Species of Interest in Alaska

Since being back in the lower 48 I've realized one of the most amazing things about my trip to Alaska was the interesting, unique, and even adorable animals I learned and encountered out there. I decided a while ago to share a few favorite species on the blog and I've been collecting amusing stories and facts since then. It's been a fun little project that culminated in a several hour search for the cutest sea otter photo the internet has to offer!

I did get to see these animals in person, but I'm not a national geographic photographer, so I decided to just borrow some photos in an attempt to share with you what things actually look like.

Enjoy!

Yep, pretty much the cutest thing in Alaska.

Sea Otters: One of the coolest things about staring out the windows in Alaska is that eventually a sea otter will swim past you! As one of the first protected animals on the endangered species act, sea otters aren’t too common in most areas, and currently listed as threatened because of population declines on the Aleutians. They’re fairly large (average 5ft long! Thats as tall as me!) , agile and amusing individuals who can commonly be found fighting off seagulls for their lunch, swimming lazily through the bay, and even napping in the kelp! Sea otters can eat just about any sea creature they find but each otter usually has a favorite food, and refuses to eat pretty much anything else. They look just as adorable as you’d expect.

Dawwww, so cute. Not entirely sure its a SEA otter, this guy may be a river otter, but no one cares at this point.



Baby steller sea lions aren't too scary.

Steller Sea Lions: These are no ordinary California sea lions; steller sea lions are HUGE (up to 2,500lbs and over  10ft, as opposed to CA sea lions at a max 1,000lbs) and FEARLESS! Also, they’re always hungry. Sometimes people attempt to feed them by dangling fish over the side of the boat, which is pretty stupid in my opinion, let alone illegal. That sea lion would just as soon take your arm off along with the fish if it gave him a free meal. I’ve heard stories of sea lions jumping out of the water, landing in the trawl alley of a boat, among the deck hands, and ambling its way towards its fish of choice. You might think, “Oh, no worries! He’s going to be slow on deck, you know, not having legs to walk with and all!” WRONG, if you see one on the deck, that’s your queue to get off of the deck.   

Adult steller sea lions, a lot more terrifying.





Not actually a rockfish, still hilarious.

Rockfish: Maybe it’s just because I’m a marine biologist but I think rockfish are pretty cool. There’s probably over a hundred different species found all over the world, and they all go great in fish tacos! Usually in the grocery store they go by the term “snapper” or sometimes “grouper”. Fun fact: Some species of rockfish, like yelloweye, can live for over 130 years! (And it can take over 25 years for them to reach maturity)



Quilback Rockfish, this is what actual rockfish look like.

Sea Stars: Boats sometimes catch invertebrates in their trawls, and I think my favorite one of the bunch is the Basket Sea Star. This guy is related to your classic orange sea star found in tidepools and aquariums alike, but instead of having five set arms, this species 5 main arms branch into a web of tentacles, giving off a pretty alien appearance. Only recently discovered, not much is known about its habits, life cycle or population …  But the basket sea star is cool looking.



Favorite non-edible invertebrate, basket sea star!



Wolf Eel: One of the most terrifying fish that can come up in a trawl in the Aleutian Islands is a wolf eel. They can be eight feet long, have large sharp front teeth and most the time samplers see them they’re still very much alive! Apparently wolf eels are generally friendly to divers; so somewhere between trapping them in a fishing net, and torturing them on deck, they get pissy.

Yeah, wolf eels look majestic here, wait until they're trying to bite your fingers off while you're sampling. 





 

Orcas at dawn, doesn't get more cliche than this.

Orcas : If there’s anything more frightening than facing off with a wolf eel, its definitely facing off with an orca in the water beside you. Orcas are known to follow fishing boats, stealing fish from long lines, peering out of curiosity into the trawl alley and generally playing around, intimidating people, sea lions and fish alike. Don’t get me wrong, I love orcas, it’s the highlight of my day when we see them in the bay. They’re beautiful, photogenic and probably smarter than a good portion of humans. All I’m saying is, I think I’d pick swimming in shark infested waters before I dove into the water with an orca.





Every time I see orcas in Alaska, its obvious by the tall black dorsal fins, they couldn't be any other animal!



But damn are they photogenic!







Information from the book ‘Marine Mammals of Alaska’ by Kate Wynne and ‘Certainly More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast’ by Milton Love



Note: None of these photos are mine, but its what the animals actually look like, my camera just isn't up to par. 









The Do's & Don'ts of Observer Life

Seattle WA ... Yep still here.
27F

So its way too cold for this Southern Californian to venture out any further than the kitchen for tea today; instead, I think I'll spend the afternoon catching you all up on life in Seattle. I have settled into what they call "observer life" quite nicely. Technically I'm a professional - but only in the strictest definition of someone who gets paid to do something, not at all in the showers-goes-to-the-office-wears-business-attire-home-by-five professional sense.

Side Note: One of my favorite marine biologists, Dr. Milton Love, has the best website ever, and I quote, "Dedicated to Good Science and Self Aggrandizement." One of the pages on said website is titled "So You Want To Be A Marine Biologist" It actually gives some very solid advice on the subject. My favorite part is that one of the reasons to be a marine biologist he says is that you can act and dress, pretty much, however you want:

"Marine biologists are almost entirely free of any of those silly restrictions that blight the professional landscape of our fellow proletarians. This is because no one really cares about what we do or what we say. You want to come to work dressed in scabrous khaki shorts and a torn black Sandman shirt? Fine. You want to grow a scruffy beard, get a tattoo of a gooseneck barnacle on your arm or burp at inopportune moments? No problem, just do good work." 

With that said, I give you the Do's and Don'ts of "Observer Life"

Do get a pair of comfy sweatpants you could foreseeably take on the apocalypse in (aka really soft, warm sweats you'd be content to spend the rest of your life in). Bonus points if they have your home state or university on them, mine are stamped with SoCal Surf Club.

Don't go anywhere without your phone while waiting for a boat. The second you put your phone down and leave the apartment your travel manager will call you with an assignment and tickets to a plane that takes off in three hours.

Do take up some sort of addictive habit to kill time. Most choose tobacco of some form, caffeine, or the ever preset lure of bars and night life. I have found that a raging reading addiction can be nearly just as expensive as the rest of these and doesn't upset my stomach like coffee.

Don't go grocery shopping for any more than a couple days in advance. It's a fun game to play, betting your food supply against when you'll fly out. If you buy a week's worth of groceries you're sure to get an assignment for tomorrow, but if you hold off shopping, and eat the lentils/crappy leftovers and other assortments of free items on the shelf you'll be waiting for weeks. Hmm, I guess this is kind of a DO item if you want a boat.

Do leave the apartment! You think you're stir crazy now, just wait till you don't have the option of leaving. Take advantage, learn the neighborhoods, and find some good thai food ... or whatever kind of food you like that they don't have in Dutch Harbor (there's lots).

Don't expect to hold on to any amount of money while waiting in Seattle. When you have literally nothing to be doing its easy to just let cash slip through your fingers, going to lunch, for coffee, the movies or just wandering around the mall, ANYTHING to kill time. I wont even mention attempting to cover your bar tab.

Do attempt to stay active! Its 27 degrees today, colder than the Aleutian Islands. I've given up running or cycling outside and I'm now on a free trial at the local gym (also another addictive habit to kill time). I'm wondering how long I can continue the free trial until they actually make me start paying to go to spin class.

Don't go to spin class every day for a week and expect to walk down stairs like a normal human being.

Do find silly things to brighten your day. Yesterday I went to the dollar store and bought a giant, bright red, fuzzy heart to hang in the bunk house for Valentine's Day. I wonder if it will still be hanging there when I come back in May.

Don't take naps. If you take a nap in the middle of the day you wont be tired by bedtime and you end up staying up late and either going out with everyone else to the clubs or becoming a vampire. Either way your circadian rhythm is one of your last connections to normal society, try to hold onto it as long as possible. (Note: This doesn't apply to life on boats.)

Do stay positive, active and busy -and one day your ship will come in ... literally.

Eat, Sleep and Dream Fisheries

Location: Seattle, WA

Temp: 48F

Commercial fishery observers can be out at sea for a maximum of 90 days, it's in our contract. What they don't tell you is that 90 days of isolation is the point at which all previous studies pretty much agree that you will go crazy; really, actually, clinically insane. So naturally they structure the training course to simulate that. It must be working too, for the past few days I have had some over the top bat-crap-crazy dreams. Compounded by the fact that I hardly ever dream at all, I have been thinking twice about what I eat or read before going to bed. 

The first few dreams were your average-grade odd-balls, like talking to fish, wandering on the beach with nowhere to go, or ending up in the "I'm on a boat" SNL music video. But last night's dream takes the crazy-cake. It started off in Long Beach Harbor with my day camp, (fun fact: I used to direct a day camp!) on the harbor cruise tour boat. It was an enjoyable field trip, until I spotted a very large orca (killer whale) charging right at us. The whale was pissed and coming for us. Obviously everyone looks at me, the marine biologist, to do something ... so I do the first thing that comes to mind,  I jump in the water. Oh yeah, my subconscious is a bad-ass apparently. I swim towards the shore to distract the whale, while hopefully getting help, because dreams contain no logic and no cell phones. I looked back and all the sudden the tour boat is now a sinking school bus! So I sprint back to them. (I wish I could swim in real-life like I swam last night.) I dove down to save the kids from the sinking bus, in the middle of the harbor. The orca, obsessed with the bus, dove down to spoon with it as it sank to the bottom of the harbor, which apparently was several fathoms deep (60-70ft). When I arrived on shore all the kids broke out their lunch pales for snack time. Problem solved. No biggie. And the best part was that I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary until I woke up thinking "Why was there an orca in Long Beach Harbor?" 

When my alarm went off this morning, I leaned over the mattress to turn it off and found my marine mammal interaction reports laying on the floor. I had fallen asleep right after finishing them. I figure at least I'm sleeping well enough to dream, and getting in some good marine mammal identification practice. It's official, I now eat, sleep, and dream fisheries management. 

Merry Christmas, Now Get To The Plane

Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Outside Temp: 73 F
Wind: 5 kts
Swell: 2-3 ft

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was sti- ... oh wait that's me, packing what's left of my life into a large navy blue duffle till midnight on Christmas Eve -and then continuing again early Christmas morning. I've had that Run Run Rudolph song stuck in my head all day. By the time I get to the airport I'm going to look like one of the McCallisters from Home Alone tearing through the airport to get to my plane. Essentially this is in my head right now: 

It has occurred to me that packing everything you need for half of a year into one container is not easy. I am also regretfully aware that I am a chronic over-packer, and this time I have certainly out-done myself! You know you've reached a new level of over-packing if you are vacuum sealing your clothes to save on space. Two points if, after figuring out the vacuum bag life-hack, you laugh maniacally like a mad scientist while shouting "It's working! It's working!!" ... Anyways - On the plus side, I won't worry about my workout for the day, I will have more than enough heavy lifting just getting my bag from the airport shuttle to baggage drop off. I have to carry a duffle because its bad luck to have a suitcase on boats (you can't make up that kind of crazy). So from here on out, no wheels on my luggage all thanks to superstitious fishermen!

I feel like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal applies to not only subatomic particles, but anything I'm attempting to pack at the moment. For example: I can know what I want to pack OR I can know where a particular item is but I can NEVER know where an item is that I want to pack.  

Fun Fact: The Heisenberg Principal states that it is not possible to simultaneously determine the position and momentum of a particle. Moreover, the better position is known, the less well the momentum is known (and vice versa). The principle is sometimes known as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and can be stated exactly as:

Ok, I have approximately five hours to have everything organized and together, so I'll just leave you with Science Cat and note that I wish I traveled like a photon. Oh and I almost forgot, Merry Christmas everyone! Next time I write it will be from Seattle for training!