Join the Polar research team as we use technology to join Dr. Carin Ashjian as she continues her research in the Arctic! We first caught up with her at the end of July onboard the icebreaker U.S.C.G.C. Healy and then followed her onboard the R/V Anika Marie. She and her team members have continued their Barrow-based research, studying the oceanographic conditions of the bowhead whale habitat. This is Dr. Ashjian's final journal of this summers expedition.
Journal
A huge low pressure system moved over Alaska early this week, producing high winds across a large region including the Arctic Coast. After reading the latest forecast on Monday afternoon, we decided to call it a year and offload our gear from the Annika Marie. The wind was beginning to howl around Niksiuraq as we hustled on board to take down our wires, disassemble the Tucker trawl, collect the sampling gear stashed in drawers, cabinets, and in the hold, and pack it all into large crates trash bags (wet nets) to bring ashore. The Annika Marie was pulled up on the beach so that it was easy to float the inflatable boat from shore alongside the port side of the Annika Marie, in the lee of the wind, and load the gear on. It is amazing how quickly we can demobilize the gear. One we had everything off of the Annika Marie and onto shore, Bill and Lars quickly got ready to pull off of the beach, into deeper water, and to move further up towards NuvukThe Iñupiaq name for Point Barrow and the people who lived there. (Point Barrow) to weather the upcoming storm. And it has been a good one. Winds were probably 40+ knots north of Barrow near the Point and were in the 30s in town and here at NARL. Being Barrow, there was a ready supply of sheet metal that banged around outside our hotel through the night. The gushing wind kept up a steady rushing noise around the windows. Both the Annika Marie and her sister boat, the Ukpik, weathered the storm safely, although perhaps not comfortably at least not for the people inside. On Sunday, we had sampled across a relatively short transect across Barrow Canyon, leaving in the morning and returning home at around 9:30 PM.
For this, which turned out to be our last night on board as a team, we ate one-day smoked salmon that Steve had brought (and caught) and that he cooked up in the electric fry pan. Add a pan of rice pilaf, some green beans, and we had a very tasty dinner. The day was very sunny, with blue skies and sparkling blue seas. Remarkably, we saw more seabirds on this day than we had on most sampling days previously. We moved efficiently across the 22 mile transect, doing CTDs every 3 miles and collecting zooplankton and seawater at about half of those locations. It was quite pleasant to get home at a reasonable hour (10 PM!).
Since then, we have been in a frenzy of washing gear, sorting, and packing. Today we sent two totes containing our microzooplankton samples to Corvallis OR . Tomorrow we plan to send the rest of our gear. I will be remaining in Barrow until Saturday so that I can talk about the project at the Schoolyard Saturday Talk Series held each Saturday afternoon. Bob and Steve will leave with the Annika Marie probably on Thursday to return to Prudhoe Bay. And Phil will leave sometime between Thursday and Saturday. It has been a successful season in Barrow.
POSTSCRIPT September 13th 2013:
Since I wrote this journal, having run out of time to send it, we finished packing up and the Annika Marie left Barrow on September 5 at 6 AM. She made it to Prudhoe Bay in record time, pulling up at West Dock at around 7 PM. Phil left Barrow that evening. I stayed in Barrow until Saturday so that I could speak about our project at the Schoolyard Saturday Talks Series. We are now all safely home, and our gear has all arrived from Barrow (another record!).
*PolarTREC Journal written by research scientist Dr. Carin Ashjian. Journal and photos posted by Springs School PolarTREC Educator Lisa Seff.
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