"Glad to be back?" One of the first questions that people ask (before "Did you see a polar bear?" and "Did you ever grow your sea legs?") is the hardest to answer. Yes, I am happy to be back in a place with greenery, excited for sun-dresses, ready for bike riding and psyched to see all my students but there's definitely a cultural integration process that goes along with reentry into life post-Healy. Some of the things that have taken some getting used to are the following...
1. There's no "Red Goat" garbage disposal in the school cafeteria for me to accidentally throw metal objects into.2. My clothes come out much cleaner with Tide than the detergent that doubles as deck cleaner. (At least they smell cleaner).3. My pager doesn't go off at three...
Suiting up in an MSD-900 survival suit felt a little bit strange considering that there was no ice for as far as the eye could see. We were miles from the ice-edge as we pulled into Dutch Harbor but there I was pulling and squirming back through the many zippers and pull-ties. This time I would not be waiting to clunk down the brow in my bunny boots towards the ice though. This time... I was going in the "small boat"!
The Healy 2, or the "small boat"; as it is affectionately referred to by its crew, usually hangs unobtrusively above the portside 03 deck. When sediment traps need to be retrieved, a buoy needs to be checked on or a small crew needs to go into port first, she is lowered from the top of the boat into the water. This is when the fun begins! As the...
Latitude: 57 10.174NLongitude: 163 45.851W
Alexei Pinchuk peers into a clear plastic bottle that he has taken out of the fridge outside the lab. If you didn't know better, you would think that he was looking at a bottle of chilly water. What he is actually doing is checking on his babies...his baby krill, that is. Looking closely into the bottle I can see three teeny organisms swimming around. Each of them is smaller than a grain of rice and as clear as cellophane. The only colors visible are a little pink dot by their tail and a green spot, in the middle. This green stuff tells Alexei that these one month-old krill have been busy eating. He hopes this means that they will continue to grow.
So why does Alexei, a scientist at the University of Alaska, have a fridge full of krill...
Latitude: 57 30.196NLongitude: 168 04.025W
So where in the world does a producer eat other animals, a consumer make its own food and sometimes either will decide to do both? Welcome to the wacky world of the Bering Sea ecosystem!
In theory, there are two main categories of eaters- heterotrophs and autotrophs. These are basically the producers and consumers. Autotrophs have the ability to make their own food. Heterotrophs need to consume energy from other sources.
Mixotrophs throw a monkey wrench into the neat order of this organizational system. Mix-o-troph- the name even sounds "mixed-up"! These guys are the flexitarians of the plankton world. Generally, they have dominant behavior in one of the first two categories. This is how the mixing part happens...
Heterotrophs...
Latitude: 59 50.217NLongitude: 172 04.540W
I stumbled into the main lab at 10.30 pm last night, already a little sleepy from a day of webcasting, multicoring and VanVeen grabbing. I was tired but determined to stay up with the mysterious Krill Gang for the night before I ran out of days to do it. The first person I found hovered above a microscope was Tracy Shaw, a technician at NOAA's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Oregon. Fresh from a day of sleep, her workday was just getting warmed up as most of the ship was heading to bed. At her workstation a Tupperware was swimming with krill that she has been experimenting with almost a month. These little guys have been very hungry. They are unwilling participants in a "starvation experiment" that she has been carrying out as...
Latitude: 62 03.489NLongitude 174 41.058W
Yesterday we bid farewell to the ice and it was a perfect finale! After backing and ramming for hours to travel just a few miles through intensely thick ice that rocked the boat with its "rubble fields" and "ridges", we arrived at our final ice station!
Gloveless and sporting t-shirts under our MSD900s we hit the brow ready to drill cores and collect samples for one last glorious day before real spring takes hold and the sea ice begins to disappear into open-ocean.
We wanted to stall, drill just a few more cores, collect a few extra samples... any reason to stay off the boat but eventually we did have to get back on board. We are now headed back into the excitement of the bloom with the frenzy of activity that accompanies...
Longitude: 175 41.698W
Latitude: 59 43.948N
It may not be sunny and 75 here in the high latitudes but it is still growing season and the ocean around us is in full bloom! While it might not be as picturesque as the cherry blossoms that have blanketed the East Coast this spring, looking through the microscope the scenery is just as mesmerizing...
What is this artistic creation? It's a zooplankton wonderland! Plankton are free-floating organisms that slosh around in the world's waterways. Zooplankton are small animals and phytoplankton are the single-celled plant version. Most are microscopic but some you can even see if you look closely with your naked eye. Right now in the Bering Sea, the phytoplankton is in full "bloom". Blooming phytoplankton prompts a population surge...
Latitude: 60 47.831NLongitude: 174 22.268W
On the hunt for ice sturdy enough to stand on or any ice at all for that matter- we headed north again last night. I like the sound of this, as I still haven't checked Ursus maritimus (polar bear) off my list of must-sees. Do you think that I will find a polar bear out on this "pancake" ice? Probably not but the rolling waves of ice fields are amazing to see!
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Now that we are back in the ice, Heloise Chenelot of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, heads to the Bridge a few times daily to make "Ice Observations". Heloise, along with others on board, records what she notices in an online journal. By recording the date, exact location and what she sees, scientists studying this region can make comparisons and...
Latitude: 59 32.611NLongitude: 175 09.250W
"And a good south wind sprung up behind;The Albatross did follow,And every day, for food or play,Came to the mariner's hollo!" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The stormy waters are a thing of the past today as we glide across the open water chasing the "algae bloom" (more on that soon). Sediment traps were picked up by small boat, we multi-cored at 4am and equipment traveled off and on the boat without high winds trying to snatch things out to sea. Between deployments, the fantail even became a whale-spotting and "sunbathing" locale for some.
Healy-travelers weren't the only ones enjoying the marvelous weather following a stormy weekend. Sea birds rested on the relatively calm water and...
Latitude: 57 32.836N
Longitude: 169 15.240W
Most of the scientists and crew aboard the Healy are admittedly much saltier and more sea-savvy than I. In random moments of desperate seasick agony many have even offered thoughtful, comforting words such as "This is nothing?!" or "I've heard that it is going to get waaay worse!". The storm that we were caught in during this weekend, however, was powerful enough to put everyone's plans through the spin cycle. We traveled in circles trying to decide what to do. Everyone was waiting to see how bad the storm would be before deciding in which direction to head. This is what it looked like from the bow...
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The plan to launch a small boat off the starboard side of the ship to collect sediment traps from the ocean...
Latitude: 57 02.701NLongitude: 170 03.531W
The term "Damage Control" on the Healy takes on many different meanings depending on who you are talking to or how you are feeling. For the past 24 hours as we have been bullied by the waves of the storm that Chief Rieg told me was coming, personal damage control has taken the form of a baggie of little pink pills. Meclizine, has been my ally in the battle against sea sickness. Even so (or maybe because of), every attempt to actually accomplish anything productive beyond my laundry has been completely pointless. Luckily, other people have been more successful. (More on that next journal when I can fight the haze long enough to write about science.)
"Damage Control" for the Coast Guard takes a lot more equipment than a...
Winds rushing at 50 knots, snow swirling through the air and hair whipping your eyes so fiercely that you can't keep them open long enough to see where you are walking... just another day at the office in the Bering Sea. While weather conditions are usually less than ideal out here in the land of " The Deadliest Catch", today's windstorm added a whole new element of fun to the multi-coring experience. Luckily, the storm reserved it's full wrath until the equipment was back on deck. Five people worked to get the two tarps secured around the Multi-corer as strings swatted us in the face. We slipped and slid all over the deck and snow pelted us but in the end it was wrapped up like a Christmas present and we headed inside to work with the mud.
A few hours later we were back on...
Latitude: 557 19.521NLongitude: 169 54.416W
Navigating the Bering Sea is nothing compared to the mental-mapping it takes to find your way around Healy City. Wrapping up my 20th day onboard, I am finally finding my way around. The only trouble is... the doors. Scuttles, latches, and levers- every door seems to have a new and exciting way to challenge my biceps, triceps and every muscle in my upper back.
The official purpose of these doors is to keep the ship climate controlled, watertight, and airtight. The unofficial purpose is to make getting to my destination nearly impossible. There's the door to the helicopter hanger, for example...
Then, there's the door on the 03 deck from my stateroom hallway to the lab...
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Nevermind the door to the mess hall...
The swinging...
Sliding through the ice in transit to our next station yesterday evening, all was serene off the "fantail" (the back porch of the boat). Sitting on a ledge in the back window, I could see grease ice and glassy water in every direction. Over the radio a voice crackled suddenly, "There's birds off the bow. Hundreds of them!" Grabbing my camera and quickly heading to the bow I found that the sea ahead was peppered with movement.
Diving through the water, away from the boat, were literally hundreds of little Murres. Thick-billed Murres are pelagic birds that live in the Bering Sea, thriving off of the little fish and Euphausids, (small shrimp) that live around and under the ice. (New word O-A students: pelagic means that they are related to the sea.) Underwater they...
Latitude: 59 26.555NLongitude: 167 47.581W
Life on the Healy this Saturday was filled with strange happenings. It started at 3:24 in the morning with a resounding "Now. There's a major fuel leak in Engine Room One. All hands man your general emergency bills", piped throughout the ship. The instructions were to report to our emergency drill locations. What did I do? I promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. I realize that this doesn't speak well of my survival skills. At 3 am, though, it's got to be pretty major to wake me up. Apparently, this qualified as major for the rest of the ship. Thankfully, my roommates were more alert and pretty soon we were all assembled in the Science Conference Lounge awaiting instructions. Some people were noticeably worried. Others...
Latitude: 61 46.025 NLongitude: 168 55.005 W
The Captain had already briefed us on the potential ice hazards. Everyone had wiggled and pulled, squirmed and struggle to suit up in our MSD900 exposure suits. The sleds had been loaded up with heavy equipment and some materials had already been hand-lowered onto the ice. The final step was to descend the brow.
The crack must have started small. Maybe it was just a little hairline fracture across an otherwise perfectly frozen sheet of sea ice. By the time it reached the stern though it had grown to a couple feet wide and as it crept along the portside of the ship it widened even further.
The area that we were about to descend upon quickly went from looking like just the right spot to a near disaster. Three Coast Guard crewmembers were...
Latitude: 62 10.711 NLongitude: 174 16.458
So what do 130 people eat for four meals a day in the middle of the Bering Sea? A lot! Curious about what goes on behind the scenes in this miniature restaurant-at-sea, I took a timeout from science this morning and joined the Mess Crew! It turned out to be a whole mess of fun!
The cook staff on the ship is made up of 6 crew members. They take turns, serving, setting up, cooking and baking. With four mealtimes daily, that doesn't give anyone much of a day off. In fact, on their days off they even come in to dish out the food to the hungry diners. Breakfast is served from 7-8, lunch from 11-12 and dinner from 5-6. Then there's "Midrats" from 11-12 for those people who work through the night. I worked the lunch shift as a prep...
Latitude: 59 54.632NLongitude: 178 06.651W
If the snow swirling around you on the slush covered bow at -30°F degrees wind chill this morning isn't enough for you... or if it is still too dark to head outside at 9am but you are craving the cold you can always pull on your parka and head on in to the cold room. Actually, you have your choice of any number of cold work-spaces in the science lab...
Take your pick...There's the two "cold rooms" where things like mud and plankton samples are kept. It's a balmy 32°F degrees freezing in there. The walk-in freezer is also an option at a mere 0°F. Then, there's the DEEP FREEZER. This place takes cold to a whole new level. Set at -81°C (or -114°F!!!), you don't want to spend much time with your hands in there. Why the need for such a...
Longitude: 59 54.41NLatitude: 178 54.77W
Peep, peep, peep went my pager on Easter morning at 2 am. We weren't looking for Easter eggs on the bottom of the ocean at the middle of the night but it was time to send the Multi-corer down! Sometimes, sleep follows science. We had arrived at the edge of the continental shelf- where the ocean gets real which meant it was time to do some sampling. Over the next 24 hours, we sent the Multi-corer down five times. At it's deepest point we waited for the sediment samples to travel nearly 2 miles to the surface. Each trip took over an hour up and down. Cutting slices on the lab deck, we found animals that looked like toothpicks sticking out from the gooey mud. We noticed pink worms that looked like corkscrews, tunneling to the depths. This...
The familiar creaking, squeaking and groaning that meant we were cutting through thick ice returned on Monday morning.
Listen to the following clip to hear the sound of the Healy breaking through the ice...
Jump to clip
Returning to the ice meant seal-spotting was in full swing on The Bridge. The Bridge is the area where the captain and crew can lookout over the ice as they steer. By 10am thirteen seals and their pups had already been spotted off the starboard! Clear weather reigned and most people hunting for a seal-sighting wore sunglasses even as late as 10pm.
Monday was a transit day, meaning that the boat was enroute to a new spot where a science station would be conducted. While everyone was cleaning up from a busy weekend, for many it meant that there was time to enjoy the...
Latitude: 61 59.70Longitude: 17 618.76
"I really like that ice but if I can't have that then how about over there, before the ridge?" Katrin Iken, polar marine biologist from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was on the Bridge at sunrise looking for ice. Katrin's criteria for ice hunting is a nice flat surface for working, thick enough to support us but not too thick for drilling the ice cores that she needs to conduct her research. By 10am we were suited up in our MSD900s and kneeling on a patch that was "just right."
Taking leave from the "mud team", I have temporarily joined Dr. Iken's team of Arctic ecologists. As a group, they are working to gather samples and make observations that will help them to better understand the ecosystem here as a whole...
Lat: 59 52.757N
Long: 173 31.007W
What's a CTD? And for that matter, what's the difference between a CTD STD and a CTD PROD? Nearly everything that happens, scientifically speaking, on the Healy revolves around the deployment of this mysterious CTD. For the first few days, I pretended to know what it looked like. Then, spotted this strange creature in the starboard aft deck. I investigated.
The CTD, (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) is the instrument that collects ocean water samples. A crane on the starboard side of the ship carefully lowers this 12-cylindered machine into the water. Today, it reached the bottom at 81 meters. (Pop quiz guys: How many feet is that if is each meter is about 3 feet?) Once at the bottom, one of the bottles snaps shut catching seawater...
Warning! Danger! Notice! If you know how to read there are lots of directions to be followed on the Healy! Before leaving the East Coast one of my friends offered me a final piece of advice for returning home safely. "Simone, follow the rules". Knowing that this is not my strength, this reminder was in order. Here, I follow the rules. There are lots of them. The most important ones are not so obvious but failing to follow them would make you stand out as the dreaded rookie. These are a few examples...
1. No gym clothes in the mess hall. This is bad form.2. Look before you open the stairwell doors. It's a long way down the ladder for someone on the other side.3. Wear a hard hat anytime there is big equipment in motion.4. No flip flops- unless you are in the...
The mud team took a break from the brown stuff and dabbled a bit in white this morning. As a newly appointed (temporary) member of the sediment-team, I too, headed "down the brow". After preparing our equipment sleds we carried them down to the ramp where they were lowered onto the ice. Then, there was disembarking ourselves. What's missing from the picture below?
That's right, steps! Getting down to do ice-work seems like it would be easy but not it's not as easy as you would think. First, there's the bunny boots- huge, white clown shoes that spread your weight and protect your feet. Then, there's the MST900, a "dry suit", meaning many layers of waterproof insulation so that you are essentially Ziploc-ed into your outfit. The idea is that you would remain...
Fire drills take on a whole new meaning when you are in the middle of the Bering Sea. Scrap the whole idea of lining up on the sidewalk outside the building! In preparation for setting off into the open water at 20:00 hours (8 pm if you aren't in the military) we drilled. First, there was the man-overboard drill. In the event that you ever here this alarm, you know that you are doing way better than someone else- someone who has fallen into the -1.7 ºC water! For everyone on board, this just means that you report to a certain part of the ship.
Then, there was the abandon ship drill. Whole different story! First, you proceed to the area of the ship that you are assigned to. I was directed to the starboard side, aft. This means the right side of the ship, in the back. Once you get...
Sunday is the day of rest for some people but not in the science lab on the Healy! The action started at around sunrise with the spotting of three seals off the starboard side of the ship. Even as I am writing at 10.30 at night the sun has not gone to bed yet and neither have some of the scientists. Science happens 24 hours a day here! Some people are consistently night or day workers and some are awake at all different hours depending upon when their work needs to be done. People tend to cross in the mess hall, while some people are having their first meal of the day, others are having their last before bed.
We are moving through thick ice now. So thick, in fact, that some of the scientists ventured out to do work off the boat. Before the team started work, the Coast Guard sent out two...
The students at Unalaska's elementary school go out to recess no matter what, according to Principal Heather Jones. The one exception is if the high winds that tend to rush through the playground reach speeds of around 70 mph. This is almost strong enough to carry off a kindergartener, but otherwise, the kids go out to play everyday! Don't forget your coats and raingear! Eagle's View Elementary, named by a former student, has 162 students who come from all over the world. Many of them come from Asia and as far away as Samoa! I stopped by for a visit to this bright and cheerful little school. Take a look at the colorful traditional hats that the Unangan Culture students made and hung in the entryway.
Back in Dutch Harbor, I was busy moving onto the Healy. The US Coast Guard Cutter...
In the polar regions you expect to see seals, polar bears and foxes but HORSES? On an island? Meet the wild horses of Unalaska, Alaska. This small herd of wild horses lives outside the town of Unalaska on the island where the Healy is docked at Dutch Harbor. These six horses are kind of a mystery. Whatever their story is, they are well suited to a chilly lifestyle though. We got an up close and personal visit from this one! Look at his thick fur, you have to have a pretty good coat to make it through the winter out here!
Who else lives on the island?
Birds! Check out these talons. What kind of bird do you think these feet belongs to?
That's right, a bald eagle. Bald eagles are so common here that they are like sparrows to the locals. Take a look at this group of them eating...
The Earth below me was hungry last night. At least that's what it felt like! At around 4:30 am in Anchorage I woke up with the sensation of a stomach rumbling all around me. Earthquake! It only registered a 3 on the Richter Scale, which means that most Alaskans probably didn't even wake up. The Richter Scale is the measurement of strength for an earthquake, or seismic event. Three is pretty low- the scale goes up to 10. Each jump to the next number represents a ten-fold increase in the intensity of the quake. So even though it didn't feel much stronger than standing on the Metro platform as the Red Line rolls in, it was officially an earthquake!
Earthquakes by night, volcanoes by day! As I am writing this, I am flying over the most rugged and remote part of the Earth I have ever...
I have no idea what a huge bull moose would be looking for on the side of a highway in the middle of Anchorage but there he was watching the world go by. I had only been in Alaska for an hour but after sitting on the plane all the way across the country from Washington, DC, I needed to stretch my legs and I suppose he did too. The moose and I are apparently the only ones who walk around town in the city of Anchorage. This might be because there aren't that many sidewalks and those that are there are very slushy! He must have hit the road on some mission though and I had my own...finding glacier glasses.
Glacier glasses are a special kind of sunglasses that protect your eyes when you are looking at ice for long periods of time. When you look through normal sunglasses your pupils...
Hola los cientificos de Oyster! Preparan a viajar dentro de la tierra!
Hard hat? Check! Flashlight? Check? Ready to travel back 40,000 years to the Pleistocene era? CHECK! Entering the Permafrost tunnel was like entering a fairyland of icicles and snowflakes. Oh right, except for the smell of decomposition. Alright, back-up. So what is a Permafrost tunnel?
In the case of the CRREL tunnel in Fox, Alaska it's a 360 foot-long hole through an old mining hill. The ground is permanently frozen, as in frozen all the time! Scientists are looking at layers upon layers to reconstruct history through clues that they find in the sediment. Looking closely as you walk around, you can see mammoth bones, roots and stones from thousands of years ago...
Tuesday morning the news came in that the lead teams from the Yukon Quest were closing in on the finish line and the people of Fairbanks were ready to bring them in cheering! All of the PolarTREC teachers and I walked down a hill onto the frozen river and waited with the locals for the mushers to round the bend. And waited...and waited... Sled dogs only run about 25 mph at their fastest and this was the end of 1,000 miles so the last two miles can take a while! It was a gorgeous day though, 12 degrees with the sun brightly shining so everyone waited happily for the little runners and their brave mushers. "Mushers" is the name for the person who coaches the dogs through the race. He is also usually their owner. He rides behind the dogs on a sled that is...
The residents at the Large Animal Research facility all have hooves, fur and horns or antlers. Sadly, Rudolph was nowhere to be found but scientists were hard at work studying other reindeer, caribou and musk oxen. The data that the researchers collect at this facility is being used to develop bio-fuel technology. It's also helping people to understand how animals are being affected by climate change.
A long snowy road leads back to the facility which is made up of wide fields, round-up pens and research barns. Lindsey, the outreach coordinator, met us by the musk ox field and showed us around. Researchers at the center are examining what is going on in the stomachs of these large mammals. By inserting a rope of digestible material into a "plug" on the side of the musk ox...
It's 4:45 am here in Alaska and I have been wide-awake for an hour. I tried to sleep later but my brain just wouldn't let me. Why? What is a time zone? Which one am I in? What time is it in DC right now? Also, take a look at the temperature on my journal page. It's listed in degrees Celsius. What is the temperature in Fahrenheit?
I am learning so many new things to teach you about life at the poles and how our Earth is changing! I can't wait to get back and share it all with you. For now, check out this fun rap all about climate change! I'm meeting a reindeer today! Maybe Rudolph?!
Hola Oyster Scientists!
It was twelve degrees below zero when I walked out of the Fairbanks airport at 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Brrrr! How much colder is that than it was in DC today? I didn't really notice the cold though because I was so excited to be here. I couldn't believe that I had already seen something new! Coming in for touchdown, I felt like I was landing on the moon. Outside the window of the plane, ribbons of white light were dancing in the sky. They looked like martian highways! These lights, the Northern Lights or aurora borealis, are something that I have always wanted to see and there they were outside the window of my Alaska Airlines window seat 9A; a welcome banner to Alaska! Are these mysterious lights really UFOs? Find out... google it!Sunday must really...