Well, it's been three months since I got off the Healy from our spring research cruise. Sometimes it feels like longer than that!!
What have I been doing since the Healy? First of all, I've been enjoying being back on dry land and spending time with family and friends. I've also been hard at work analyzing the data that we collected during this spring trip, as well as last years spring trip! This project is part of my master's degree at Western Washington University, and I'm getting very close (I hope!) to being finished with my degree. I spent about a month after I got back from our trip in the lab, analyzing samples and collecting a bit more data for my thesis. The next two months have FLOWN by, and I've spent them reading scientific papers, organizing my data and doing some...
Even with science occurring round the clock on Healy, there still has to be time for a little fun. Scientists and crew alike have been going a little stir crazy around here due to the fact that up until recently we were in open water for almost a week. This means no ice stations, and very little chances to be outside. This all changed when, on Sunday we reached the ice again, and Monday we had our first long ice station. It was a beautiful day for an ice station- the sun was out, there was no wind and it was around 30-35 degrees F outside. All the scientists set out to work on the ice around 14:30 (2pm). While we were working, some of the Healy's crew came out and unrolled a HUGE banner that was done by a school in Maryland for the US Coast Guard. It had to be at least as long as...
Depth: **175 meters **Temperature: 30 degrees F
I first want to mention that during our science personnel exchange, a journalist/scientist joined our crew. Her name is Gaelin Rosenwaks, and she is on board to help out and learn about what every group is doing on board Healy. She is keeping an online blog, and will highlight each research group on board. Since I am busy sampling and helping our group out, I cannot highlight ever other group on board. So, if you are interested in reading about all the other science that goes on, visit Gaelin's page at <a href="http://arctic.globaloceanexploration.com/">http://arctic.globaloceanexploration.com</a>
This week has become a whirlwind of sampling for most of the scientists on board Healy. Many are interested in studying the...
Depth: Less than 50 metersThis is my first journal entry in about week, and I can't say it's because I've been really busy. It's more because there hasn't been a whole lot happening for our group lately. In my last journal I mentioned some of the reasons why we might not get good cores- well, this week we've been having trouble coring due to sandy sediment. Sand is difficult to core, and it's also very difficult to process if we get any cores. It clogs up the tubes on our radon jars, there isn't much water in the sediment, and most of the cores we get from a sandy site are very short (less than 8 centimeters long). We would like to have long cores (20 centimeters long or more, ideally) because we get better data, so it's disappointing to core a sandy area. The other reason we've...
Depth: 50 meters
Well, I will reveal the mystery of the cups, as I don't want to keep everyone in suspense TOO long! Due to the amount of air in Styrofoam and the pressure of the water, the cups shrink to a miniature version of themselves. These cups started out at about 12 ounces- think of a *grande *sized cup at Starbucks- and ended up being only a couple ounces. The cool part is that everything shrinks- so all the decorations we put on them shrink as well. It's pretty neat to see!
I'd like to talk a little bit more about what our team does on the Healy, and why we are here in the Bering Sea. For those of you that read my journals last year, this may be a bit of a repeat.
At every station there is a sampling plan- we have many instruments that need to be deployed on the ship at...
Water depth: approximately 100 meters Temperature: Very cold (2 degrees Fahrenheit)
Today we officially crossed into tomorrow...if only for a little bit. Over the past couple of days we have been making our way steadily north, in order to drop off a member of the science party at St. Lawrence Island. This puts us very near the border between Russian and American waters. On our way back from that area today, we crossed over the International Date Line, putting half the ship into tomorrow!
Before we headed north, we sampled at one more station off the shelf. This was a deep station at 3000 meters (over 9000 feet). As we have done in the past, everyone broke out the Styrofoam cups and permanent markers, and then put them all in a mesh bag and sent them over the side attached to the...
Hi everyone! I'm trying something a little different today. The journal I'm sending along was not written by me, but by another member of our cruise party, Ann Fienup-Riordan. She is an American cultural anthropologist who works with the Yup'ik people of western Alaska. She was fortunate enough to join our research group for a couple weeks to learn about the science going on out in the Bering Sea. She just left us today for Gambell, AK, via St. Lawrence Island, so I thought I would send along a collection of her journals that she wrote while on the ship. Enjoy, and if you have any questions for her, I can try and forward them along as she and I will hopefully still be in email contact once she gets home. Hi friends,
As many of you know, I've been fortunate to be allowed to...
We made it to the ice!! Which is great timing because the swells in the water were pretty rough near the end- I almost fell out of my bunk a few times over the course of an evening. Large swells also make it hard to work (or even stand up straight). We first started getting into the ice floes around the afternoon of Tuesday, 4/1/08. By 4/2 we were getting into the thicker ice, and the weather changed significantly. Prior to the ice, it was foggy and rainy, with warm (though strong) winds. Then the northern winds started up and it got COLD. The wind was strong and cold enough to knock the breath right out of you. We also got some snow that hung around on deck- someone decided to build a mini snowman out on the fantail (the back end of the ship where the A-frame is) next to the...
We safely arrived in Dutch Harbor, AK on March 27th, 2008. Once we got to the airport, we gathered all our gear (which made it on the same flight as us- hooray!!) and headed to the Healy. Dutch Harbor is so beautiful right now- there is a lot more snow than last year (our cruise was almost 3 weeks later in the year) and the fog surrounded the harbor. I always forget how beautiful and surreal it is up here.
Dutch Harbor, AK
Bald eagles were everywhere in the harbor too- I was told I needed to get my own eagle picture (last year I snagged one from someone else) so after we got onto the ship and got settled into our rooms, a group of us took a walk from the Healy to the museum in town. A bunch of the scientists from the previous cruise and this cruise gave a talk to anyone interested...
Today is my last day at home before I leave for our research cruise. Our flight takes off at 5:40am tomorrow! I guess that will help to start getting me used to the odd hours we keep on the ship. Last year we had a lot of LONG days and nights- and by the end of the cruise my schedule was so backwards I was eating breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast! Some of you may have read about the fishing vessel lost up in the Bering Sea earlier this week. It happened very near Dutch Harbor, AK, which is the harbor where the Healy departs from for our cruise. Luckily, the Coast Guard was able to save many of the 47 men on board the ship at the time- however, sadly 4 were lost and one is missing. To read about the story, follow this link.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/...
Welcome everyone, to round two of my journaling for my Bering Sea research trip. Last year I also had a Polartrec journal, in order to communicate with friends, family and the 6th graders that I worked with at Nooksack Valley Middle School in Everson, WA. You can even read those previous journal posts online here on the Polartrec webpage.
This year, I'm back for a second trip on the USCGC Healy. We're doing a lot of the same research as last year (which means collecting A LOT of mud) plus some new research (which means more time out on the ice!). I don't work directly with Nooksack Valley anymore, but I'm still in contact with the teacher (Mrs. Vigre) that I worked with last year, so hopefully she can get some of her new 6th graders involved with this website again. AND, maybe some...
