Summary for April 16-April 21
It’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…
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…
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…
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,…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Creature Feature - Beluga Whale
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…
