BARROW, ALASKA-- One afternoon a young adult female polar bear wandered by the ship. She appeared out of the blowing snow and walked past the stern, fairly close to the ship. An hour later she reappeared and approached the ship... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC POLAR SEA, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- After writing the last dispatch, I had a nearly sleepless night in Barrow because I was so worried about all the details involved with getting all the gear and people onto the ship the next day... {Read More »}

DEADHORSE, ALASKA-- Spring has arrived in this part of the Arctic. In the last ten days, temperatures have risen from -20 to +45 Fahrenheit –… {Read More »}

ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- In this land (Antarctica) and an ocean far away (to most of you), but not long ago (in the past weeks or so), a scenario was played out that in days long past may once have happened, in fact, near by to where you are, but involving penguin cousins... {Read More »}

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- We’ve made three trips, by helicopter, to Beaufort Island this season. Usually we can’t do this until the end of the season, because the McMurdo helos don’t fly over open water and a ship is not available until the end. It’s a 40 minute helo ride and a 6 hour boat ride. This year, though, fast ice extends out to Beaufort... {Read More »}

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA– The major trust of our project is to quantify the vital rates of Adélie Penguins in their changing world, as global climate change proceeds. Vital rates means such things as age of first breeding, proportion of years in which they breed... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA– Recovering a mooring of any significant size essentially amounts to getting it to the surface and picking it up with a ship using a crane... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA– Kate's moorings, like most others, are constructed to be placed on the sea floor at a particular location and depth... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- Now that we are aboard the HEALY and settled in, while we slept a survey was done running roughly offshore of Barrow. The principal work along this leg was mapping of the seafloor bathymetry with the ship’s multibeam acoustic system... {Read More »}

ABOARD THE USCGC HEALY, ON THE BEAUFORT SEA-- One of the things about the sea ice surrounding HEALY that cannot escape your attention is the fact it is neither all white nor flat and level... {Read More »}