helicopter gave us a heads up. Two killer whales headed our way. The announcement resounded through the ship via the pipes (announcement system). For some people on board ship, this was their first glimpse of the orca. Keep on reading if you are interested in learning more about the whale called Killer.
We saw a pod of killer whales all eating heartily. What was on their menu for dinner? Take a guess. Photo by Dave Withrow
Killer whales are social animals that live in stable family-related groups. Killer whales display a high level of care for their offspring. In addition to the mothers, various pod members (mainly adolescent females) perform most of the care for the calves. As with most mammals, killer whales are very protective of their young.
Different...
I saw my first ribbon seal today! These beautiful creature are the most highly vulnerable critter that live up in the Arctic. Why? They never touch land. They spend their entire lives on ice flows, even give birth there. What will happen to them if there is less and less ice? Think about it.
Ribbon seals
Scientific name: Phoca fasciata
Where do ribbon seals live?
Ribbon seals range northward from Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea into the Chukchi, Okhotsk and western Beaufort Seas.
This walrus tusk caving is a perfect minature of the beautiful animals know as ribbon seals.
How many ribbon seals are there?In the mid-70s, the estimate of the worlds population of ribbon seals was thought to be 240,000, but there is no accurate estimate at this time.
How can I identify a ribbon seal?Ribbon...
So I left off on the last journal with the nets in the water, typically they will be pulled for about 20 minutes. The ship will begin moving at a relatively slow speed, maybe somewhere around 1-1.5 knots. Watching the net being towed is pretty cool. When the water is clear you can actually see the nets, like the picture below.
The bongo nets in the water gathering the tiny organisms of the Bering Sea. (Photo courtesy of Rob Freyer)
As the net is brought on deck, the conditions of the Arctic can really be seen on the nets. For instance, as the net is brought up onto the deck the cold conditions causes the nets to freeze and even the weight gets a good coating of ice. You can see this in the picture below. Sometimes the organisms are mostly made of water and they pass through the nets such...
One group of scientists on board is looking at the zooplankton and meroplankton found in the Arctic seas. Jeff Napp from NOAA-AFSC heads this research on the ship and has three students with him. I have had the opportunity to spend some time with them and help put out and bring in their nets. In my past, I had done plankton tows in the Atlantic but never in these cold, Arctic conditions.
From L-R: Rob Freyer, Jeff Napp, and AJ LeFevre. Missing from the crew shot: Brianna Blaud
In such cold conditions, some planning had to go into what will work in these cold seas. One thing they did was put ethylene glycol into the counting chamber of their flow meters to prevent freezing. Last year, the flow meters froze after the seawater got into the chamber, and using the ethylene glycol, which has a...
A few days ago, the sun was quite intense. Shining down on the white ice, the glare was blinding. Most of us up on the bridge put on polarized sunglasses. But what if you didn’t have sunglasses?
One of the native Alaskan people, the Inupiat, relied on their wits in order to survive and flourish in the tundra of the North. In spring, the light from the sun becomes more intense and lasts for longer periods of time. (Last night it was still light at 11:30 when I finally went to bed). The brightness can result in temporary snow blindness if one isn’t careful.
Inupiat hunters and whalers often made snow goggles from pieces of driftwood or bone. The goggles have a long narrow slit that permit sunlight to enter and the hunters to have a good view of the world. There are lots of variations on...
Yesterday the helicopter crew flew over some walrus. Walrus are touchy feely kinda animals. They love to get together in great big piles and just sprawl all over each other. It’s also a way they keep warm. You can read more about the walrus below.
WALRUS
Scientific name: Odobenus rosmarus
This healthy walrus is hanging out in its favorite place, the ice! Photo by Carlton Ray
Everyone knows what a walrus looks like! Its long ivory tusks are used for many things, including protection from attack by polar bears, killer whales and local hunters in kayaks.
Walrus are very slow on land because they are so big and clumsy, but in the water they are very fast and strong. They can dive down 300 feet to retrieve their favorite food, clams, from the sea bottom. A walrus can eat 4,000 clams in...
Yesterday (4/18/07) I got to do something VERY exciting! I took my first trip out onto the ice!! Whoo hoo! It was really neat to be able to walk on the Bering Sea. The ice at this location was very thick- around 9-10 feet thick.
A group of scientists were sent out to do some coring of the ice- we drill a hole into the ice with a hollow tube, and it takes a long section of ice out. Then we wrap it in plastic and take it back to the lab on the ship for analyzing. We collected many cores, and each person who wants one is analyzing something different- some people are looking at the metals that get trapped in the ice, some are interested in the zooplankton and phytoplankton that are trapped in the ice, some are interested in the salt that gets trapped in the ice (when ice forms on the...
Today started off like any ordinary day. I did have one major goal, to wash my clothes. Of course, I am sure you have wondered how I could have possibly packed enough clothes and gear to last 35 days. Then imagine trying to carry that through the ship. So I am really glad to have a laundry room here on the ship. I think on our first day here Maggie and I had scoped it out. Now I was ready to use it. Not too hard, just had to use the specially formulated detergent and I remembered some dryer sheets from home. Naturally, the washer and dryers are pretty large to accommodate the laundry needs of the entire ship.
The washers of the Healy.
I put my clothes in the wash and then went back up to the mess deck for breakfast. By the time I was finished with breakfast, my clothes were ready to go...
Creature Feature - Beluga Whale
Today a beluga whale was spotted from the helicopter. The whale was swimming in a small open area in the middle of an ice flow. This open water is called a ‘polynya.’ Read on to learn more about these beautiful whales. In the next few days, I will have the chance to add photos from Belugas we see.
What is really cool about beluga whales?
Beluga whales (also called white whales) are known to strand on mud flats without apparent harm. They are able to wait for the next high tide to swim away.
Adult beluga whales have been observed carrying odd objects such as planks, buoys, and even caribou skeletons during calving seasons. It is believed that if a female beluga loses her newborn, she might interact with these objects as a calf surrogate.
Beluga...
I ate breakfast this morning with Lee Harris, a member of the National Marine Mammal Lab, NOAA’s ice seal team. Lee is also an Inupiat Eskimo. I enjoy listening and learning about what he says. It is obvious in the harsh Arctic environment, that Native people have the edge in making observations and finding the ice seal. After all, they have been living in the Arctic and sharing their environment with ice seals their entire life.
Lee’s village is Kotzebue, Alaska, a small town about 30 miles north from theArctic Circle. Many of the people there rely on the native animals for their food, boats and some clothing. It didn’t occur to me until I talked story with him this morning, that he had to make some major changes to his lifestyle in joining this scientific expedition.
These French...
On board the Healy, there is one helicopter that is being used by the folks from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory to do population studies. Today they went out for two runs. In the first run, the team saw a Polar Bear eating walrus. The photos for polar bear will be added as soon as they become available. If you’d like to learn more about them, read on.
Polar BearScientific name: Ursus maritimus
Polar bears live year round near arctic waters hunting seal and other animals, rarely coming on land except on islands and rocky points. In winter they hunt along the Arctic shelves looking for tasty seals, fish, and even humans! Their white coats provide camouflage in the ice and snow which make them almost invisible as they stalk their prey.
In winter, when...
Well, we’re about 1/3 of the way through our cruise. We’ve traveled into some pretty thick ice lately- some of it up to 4 feet thick!! When we reach ice this thick, the ship has to do some “backing and ramming” in order to break through. This consists of the ship backing up the path we’ve already traveled, and then driving full speed at the ice to break through. You can tell when we are doing this, even when you aren’t outside and able to see it, because an eerie silence comes over the ship, and then all of a sudden it’s very loud, like a freight train driving through the ship as the ice scrapes by the hull. But don’t worry, we won’t end up like Titanic! Our hull is reinforced, it’s probably 2 feet thick or more. Most ship’s hulls aren’t this thick- they’re usually 6 inches or so...
So what’s on board a scientific research vessel and Coast Guard Icebreaker. Come take a tour with Kolehe, my naughty monkey friend.
Walk the gang plank
That’s how you get on the ship. You are looking at the PORT side of the ship. It faces the port. The other side, starboard, doesn’t.
The gangplank enters at the 01 level. My stateroom (where I sleep) is located one floor above.
Steep Steps
You need to take very steep steps to get from one level to the next. Going up is easier than going down.
Water Fountain
You get REALLY thirsty walking up and down steps, so there are lots of water fountains and the water is nice and cold.
My State RoomI share a nice room with a nice scientist, Ana Ajuilar-Islas. Scientists have to work for 12 hour shifts, sometimes even more. They sleep when they...
I realized that I was doing you all a great disservice by not featuring the most important creatures of all, the producers. Producers are organisms that take the radiant energy from the sun and transform it into food (chemical) energy. These little bitties form the first link in a food web or chain. They are the link between the physical and the biological. They are the photosynthesizers.
It’s easy to feature the cute seal pup, or majestic bald eagle, but phytoplankton? Sea algae? Where’s the glamour in that?
Come closer and have a look at the backbone of the ecosystem, come meet the microscopic creatures of the most productive marine ecosystem on Earth, the Bering Sea!
These small creatures are one of the many producers in the Bering Sea ecosystem. Photo by Dave Forcucci
It actually...
Coming at you live and on the satellite phone, Maggie and Robyn from the USCGC Healy. Just imagining the logistics is awe-inspiring. We are out in the middle of the Arctic and still able to connect to our students, the public, friends, and families in Alaska, Hawaii, Ohio, and anywhere else. That is quite impressive. Emily Davenport also joined our first Live IPY event and you can read hear journals also on the PolarTREC website. David Hyrenbach from the University of Washington also assisted with the event and was great at handling all the bird questions that we got. LTJG Stephan Elliott, Marine Science Officer, was onboard for the call as well and helped get everything together.
We were all very nervous before the IPY event. Maggie was nervous and a little concerned about her...
Yesterday, April 15, was our first close encounter with a spotted seal. Spotted seals are the most common ice seals in this area. They are known for their spicy personality.
Spotted Seal
Scientific Name: Phoca largha
What are spotted seals?
Spotted seals look much like the North Pacific harbor seal, but the harbor seal is not found in the pack ice. They can dive up to 1000 feet. Some spotted seals have been seen as far south as the Northern Yellow Sea.
In the spring, spotted seals will form small groups of a male, female and her pup. Photo by Carlton Ray
Where do spotted seals live?
Spotted seals live along the continental shelf of the Beaufort, Chukchi, Bering, and Okhotsk Seas, south to the northern Yellow Sea and west to the Sea of Japan.
How many spotted seals are there?
There is no...
For the second time, I got geared up along with David Shull, Emily Davenport, and Bonnie Chang to get some good mud cores. The mud cores need to be at least 24 cm in length to provide enough mud to cut into 2 cm sections to test for radon. The mud is also being tested for the rate of denitrification by the bacteria living in the mud.
Mustang suits all around. (Me, Emily Davenport, David Shull, and Bonnie Chang)
Yet, once again the mud core was a no go because seals were spotted in close proximity and we could not lower the corer. This made us very disappointed but for the guys from NMML (National Marine Mammal Laboratory) it was a chance to tag a seal.
Mike Cameron and three more from the seal group got geared up and were lowered onto the ice using a man basket. They were hoping...
One of the groups on board the ship is studying zooplankton, which are always fun to look at under the microscope. They take a BIG net that is very fine (no large holes) and can do one of two things: 1. They drop the net down vertically and then slowly bring it up. 2. They let it out behind the ship and the ship tows it along. Either way, the net collects a bunch of microscopic critters. The vertical net tow is usually reserved for when we’re in the ice- because they can’t tow the net behind the boat when there is a lot of ice, since the ice just closes around the net.
A view from above of the nets used to catch zooplankton. These can be towed behind the ship horizontally, or be sunk vertically and then pulled up again. The wholes are small enough in the nets that microscopic...
Yes! I am an official ice observer, a real member of the scientific team. My job is to tag team with Robyn Staup, my fellow PolarTREC teacher, to record the conditions of the ice every two hours.
The Healy breaks a path through the ice. But what KIND of ice?
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Kolohe, my assistant, tries to open the watertight door.
So every two hours one of us takes flights of steps up to the bridge. We are set-up in a corner. Our station is made up of a computer, camera, pencil, piece of paper and the guide for Official Ice Observers.
I get help and advise from my friends up on the bridge.
I try to time my observations to be at the same time that the ship has stopped to take some samples. I need to take three pictures there, all in certain places, upload them to a website...
On Monday, April 9, we loaded the ship with many bags and boxes of gear. Everyone moved into their rooms, unpacked and then headed for the science lab. In order to do science experiments, the scientists had to set up their labs.
The food is yummy onboard the Healy. There are always many fresh fruits, vegetables, beverages and snacks in the galley. Some of the food I have eaten includes fresh mixed fruit, creamy vegetable soup, and lo mein with vegetables. The salsa is to die for. There are fresh baked pies, coconut macaroons, brownies and ice cream.
Tuesday, April 10, we shipped out of Dutch Harbor and steered north. The water has been amazingly calm. We have seen many gulls and some smaller waterfowl. One of the research groups is counting and identifying our fine-feathered friends....
Last night was quite a treat. It was especially nice if you were a cook or work in the kitchen area of the Healy. The CPOs were in charge of dinner. The CPOs are the Chief Petty Officers of the ship. So the kitchen staff got to sit back and enjoy a meal served up to them in style. When I say style, I mean style. There were wigs, hats, and even Santa Claus decided to show up and help with serving the pizza, wings, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeños poppers to the hungry crowd in the mess hall.
CPOs dinner night along with Santa Claus (OSC Manangan) and BMC Kidd.
I found out that every Saturday a group cooks dinner to give the kitchen staff a much-deserved break. Have I mentioned how great the food is? They do an awesome job in variety and thematic meals. Of course on Saturdays, the paper...
Ice!! (4/15/07)Sometime around yesterday morning (4/14/07) or perhaps the night before (4/13/07), we reached the ice! It was very exciting to finally get in the ice- and once we reached it, the weather definitely turned- it went from sunny and “warm” to WINDY (with sideways snow) and then on to the ice, where the air is so cold (with the wind chill) that our samples are freezing the minute they come out of the water…brrr!!
The type of ice we saw first is called loose pack ice, which is big chunks of floating ice, they’re usually slight angular. As we got farther in to the ice, some of it turned to pancake ice (well, this is probably not the technical term for the ice), which looks like GIANT floating white pancakes- they’re very round and have ruffled edges (kind of like a pancake...
One really important responsibility on the ship is to take very good observations. Like any scientist, you must use all your senses and record everything to be available for others. Down in the science lab, observations are recorded at every station with written and photo documentation. Up in the bridge, similar methods are used and in some cases there are forms that must be used to record your observations.
When the ship is moving there are always several bird watchers on the bridge. They work together as a team identifying species and recording the location and numbers of birds seen. Sometimes as they are searching for birds, they see others animals in the water. Yesterday, for instance, a whale was spotted as it came to the surface to spout. A quick debate was done among the bird...
Well- it is officially Friday the 13th, and has been for the past ½ an hour. Yes, that’s right, I’m still awake at 12:30 in the morning, and I’ve been up since 6:30!! This is something that’s common on cruises- working long hours and sleeping when you can. I’m on the “late shift” although we’re having a hard time coordinating that right now, so really I’m on the early/late shift. It really just depends on when we reach our stations, how long it takes us at the station, and how much we have to do after the station. We already have a lot of samples, and each one takes time to run, so there is a lot of waiting involved- but you can’t really walk away from it and go do something else. I finally got smart and brought my computer down to the lab with me so I could work on things (...
One thing you can say about the BEST mission is that it’s full of adventure! Take today for example.
April 13 was the launch test date for the helicopter that the National Marine Mammal Lab (NOAA) uses for transects of seal populations. There was an air of excitement about the boat. The helicopter, pilot, and three-person crew were going to test out the machine and the instruments they needed.
The three person crew from left, Shawn Dahle, Josh London, and Mike Cameron.
And they did.
This beautiful machine will carry up to three seal scientists to study ice seal populations.
The helicopter was a thing of beauty. It carries 600 pounds of cargo including human passengers. It is equipped with a camera that can take a picture of what is directly below the machine every two seconds. Seals...
I have been kept busy all day. In the morning, I went and checked in with Nancy and David Kachel and worked with the CTD. One parameter of the CTD was changed to help get better data. The PAR was activated which stands for Photosynthetic Active Radiation and is basically a small white ball mounted with sensors. It measures the visible spectrum that will aid in verifying the results of the fluorometer. As the CTD came up, there was a rush to go and get the water samples. The CTD is the core of all the science happening onboard the ship. It provides all basic physical components of seawater and also collects the water to be used for many of the scientists.
An example screen of a CTD cast.
From looking above, you can see just how much information can be obtained from one cast of the CTD....
Today was my first time getting to officially work with a team of scientists. I was working with the team my roommate, Nancy Kachel, belongs to from the NOAA-PMEL unit. Her husband, David Kachel, is also part of the team during the midnight to noon shift. So I got up this morning and joined her for a few hours before her shift was done and she was off for bed. There wasn’t much going on because no CTD was cast at this particular station. The CTD was still being used as an anchor for the iron testing devices that are fitted to the cable. (more on that in the coming days)
The counterparts to the Kachels are Dylan Righi and Ned Cokelet that work a noon to midnight shift. When the ship is moving, there isn’t much to do except get the water out of the bottles from the various depths for...
Being a scientist requires you to have top-level problem solving and analyzing skills. The scientific team from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) is a great example of this skill in practice.
Michael Cameron led a team of six skilled seal experts through a practice run of a seal launch. It may sound easy, but the Healy had never launched a zodiac of the 17-foot or 14 foot variety before. A joint dry run was held to test the abilities of the Seal Team to change into survival gear and the abilities of the Coast Guard to get the zodiacs into the water.
Lee Harris and David Withrow put on their safety helmets.
Right after breakfast, the teams made a beeline to the heliport, where the three zodiacs patiently rested. While the Coast Guard gathered together and assigned duties to the...
Dr. Ray Sambrotto wears many hats on this mission.
Ray Sambrotto is the PI (principal investigator) for this expedition. His job, besides doing investigations in the lab, is to coordinate the entire BEST mission. He has to meet daily with the Coast Guard Officers, check accountability and coordinate sampling, but there is lots more. He is constantly on watch to fix potential problems that might arise. And they do arise.
Dr. Sambrotto works with two scientists, Drs. Cal Mordy and Nancy Kachel to coordinate sampling.
So we needed a point of contact, to run communication and requests between the very busy scientists and us.David Hyrenbach, from the University of Washington, is acting as our liason with the scientists on the BEST cruise. There are so many scientists and so many projects, we...
I had to share my morning with you. I woke up to a beautiful rising sun.
A beautiful sunrise on the Bering Sea.
It was completely breathtaking, right? I went to breakfast and then spent some time returning emails. As the day got brighter, I made my way up to the bridge to join the bird watchers. This group includes Liz Labunski and Kathy Kuletz from the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and also David Hyrenbach from the University of Washington. I spent time up there with them and understanding how they were recording what they saw. They were using three imaginary lines running perpendicular to the ship and estimating distances. Each one was covering an area and Kathy was recording everything. I actually got to see several species...
Yesterday (4/10/07) was our first day out of port- we steamed away at 12:30pm and headed for our first station, which was only a few hours outside of Dutch Harbor. It was exciting to be heading away from the port, but also unsettling to know we won’t be on land again for a month. Outside of the harbor the water has been calm and the Healy sways ever so gently side to side- they told us if we were feeling seasick now then we were going to have BIG problems later!! I put on my seasickness patch just in case (a little round disc that goes behind your ear and you can wear for up to 3 days at a time).
Leaving Dutch Harbor, blue skies all around!
We kept on with the setting up in the lab and unpacking of things in the cargo hold. I lugged my gigantic suitcase (boy do I regret packing so...
Yesterday I boarded the ship.
It’s a big ship. And I’m learning.
I learned that many hands make light work. Ned Cokelet, one of the NOAA oceanographers, volunteered to haul us to the boat. The gear of six scientists and two teachers is voluminous. It filled up the pick-up box of a good-sized truck. We topped it off with two scientists who couldn’t fit into the inside of the cab and off we bumped. We bounced pass the airport and didn’t have to wait for airplanes crossing the road (the only stoplight in Dutch). The ride was short and we didn’t get lost.
Unloading the gear was light work. Eight people grabbing bags and shuffling up the gangplank drained the back of the pickup in short time. We learned the names of a few of the crew, essential to the upload process and began the...
One bird that we expect to find up here in the western part of the Bering Sea is the Laysan Albatross. This is one beautiful bird, large creamy white, and so elegant! It breeds in the Hawaiian Islands, mostly in the isolated Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). My students have a great connection to the Bering Sea with this animal as it flies from those small Hawaiian islands all the way up here to find food. They will have the chance to study it’s diet when they dissect boluses from the chicks bred on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals of the NWHI archipelago later on this quarter.
Laysan Albatross
Albatross often mate for life. Photo by Maura Naughton
Scientific Name: Diomedea immutabilis
Where can you find the Laysan Albatross?
The Laysan Albatross breeds on isolated...
The morning went well and I actually woke up without an alarm in time for breakfast. After some cereal and some hot tea, it was off to a brainstorming session with David Hyrenbach, a seabird specialist, and fellow PolarTREC and NOAA Teacher-at-Sea, Maggie Prevenas. We laid out our plan of action and it was amazing how in just a day how many scientists we had met and could connect them to their research they were hoping to accomplish on this expedition.
USCG Healy and crew leaving port and heading out into the Bering Sea
In just three hours after leaving the port, the first sampling station had been reached. The excitement of the scientists was contagious as well as their nervousness of whether all the equipment that they had set-up would work. Just prior to officially dropping the CTD...
Well- we arrived safe and sound Monday, April 9th on schedule and with all of our luggage even!! Quite the accomplishment I have to say. I flew from Seattle to Anchorage on a large plane (Boeing 737) and then we hopped on a little puddle jumper type plane in Anchorage to fly to Dutch Harbor. There were 7-8 of us on the plane, and it was quite a noisy ride! As our plane arrived at the Dutch Harbor airport (with just a little bump), we got our first glimpse of the Healy sitting in port. What a huge ship she is!! The view from the plane was magnificent, snow capped mountains everywhere!!! The Dutch Harbor airport is teeny tiny- much smaller than any airport I’ve been to. There was a little kid in the baggage claim area sliding down the metal ramp that they throw the bags down in a...
The waiting was finally over. The Healy had docked into harbor and was ready to take on all the eager scientists and even two teachers. Maggie and I actually got to be part of the search party for the Healy with Ned Cokelet, a NOAA oceanographer and our driver/ navigator. The Healy was quite impressive with my first look. She sat in the harbor and I could see that she was seaworthy and could not wait to see how she really worked through the ice. Not to mention, all the passageways and my room that will be my home away from home for the next month.
USCG Healy docked at the Dutch Harbor Port
I am rooming with a scientist, Nancy Kachel. Nancy is a physical oceanographer and will be looking at the hydrography and circulation. This basically means her team is using the CTD and will be...
When I walked around the back of the hotel in Dutch, I surprized a big 'ol bald eagle dumpster diving with three of his raven friends. Later I found out the ravens were not really his friends. They tricked him into surrendering his meal! Bald Eagles play an important role in this ecosystem. They are scavengers, not only in Nature, but out of garbage dumps too.
Creature Feature-Bald Eagle
Scientific name: Haliaeetus luecocephalus
Tell me about the Bald Eagle.
The eagle is called 'bald' because of white feathers on their heads. Its yellow eyes and beak stand in contrast to its dark brown body. Eagles can reach flight speeds between 35 and 44 miles per hour.
How big are bald eagles...
I’m in Dutch.
When I was a kid growing up, being in Dutch meant you were in big trouble. I don’t think that’s what it means for me today. It means I am in a beautiful new environment, one that I haven’t the joy of exploring before.
A big bald eagle the size of an ostrich perches on a sign just outside the airport. Gazing skyward, I see two others glide in lazy concentric circles over Maggie Bay. Maggie is what the locals call the body of water that joins ‘Dutch’ to the world’s most productive fishing waters, the Bering Sea. Maggie is less formal than Margaret Bay. I can identify with that.
I see stacks of crab pots with bright orange buoys piled ten feet high. I see a big grocery store, bustling with locals buying last minute Easter treats and fisherman stockpiling supplies. There’s a gas...
I woke up on Saturday morning excited, nervous, and running down the list of last minute items I needed to somehow stuff into my bags. I could have sworn they weighed over 50 pounds each, even Rusty agreed. Then just as the door was swung open I was blinded by the whiteness. Here it was, 7 AM and there was snow all over the place. I thought …geez, as if I won’t see enough of this stuff in Alaska. I know April showers bring May flowers, but snow showers? I don’t think so.
The Jamestown water tower along with snow-covered ground
I got to the airport and even though we struggled with those bags they each only weighed in at a mere 37 pounds. I couldn’t believe it! I thought well, that’s 26 pounds of stuff I can buy and stuff into the bags for my return. So all my friends...
Happy Easter to all!!!
Maggie Prevenas boarding the SAAB plane destined for Dutch Harbor
So I arrived in Dutch Harbor, which is also Unalaska, AK confused and wondering, what is up with this place? A possible identity issue? I found the answer though, in their welcome guide of all places. I have a feeling this question comes up a lot.
Welcome sign at baggage claim in the Dutch Harbor airport
According to local historian, Ray Hudson, Unalaska is a corruption of the original island name of Agunalaksh. This area was renamed by the Spanish, again by the Russians, and eventually to a more manageable Ounalashka that led to Unalaska. The harbor was named by the Russians for the first vessel to enter the harbor, which happened to be Dutch. Just remember...
Here I am in Seattle (well, SeaTac to be exact) waiting for tomorrow (April 9th) to come so that I can take off on my adventure! I decided to stay at a hotel for the night so that I wouldn't have to be caught up in the rush of travel down to the airport tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can get a good nights sleep here with the planes zooming overhead.
My husband very nicely (with only a few grumbles...) drove me down to the hotel. With all the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks, I haven't really had time to sit down and think about the fact that I'm going to be away from all that is familiar to me for 5 weeks! It's still hard to believe even right now...I'm sure it won't really sink in until I'm actually on the ship and we're sailing away from the...
Since I am going to be learning a lot more about ice seals, I thought that I'd do a creature feature on the Hawaiian Monk Seal so when the time comes, you will be able to compare and contrast them.
Creature Feature-HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL
Scientific name: Monachus schauinslandi
Hawaiian name: ilio-holo-kai. The Hawaiian name means the “the dog that runs in the sea."
A picture of a Hawaiian Monk Seal from NOAA
Tell me about the monk seal.
The Hawaiian monk seal has a streamlined body to aid in swimming. Their front and back limbs are flipper-like. The front flippers are smaller than the back flippers. The front flippers have five fingers. The hind flippers cannot be turned forward, so they must wiggle when on land. In the water, they propel themselves by moving the hind flippers...
Ahupua’a
Ownership of land is a curious European belief. Many Native peoples do not believe that the land belongs to you. Nope, the land is only taken care of by people. The land belongs to the gods. Chiefs and elders act to interpret what the gods believe is best for the land. All people who live on the land are the stewards or ‘caretakers’ of the land.
So it was in Hawaii. Land on the islands was divided into large sections. These large sections were further divided into pie shaped wedges that extended from the tops of the mountains to the sea where it’s toes were washed by the warm ocean water. Since the land was a huge volcanic mountain, each wedge fit nicely into place. The land sections were called ahupua’a (ah-HOO-poo-ah-ah).
Ahupua’a got their names because alters (ahu) were made...
My last day in the classroom.
Here it is.
So what do you do to prep your dear students for your absence (in body)? What words and ideas do you want them to carry in their heads and hearts while you are gone? What questions do you hope they will wonder about?
Show Aloha (Kindness)
One of the many reasons why Hawaii is a wonderful place to live is the ‘Aloha Spirit.’ My students show this to me everyday. Kind words and thoughts help keep your heart warm and spirit alive. I asked my students to write their aloha on my boots so that my feet would always be warm.
Show Appreciation (Thanks and Understanding)
There are many things that happen each day. Many of those things are positive and helpful. Sometimes we just accept that they happen and go on with life. We need to acknowledge the person...
On Tuesday, I was working hard at my desk when I kept getting someone from the museum stopping by and saying, “You’ve got a package upstairs.” I figured by the third time I was interrupted, I realized I’d have to go and get the package because I had a feeling it must have been from VECO. Everyone had been dying to see what I was going to be given to wear. By the time I got upstairs, I could see why everyone wanted to tell me about my package. It was a HUGE duffel bag. So I took it back downstairs and actually it was more like dragged it down there and you would have thought I’d gotten a present. Everyone came by checking out my parka, gloves, boots, and everything in between.
I decided if grown adults were so excited, I knew my after school program students would just love it. So...
Check out this website all about my home for the next 33 days. We will use this site to do an internet scavenger hunt so that you may learn about the vessel.
http://www2.geo.uib.no/Healy-2005/Healy/
All of the polarTREC teachers were invited to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks for an evening reception with an international group of GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation Benefiting the Earth) teachers. What I will remember most about my visit there was this fantastic room called "The Place Where You Go To Listen." I cannot describe my emotions as I listened to the wonderous music, but you can get a good idea of the room and it's songs by checking out the website below.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4573
It was quite a shock for me to get back into the classroom this morning. I reserved the computer lab for all week so that I could get my students up and running with the virtual base camp and know where to go to ask questions or look at other teacher's pages.
Computer Lab at Kalama
This is one of the computer labs we have at our school. It is brand new!
What I had to do before I left, was to make sure they had all taken a pre-survey. In education in order for you to see what and how much you've learned, you need to know what information you know before you learn it.
Clear as mud, right!
Clear as mud
RIGHT!
Actually, my students take pretests all the time. It's a way I can see what they know and any misconceptions they might be bringing in with them. So they were quite...
The PolarTREC teachers were all taught basic survival skills so that if anything were to happen unexpectedly, we might be prepared. The Polar Regions are a harsh, unforgiving environment and scientific expeditions are considered to be quite adventurous. We learned how to think and then calmly act in an emergency. Robert Harris, who went up into the Arctic on March 28, wrote a great summary of the training.
Access the page by clicking on this link:
http://www.polartrec.com/node/433
When you are finished reading his page, click the BACK button on your browser to return to this page.Take the challenge and ‘Learn to return!’
Number a piece of paper from one to ten.
Write the letter that best completes the question.
Learn to Return Challenge
1. Survival training...
Hi everyone-
I just wanted to give you an update some things I've learned about this website. I will not really have internet access on the ship- just email. This will be the same email that I sent out to you in my mass email (not the one listed on this webpage, because I'm not sure how to access that one). So what I will do is email my journal entries and pictures to people at Arcus/Polartrec, who will then post them for me. Your questions for me (in the Ask the Team section) will then be emailed to me so I can read and reply to them. One important note! Please identify yourself to me when you ask a question, using your FIRST NAME, LAST INITIAL (no last names please!)...then I know who you are! :) Otherwise you will just show up as guest....of which there are a lot!!
Cheers!
I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate all the kids at Nooksack Valley Middle School on a job well done on their science fair projects. I was so glad I got to participate in this before leaving on my Bering Sea cruise. I just wanted to post some pictures so everyone could see and appreciate the hard work all the kids did- enjoy!
Stain Removers, by Sarah Flowers, by Lianne
Healthy vs Non Healthy food, by Lindy Sky Dust, by Matt
Fertilizer and Plants, by McKinna Sky Dust, by Joe
Plants and Fertilizer, by Katy Mold, by Kilee
Snail Travel, by Kimberly Catapults (not bombs!) by Jesse
Electromagnets, by Dakoda...
Today was the end of my training for the BEST (Bering Sea Ecosystem Study) mission to the Bering Sea. Because the travel arrangements were made so quickly, I had an unusual itinerary that took me from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska and then back home to Maui.
Nobody at the airport would believe me. They had to see my itinerary. Both the porter and the customer service agent said that this was the first time they had ever seen a flight up to Anchorage from Seattle to get to Maui. “No way,“ they said, “You aren’t reading that right.”
I loved being right?
This flight was a secret to everyone, judging from the number of seats left empty in my row. The Anchorage to Maul flight was totally underbooked. For the first time EVER, I laid down across several seats and stretched my legs this way and...
Being from Hawaii, I have come to expect a cultural diversity in the faces that surround me; Japanese eyes, Tongan noses, shiny black hair, deep brown eyes, and skin of every shade. When I crossed the boundary north into Anchorage, the racial profile changed remarkably.
Most everyone was Caucasian. Blue eyes were common. I saw red headed adults and blonde children. Their skin was white. I felt lonely and cold.
Lonely and Cold
Many native cultures have a strong link to their environment
I missed the kindness of strangers and aloha spirit. I missed the humble respect paid to elders and the no worry no hurry attitude. I missed my Hawaiian ohana (family).
But I eventually found it again.
When I met my new friends.
I found it in Fairbanks when I bonded with the 2007-08 PolarTREC teachers...
Alaska and Hawaii share several animal species. The Pacific Golden Plover is a bird that spends its summer and breeds in Alaska and Siberia and over winters in Hawaii and other islands in the southern Pacific. The Hawaiians call this bird ‘Kolea’ (ko-LAY-ah) which means “one who takes and leaves.”
Kolea
The Kolea that has claimed my home as part of his territory looks like this now. He flies to Alaska in April. Look at the handsome white stripe that extends from his forehead around his wing and belly. Can you see how his feathers allow him to blend in with his Arctic tundra environment?
Kolea arrive in Hawaii in the late summer taking only two or three days to fly over 3,000 miles. Once they arrive, they stake out a territory returning to a specific location year after year. Young Kolea...
Check out this photo!! On the right is America and on the left is Russia. Of course, I did not take this picture, because I am not on the ship yet, but a crew member from the USCGC Healy on a prior cruise did. I would give them proper photo credits, but the website for the Healy is currently under construction.
Hello everyone! This is my first journal entry on the polartrec website. I'm so excited to have this avenue for communicating with the students at Nooksack Valley MS in Everson, WA (go Pioneers!) along with friends and family while I'm gone on my adventure!
It seems like I've been waiting ages for this trip to happen, and now it's less than 11 days away- it just seems to have snuck up on me! I'm super excited, but nervous that I've forgotten to pack something important, either to keep me warm or to do my research! We got the opportunity to load the Healy last Friday (the coastguard ice cutter we will be on) and boy was that neat to see our home for the next month! It is SO very large- the man giving us the tour was getting lost, which gives me little hope for...
Preparing for the Plunge
Aviation safety training continued. A second instructor joined super safety teacher Vince Welbaum for the practical or hands-on test today. The scientists, research assistants, and my four new Eskimo friends from 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle all absorbed the ‘ditching’ videos. We tried to commit to memory the eight-step survival strategy. We repeated, then practiced, and then said it all over again. Soon it was time to take our ride to the pool. It was time to be tested. Ditching is a skill that can be learned. We were reassured.
Safety Helmet
Safety helmets like these will save your life in a helicopter accident or when skateboarding
No need to change into our swimsuits, but there was a warm shower before we jumped into the deep end of the pool. In our...
Because I am a joint appointee between PolarTREC and NOAA Teacher at Sea program, I have some NOAA training to take. Some of the animal population survey will be done from flying helicopter transects from the Healy. In a brief telephone conversation I had with Mike Cameron, of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, I discovered that if I want to do some flying, I have to do the helicopter safety program.
Do I? Want to do some population sampling of ice seals. Me?
Yah HUH!
The opportunity for training coincided with the PolarTREC training. All I needed to do was little detour dogleg through Seattle to accommodate the training.
I have to express that there is just a little bit of galloping heart when I think about this. Today, our aviation safety instructor, Vince Welbaum,...
When I flew up to Fairbanks for my training last week, I had a stop in Anchorage. The flight was late and needed to make up time, so passengers en route to Fairbanks were told to remain on the plane. I never had a look at what Anchorage’s airport had to offer.
Anchorage
I saw lots of planes at the airport in Anchorage
Four days later, my flight from Fairbanks to Seattle for NOAA helicopter safety training had a 3 hour layover in Anchorage. I hoped the airport had something more than just a generic newspaper stand and coffee stop, but I had never imagined it would have THIS.
Second Story Art Museum
Masks were used as a path for connecting to spirits
THIS was an exceptional collection of indigenous peoples art and crafts.
Beadwork
Indigenous people craft beautiful beadwork...
For spring break, most teachers and students pack their suitcases and fly to a tropical paradise. They might unwind, get a tan, frolic in the water, and kick back. Recharge their batteries.
Most teachers and students, but not those who are given the professional growth opportunity of a lifetime. Not those who are chosen to pull on Mustang suits and bunny boots with world class scientists doing global climate change research funded by the NSF and ARCUS during IPY 2007. Not those who must learn how to share this experience with their real life and virtual classroom community. Not me. Me! WAHOO!
Pinch me.
From March 22-March 26, I participated in an intense cold weather and technology training that helped prepare me for the soon to be departing BEST (Bering Sea Ecosystem Study) field study....
Today I am learning how to post pictures to my gallery, then create a new journal entry with the picture.
My expedition is being funded from the following three organizations.
Please, please mention their generous funding for this once in a lifetime learning experience I am about to begin...
March 24, 2007
Aloha from Alaska!
I have always been known as a teacher who is passionate about helping students learn about themselves, their relationships with others and how they connect to the world. Recently I have been very troubled by information presented in the media about global climate change. In my classroom, students raise questions all the time about what’s happening to the weather, the water, and the island. Is global warming real? What is going to happen to the ocean and us if the polar ice caps melt and sea level rises?
“I don’t know,” I tell them. “But, we can find out together.”...
Wow, I’m going to the Arctic. After a whirlwind of emails and interviews, I never thought I’d actually be going to the Bering Sea on the USCG Icebreaker, Healy. Yet before I set sail, I’ve got a trip to Fairbanks for orientation. Nothing could really prepare me for the trip. All I could think was it is going to be cold. Still with the cold, it has been some serious learning and excitement as dreams are coming true for all of us gathered here to be the PolarTREC class of 2007. So real dreams of if your body core is losing heat, than you might be in the first stages of hypothermia. As Tuck from Learn to Return, continued his survival seminar with us, those dreams began to turn into second guesses for many of us. Could that really happen crossed my mind as images from many of Tuck’s...
