Tag: Antarctica (Page 1 of 2)

Interviews about Citizen Science in Antarctica and FjordPhyto

April 16, 2021 / Allison Cusick

April is Citizen Science Month!

April 2021 marks an entire month where people around the world are celebrating Citizen Science Month. The citizen science project I co-founded and manage – FjordPhyto – is celebrating too by sharing our work and collaborations occurring in Antarctica between scientists and travelers on tour ships.

Collaborations in this part of the world are incredibly important for increasing our understanding of changes in the polar regions. To get a sense of this importance, my colleague and FjordPhyto scientist Martina Mascioni and social scientist Daniela Cajiao wrote a post about the role of Tour Operators in Polar Research.

I hope you enjoy watching these interviews. I think I’m getting better and better at this each time 😉 Please share the links with a friend, a colleague, your kids, or fellow traveler! I would love to know your thoughts and questions if you want to comment below.

Interview 1 – Viking Cruises TV

Follow an informative conversation focused on citizen science as Dr. Damon Stanwell-Smith, Head of Science and Sustainability for Viking Expeditions, is joined by polar guide Laura Smith and biological oceanographer Allison Cusick. We discuss the role of future expedition voyages, understanding how citizen science contributes to research, what factors make it successful, how guests can participate and why it is relevant to global environmental conservation.

Interview 2 – Hurtigruten Expeditions on SciStarter

SciStarter’s Caroline Nickerson speaks with Tour Operator Hurtigruten Expeditions’ Chief Scientists Dr. Verena Meraldi and citizen science project FjordPhyto co-founder and PhD graduate student Allison Cusick about how Antarctic travelers are contributing to polar research through ship-based citizen science

Interview 3 – Citizen Science Around the World on SciStarter

SciStarter’s Caroline Nickerson leads us around the world speaking to project leaders from Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America (for Antarctica see minutes 17:07 to 25:55)!

How can you get involved:

For projects occurring around your neighborhood, be sure to check out the web-based catalogue of thousands of project at SciStarter.

Whats in a name?

For those of you wondering why there are so many terms for people-powered science – “citizen science” , “community science” , “crowdsource science” – take a look at this blog post and publication in Citizen Science: Theory & Practice on which name to use and why terms matters.

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Women in Polar Tourism

March 7, 2018 / Allison Cusick

The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators–or IAATO–founded in 1991, advocates and promotes the practice of safe and environmentally responsible travel to Antarctica.

I first joined this community in 2017, attending the AECO/IAATO Polar Field Staff Conference to pitch the FjordPhyto Citizen Science project. This group of people amazed me with their strength and camaraderie, and love for not only Antarctica, but all wild places on Earth.

During the week leading up to International Women’s Day (2 – 8 March) IAATO is celebrating Antarctic women who lead by example, are advocates for change and are instrumental in delivering our mission of safe, environmentally responsible polar travel.

I am honored to have been asked to do a Question & Answer session as one of their features on polar scientists involved with tourism.

Check out the full 4-page read here:

Polar women 2018 – Alison Lee

You can follow #polarwomen on Twitter and Instagram and read more amazing profiles from scientists and educators to leaders and conservationists here. Share this:
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Allison Lee: Polar Phytoplankton PhD Student

January 11, 2018 / Allison Cusick

A big thanks to Allison Albritton (formerly Randolph) for the interview on the Ocean Allison podcast before my trip down to Antarctica.

Episode #54, Allison Lee: Phytoplankton PhD Student.

Allison Lee is a biological oceanography PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working to bring phytoplankton research to the world of Citizen Science in the Arctic and the Antarctic. In this episode we discuss her experience working in a lab setting, her inspiring blog ‘Woman Scientist’, her passion for phytoplankton research, and more.

Allison just completed a field season in Antarctica aboard the Hebridean Sky, launching her FjordPhyto Citizen Science project with willing and excited passengers. The beginning of this story was featured in the San Diego Tribune. During the 2017 – 2018 Antarctic summer, citizen scientists from multiple tour ships will be collecting samples which contribute to current climate research.

If you’re interested to learn more about the Citizen Science Project – FjordPhyto – in Antarctica, follow along on the FjordPhyto website, Instagram, and Facebook.

Visit Allison Lee’s website womanscientist.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Allison Albritton is an ocean advocate, herself, sharing stories of positive change for the ocean. If you’d like to learn more about Allison Albritton, read the Woman Scientist interview here. Share this:
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Writing Your Dreams into Realities

September 17, 2017 / Allison Cusick

They say those who write down their goals and dreams have a higher success rate of turning them into realities.

I recently found a very artistic goal book I had made in 2001, sixteen years ago, during my 11th grade English class. Thank you to Mrs. E for giving us time in class to create these visions! Flipping through the pages, I realized that a lot of the goals I had written down, I have now accomplished. You can also tell which song was popular at that time…

“Watch a sunset in Africa.” In 2014, I traveled to South Africa co-leading a group of undergraduate students on a Big Cat Research trip. I made sure to watch every sunrise and every sunset, imprinting the experience in my mind. I was able to travel back to Africa at the end of 2016, this time watching sunsets in Botswana and Zimbabwe (look for future posts to come).

“Swing on a vine in the rainforest.” I have this strange obsession with the rainforest. I’m not sure if it comes from gazing at all the National Geographic magazine spreads of the Amazon canopy, the film documentaries I watched as a kid, or from my visits to the Rainforest Exhibit in the Woodland Park Zoo. I remember the day I arrived in the Amazon and reached the summit of a hike I did near Aguas Calientes in Peru. My heart fluttered as I looked out over the canopy. I’m here! I’m seeing this in real life. I can’t believe it. I’ve been to the Peruvian rainforest a number of times now as a tourist and as a volunteer biologist with Earthwatch and the Tambopata Macaw Project. On a regular basis, I daydream of the soonest time I will be able to return. I find it interesting I’m on the path to becoming a polar oceanographer, because I’ve always had a vision of myself as a rainforest biologist.

“Jump off a tall cliff into water.” Why did I want to jump off a tall cliff?! I have no idea. After college I traveled Europe with my best buddy Kristina Ciari (she hosts an awesome blog called An Adventurous Life and works for The Mountaineers). We did one of those canyoning adventures out of Bern, Switzerland and at one point had to jump off a cliff into a narrow section of the river. Terrifying to say the least. I hesitated before my jump and got reprimanded by the guide. “YOU JUST HAVE TO JUMP!” he said, “Do NOT overthink this. Now, GO!” It really is a life metaphor if you think about it. Years later, she and I visited Smith Rock near Bend, Oregon for a climbing trip and found this beautifully tall cliff. The guide’s words still rang in my ears, “Now, GO!” We all jumped 30 feet down into a wide calm river. Some of us came up with nose bleeds. I luckily did not. But I think I cured my desire for jumping off tall things.

“Scuba dive in exotic waters.” I grew up in Washington’s Puget Sound. A beautiful location for diving. However, scuba is an incredibly expensive hobby and I never found the means to get in to the activity until 2013 when I finally had saved enough cash to get my Open Water Certificate. I spent the next two years working to get certified in Advanced Open Water, then Dry Suit, and Rescue Diver. My progress stalled when it came time to buy my own equipment. I couldn’t pass that next financial hurdle. One day, I was talking to a science colleague while working in the lab, and he said that he got funded to dive during his graduate program. I vowed to myself that if I ever went to graduate school I would find a way to dive for science. When I found out I was going to be attending Scripps Institution of Oceanography for my Master of Advanced Studies degree, I immediately signed up for the Scientific Diving course. I then spent my loan money on nearly $3000 worth (probably more) of gear so that I could be independent of a rental shop whenever I wanted to dive. I have yet to dive in exotic tropical waters, but I did manage to snorkel in the frigid 2°C Silfra fissure of Iceland. Some day I do plan to dive in the polar oceans, namely Antarctica. Because I’ve already written it down, I know it will happen!

“Stay in an igloo at the poles and watch the Aurora Borealis.” Ok, so the igloo part hasn’t happened yet but I have made it near to both poles and seen the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and Aurora Australis (Southern Lights). In 2013, I was sent to Antarctica aboard an icebreaker for a two month research expedition. During one of the nights, we all went on deck to gaze at the Southern Lights. Dazzling ribbons of green, electrifying the sky. The only time I have seen the Northern Lights occurred while I was in Seattle, funnily enough, about 14 years ago. One evening I was driving home from college around midnight and I saw funny clouds moving high in the sky. As I got closer to my house I realized those funny clouds were the Aurora Borealis and I raced inside to wake my parents. They ran out, mom in a nightgown, dad in his flannel pajama set. We all gazed up as the green lights danced above us, flickering, sizzling, then moved out of sight. It was magical. Seeing the full curtain of blues, greens, purples, and pinks — from an igloo — is still on my To-Do List.

“Walk the wall of China.” This still needs to be accomplished! Asia has been a region of the world I haven’t devoted much time. Malaysia was the first international country I visited back at the ripe age of 15. We traveled to Kuala Lumpur and to the small island of Penang. Growing up, our family hosted over 25 Japanese exchange students, so I have every reason to plan a trip to this side of the world.

I knew at a young age I was an adventurer. I have that Wanderlust. That Travel Gene. I have visited 35 countries and all 7 continents. I had no idea at the time of my 11th grade English class assignment, that I would actually end up traveling the world, for curiosity and for science, fulfilling the goals I had written down in that little book.

I’ve been writing goals ever since, many more of which have come true. I have dozens of notebooks and journals scattered about my room.

Apparently, if you just *think* about your goals and dreams, its not enough to make them real. Dreaming and imagination occur in the right hemisphere of the brain. Writing taps into the power of your left hemisphere, or logic-based side of the brain. When you operate the two together, you send your consciousness a signal that says, “I want this, and I mean it!” Throughout time, its as if your subconscious mind then orchestrates those visions into realities.

Seeing this book, and reflecting on the accomplishments I’ve made over the past 16 years, I’m convinced I need to keep writing down those dreams and goals so that some day they become reality!

What are the dreams and goals you have written down wondering if they would ever be achieved? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and following Woman Scientist! As always, feel free to share with a friend or young scientist! Share this:
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Allison Randolph: for the Ocean

May 3, 2017 / Allison Cusick

My friend, Kate Ruck, told me to follow a woman named Ocean Allison on Instagram. “She is doing awesome podcasts about the Ocean, I think you would enjoy!” Of course, I hit ‘Follow’ and started listening. The first podcast I heard highlighted the work of Dr. Greg Rouse from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Dr. Rouse is a marine biologist frequently discovering new deep sea species like bone eating worms, ruby sea dragons, and purple socks (curious? listen to the podcast!)

Allison has gone on to interview 48 and counting, other acclaimed ocean advocates such as: Dr. Wallace J Nichols (author of Blue Mind), Rob Machado (pro-surfer), Pam Longobardi (plastic pollution artist), and Jim Toomey (cartoonist of Sherman’s Lagoon).

With a background in Marine Biology, she now combines her knowledge of ocean science with her skills in communications in order to be a voice for the ocean.

“I consider myself a marine biologist since that’s what my background is in, but in reality I am an ocean science and conservation communicator. I strive to help scientists communicate their important ocean research to the public through education and digital media.” ~ Allison Randolph

Teaching plastic pollution to K-6 students.

While earning her degree at Florida Institute of Technology she worked as a coral reef researcher in a Marine Paleoecology Lab and as an intern with Dr. Andy Nosal at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Allison has also worked as an educator at the Birch Aquarium in San Diego.

After traveling to Antarctica as the Outreach Specialist on a National Science Foundation expedition, Allison began to build her brand as Ocean Allison in order to educate the public on all things ocean via her podcast, social media channels, and educational programs. She is also currently working on a project with the San Diego Natural History Museum, and welcomes every opportunity to communicate ocean science and conservation topics.

Let’s hear more from Allison as she share’s her career journey:

What is your earliest memory of being hooked by science?

My love the ocean started before I can remember. My childhood revolved around the ocean and over time this interest turned into curiosity, but I don’t know if I ever really thought of this ocean exploration as science (even though it was!). Growing up, it seemed to me that science was something you did in school, and this subject always drew me in. I completed my first science fair project in third grade and continued to participate in science fair till my junior year of high school, making it to regional and state fairs several times.

What did you study during undergrad? Did you know what you wanted to study before beginning?

I majored in Marine Biology at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) during my undergraduate degree. A big reason I chose FIT was because they have a great marine bio program, and this proved to definitely be true. Apparently, I knew I wanted to study marine biology as early as 1st grade. Six year old me used to go around saying, “I either want to be a chiropractor or a marine biologist”.

What was your first science-related job?

My first science-related job where I got paid was in the Marine Paleoecology Lab at Florida Tech during my undergrad degree. I was a student worker in the lab for three and a half years, helping to analyze climatic variability and upwelling regimes in coral reef cores from Pacific Panama, dating back to about 6,000 years before present.

My first unpaid science-related job was as an intern with Dr. Andy Nosal at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studying the biology and ecology of a large seasonal aggregation of leopard sharks in Southern California.

Shark survey cruise with NOAA SWFSC in Channel Islands.

What are your thoughts on getting a higher degree?

Thus far, I have not chosen to earn a higher degree. While I don’t rule it out, I have found that I see more opportunity in forging my own path rather than continuing on in academia.

Additionally, since a main focus of mine is science communication, it is actually important for me to be outside of academia so that I can see the big picture and relate to the public; while still of course maintaining a professional relationship with colleagues doing research at universities.

Did you have any preconceived notions about science, or scientists, and did that change once you explored your career in science?

Before entering college I thought that marine scientists spent majority of their time out in the field, researching their subject. After working in a lab and doing an internship in the field, it became clear to me that grad students and scientists were spending majority of the year analyzing data and writing papers and grants in the lab, with only a few weeks, to maybe a few months each year spent in the field collecting data.

Scientists are dedicated researchers that put in long hours to make sure that the results they present to the world are accurate and peer-reviewed. This both impressed me, and also made me realize, maybe my interests will steer me in a slightly different direction.

Has your work allowed you to travel? If so, where have you gone and what were you doing there?

Through my work I’ve had the opportunity to travel to some truly incredible places around the world.

As an undergraduate I traveled to Indonesia for a research internship with Operation Wallacea. There I spent 6 weeks living on a remote island, diving twice a day, helping graduate students collect field data on various coral reef related research projects.

In 2015, I traveled to Chile and Antarctica as the Outreach Specialist on a National Science Foundation research expedition studying how climate change is effecting the ecology of Antarctic deep seafloor organisms. I wrote blogs, formed relationships with K-12 students, posted on social media, and produced a short documentary film about the expedition and it’s science.

A few months ago, I attended the BLUE Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Summit in Monaco where my film, Antarctic SeaScience Expedition, was awarded Honorable Mention.

I had the opportunity to meet some incredibly inspiring ocean filmmakers, conservationists, and scientists all working to create positive change for the ocean and the planet.

Over the last several years, my work has brought me to San Diego and surrounding areas in Southern California. I have worked on leopard shark research projects in La Jolla and on Catalina Island with scientists from Scripps, I have surveyed shark populations in Southern California waters with NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, I have worked at Birch Aquarium as an informal marine science educator, and continue to work on a comparative fish skeleton collection project with the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Could you expand more on your experiences working in different sectors?

While I’ve had experience working in all of these sectors, some of which I personally preferred more than others, I am now working to bring them all together and highlight the positive characteristics of each. Regardless of what sector I want to work in, I find all of these (and more) vital and important entities in the world.

Through my podcast, Ocean Allison, I highlight individuals from any and all business sectors that are creating positive change for the ocean. In this way I am uniting people from all areas that are maintaining a common goal, just going about it in all different ways. You can listen to weekly episodes of my podcast by searching Ocean Allison on Soundcloud, Google Play, iPhone Podcast App and oceanallison.com.

Have you experienced any big compromises or struggles making a career in the sciences?

One of the biggest obstacles I came across when pursuing a career in science was when I realized that much of what science uncovers remains only within the scientific community.

What keeps you motivated when you’re feeling the drudgery? What keeps science FUN for you?

Earth is Blue! The ocean is the driver of our planet. Life came from the ocean. Our climate system is controlled by the ocean. Majority of our oxygen comes from the ocean. 99% of Earth’s biomass is in the ocean. It’s what makes our dot in the solar system unique. We need the ocean. We have abused it. And now, in order to help ourselves, we need to help the ocean.

Remembering all of the above, keeps me motivated everyday. These are the fundamental truths that inspire me to do science, to communicate science, to educate, and to document. Not to mention getting out in the water and enjoying all that the ocean has to offer, like SCUBA diving, snorkeling, surfing, swimming, and boating!

Snorkeling in the Bahamas.

Was there any one person that inspired you?

In terms of ocean curiosity and exploration, my parents were definitely my biggest inspiration growing up. They facilitated my ocean experiences and always were teaching me about ocean animals and ocean dynamics.

In school, my middle school science teacher Simone Flood was a huge inspiration. She really invested time into her students, forming a close bond with us. This allowed for more authentic teaching and for me, I really opened up to how fun, interesting, and diverse science really is.

What are some inspirational materials you’ve used along the way?

Racing Extinction is an incredibly motivating film that I hope opens people’s minds to changing their actions for the preservation of our planet.

Mission Blue, a film documenting Sylvia Earle and all of her incredible accomplishments is also incredibly inspiring.

The most inspiring thing of all is to immerse yourself in nature. When studying the natural world, I’ve found this to be the best way to gain fresh perspective and increase appreciation for what you’re dedicating so much time to.

When I met Sylvia Earle at BLUE Ocean Film Fest in Monaco.

What are some key points you wish you knew or that you remind yourself of during your science career journey?

No matter how groundbreaking or important your scientific findings are, in order to create change for this planet they have to be communicated to a large and varied audience. If there is no communication, the significance of and interest in science decreases.

Also, always keeping in mind and promoting this quote has helped me greatly: “We are not apart from nature, we are a part of nature.” -Prince Ea

What is your big dream?

My big dream is that we will protect and preserve the ocean so that it is as healthy and thriving as possible. The ocean drives our entire planet — getting humans to recognize the ocean’s vitality and make change to effectively protect our waters is my ultimate goal.

Through my career I strive to educate others about that vitality of the ocean, since we can only care about what we understand. Once people understand they will care, and once they care we can work to protect our oceans the way they need to be protected.

Tidepool Guide for Birch Aquarium

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To see more photos of Allison’s adventures, check out the Feature Photo Album on Woman Scientist Facebook Page. Like it and share!

Thank you so much for the interview Allison!

For more on Allison Randolph, visit allisonrandolph.com

To see all of her ocean adventures, learn about marine species, and find ways you can help preserve our planet’s blue lifeblood, follow her on social media @ocean_allison on Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook.

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Want more interviews? We will post interviews with a new feature Woman Scientist every week. In the mean time, you can read from more inspirational women here.

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When I Stopped Chasing The Dream Job, I Discovered My Dream Career

May 20, 2016 / Allison Cusick

Re-posting an article I wrote for National Girls Collaborative Project, because I’ve added fun links in this version! You can read the original article published on National Girls Collaborative Project Blog (submitted by Greta Carlson on April 29, 2016 – 2:20 pm)

Contributed by Allison Lee

Growing up I never had a clear picture of what I wanted to become. Inspecting insects, creating mud-pies and gazing at the stars were childhood past times and as I grew into a teenager I embraced traveling and learning more about nature. I didn’t immediately connect all of these interests with becoming a scientist. My parents were not scientists. No one in my family had degrees beyond a high school diploma. I remember wondering if I even needed to go to college. I spent years frustrated by my lack of vision; finding the dream job I felt contained all of my passions was a struggle.

By the time I turned 30, I had traveled to all seven continents as a Biologist studying a diversity of lifeforms from microscopic algae, to songbirds, parrots, mice, squirrels, big cats, and whales. Obviously I figured something out! Life is funny that way. A hunch paired with the right blend of curiosity, odd jobs, research-focused vacations, volunteer opportunities, frugal living, and luck delivered me to my dream career.

Finding my passion
In my high school senior yearbook I wrote that I wanted to be an astronaut. I thought astronauts traveled the most of anyone on Earth. Inspired, I researched the degrees earned by NASA’s astronauts and found an overwhelming proportion had studied science. I decided to major in biology and geology at the University of Washington. It wasn’t until sophomore year when I had the epiphany that biology was my passion.

The scope of biology is broad and I wanted to learn as many disciplines as possible. Senior year, I signed up for an internship in neuroscience at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and found a part-time lab job in the Immunology Department taking care of a mouse colony. I started learning molecular techniques and computer programs, using fancy pieces of equipment, and doing those things called PCRs and Southern Blots. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on – but I was doing SCIENCE!

Questioning my interests
After I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Biology, I continued to work full time in the immunology lab. Two and a half years passed. Restlessness set in and I began to wonder if maybe I just didn’t like science anymore. I knew one next possible move was to go to graduate school, like many of my college peers, but I didn’t know what I wanted to commit to studying. I wasn’t inspired by my neurobiology or immunology experiences. I hated doing computer work. I felt stuck. So I did the thing you’re never supposed to do: I quit.

The next two months were spent feverishly searching job boards, institute websites, and email listservs. Because of my interest in many aspects of biology, I didn’t know where to focus my efforts. Regardless, I felt optimistic that my Dream Job was out there. A job posting for a field technician conducting songbird research caught my eye. I didn’t know much about birds, but I convinced the interviewer I could learn bird songs because I learned other languages easily and had been playing music for 15 years. It worked! Every morning I woke at 4:00 AM to get to the field site before the sun rose. I got paid to be outside tromping through the woods looking for birds. It was during these quiet twilight mornings, outside in nature, that I realized THIS was my dream job. I never wanted it to end.

But, as is the nature of seasonal fieldwork, it did. Five months later, I found myself once again unemployed. Turns out, seasonal work is the usual for field technicians. I knew that field biology wouldn’t be the most lucrative career choice, but I felt empowered to commit myself to studying the environment – whether I got paid for it or not.

The sacrifices
I went on a quest to find as many wildlife jobs as I could. Later that year, I studied forest fire treatments on threatened squirrel populations; I studied the breeding behaviors of endangered parrots in Mexico. Each time, the pay was minimal to none, so I worked side-gigs as a professional baker and bartender to pay my bills. While I was happy to gallivant around the woods for science, working for free wasn’t exactly the dream job I had in mind. I was turning into a poor disgruntled vagabond.

In an effort to gain a sustainable salary, I left fieldwork and went back into the lab to begin a project at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) investigating the genetic responses of algae to climate change and ocean acidification. I knew nothing about marine systems but I had skills in the lab and stellar references. Part of me thought leaving the field was a mistake but as I gained exposure to the natural world within a molecular science framework, I saw the impact of a systems approach to research and I was hooked. I still missed going out into nature every day, but I kept an open mind and a positive attitude.

Over six years have passed since I went back into the lab and the job has given me more opportunities than I could have imagined. What started off as a lab job performing controlled experiments on algae has evolved into a field job sampling algae from the natural environment. This work has led me all over the Puget Sound area of Washington, as well as to Hawaii, and even as far as Antarctica!

The best of both worlds
As a field scientist working indoors, I still daydreamed about the rainforests. On the weekends, I’d flee to the mountains. With a bit of money saved up, I decided to satisfy my restless soul. I used my vacations to help conduct research on voluntourism projects, like Earthwatch. From aboard a restored rubber boom era steamship, I spent three weeks studying biodiversity in the Amazon jungle. I realized I could save my money, use my vacation time to get out in the field, and still have a paying job in science. It was the best of both worlds!

The plan is working. I’ve volunteered on projects studying macaws with Tambopata Research Center in Peru, biodiversity in the Amazon, big cats in Africa, and whales in Mexico. I love volunteering so much I do it at home too, giving time to local conservation organizations like Conservation Northwest. We work to mitigate human wildlife conflicts in the migration corridors of the Cascades. I also get kids outdoors with the Sierra Club, and spend time with kids through Ocean Inquiry Project, the Woodland Park Zoo, and Pacific Science Center. I speak about careers in environmental science with students to convey my passion for nature and inspire another generation to care about protecting the biodiversity on Earth.

What’s in a dream?
I’ve come to believe the dream job doesn’t exist for me, and I don’t think it’s beneficial to maintain that perspective. I have too many passions – too much wonder for the potential of science in the world. I find fulfillment in contributing to important work for the environment and interacting with innovative collaborative thinkers. I benefit from an extremely flexible schedule, live in the city, and travel to amazing places through work. And I’ve been lucky to have many other amazing experiences volunteering with local and international conservation organizations. I am continually seeking as many opportunities as I can find, but this time things are different; I’m no longer looking for the Dream Job, I am creating the Dream Career.

Allison Lee is a Seattle native who loves coffee, talking to people, and learning new things. When she’s not doing science you can catch her ultra-running, cycling, hiking in nature, traveling, and burning the candle at both ends. At age 32, she has finally realized the differences between working a job and building a career. This summer she will begin a Masters degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego California with the hopes of following another curiosity: the social, economic and policy side of marine science. You can follow her and see examples of other inspirational women working in the field at Woman Scientist on Instagram, Facebook, and the Web.

**UPDATE** (April 2018): Allison graduated with her Master’s degree June 2017 and shortly after received funding from the National Science Foundation to support the Capstone project she created with Dr. Maria Vernet (watch the video here). Allison is now in the Biological Oceanography PhD program with Dr. Vernet at Scripps Institution of Oceanography leading the FjordPhyto citizen science project with tourists in Antarctica and the Arctic. She also works part time as a Senior Research Associate at Synthetic Genomics (Target CW) to advance breakthroughs in algal biofuel research. Share this:
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Seal Blubber and Holiday Runs | Field Diaries – Weddell Seal Team

March 11, 2016 / Allison Cusick

The seventh and final post in the Antarctica: Weddell Seal Team series comes to us from Erika Nunlist.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first post in this series for more background on the project and the team. You can also read the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th posts if you missed them.

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 1 day left to reach their goal!

Ice Livin’

December 6, 2015

As always, work and life down here has been fun filled and fast paced. We had a great Thanksgiving – McMurdo did some fine cooking. I was just as uncomfortably full as ever. I unfortunately do not have any pictures of the meal, but I do have pictures of the Turkey Trot we did earlier in the day!

The Turkey Trot. There were around maybe 100 people that ran it, many of which were dressed up in fun outfits. These pictures are all from a guy name Greg Stone in McMurdo who I actually don’t know but he shared his pictures with everyone in McMurdo. This is a shot of people about a quarter mile from the start.

I think this may be one of the best shots, also by Greg Stone. There were more than one penguin outfits running that day.

Eric and Ross at the finish line. Photo by Greg Stone again.

We only have a handful of days left here in Antarctica and times flyin’. This is one of my favorite ‘working’ photos to date. Terrill and Kaitlin near the end of a work day– I think there was an Adelie that Kaitlin was taking pictures of. My pictures of the Adelie weren’t nearly as good as this one.

After realizing that we have so little time left I have made an effort to take a few more photos of the seals. This is from one evening in the colony just behind camp. This pup is just yawning but he looks pretty fierce!

A sleeping mom. She didn’t give two hoots that I was around taking pictures, obviously.

An adult seal coming up for a breath and thinking about coming out of the water.

Seal pups are little punks. They’re very curious and playful. I find it hilarious watching them entertain themselves and bug their moms. I’ve seen many pups just crawling all over their mom while the mom is trying to sleep. This guy was picking up snow and rolling around with it, dropping it, picking it up again, seemingly very entertained by the snow piece. On another note, apparently seals will eat snow when it is ‘hot’ outside to cool themselves down. With it being up to around 35 degrees in the last couple days, I have definitely witnessed this. I wonder just how much a little bit of snow can cool off such a big mammal though.

With work slowing down a little bit we’ve had time for some sight-seeing. A couple days ago we went to a hut at Cape Evans used for some of the early expeditions of Antarctica.

This hut was built during Robert Scott’s expedition of 1910-1913. It was later used by Ernest Shackelton’s expedition in 1915. During this expedition, their ship the Aurora broke away from its anchor (above) stranding 10 men from the party at this hut for 20 months. Luckily, the hut was well provisioned and the men were eventually rescued. When they were rescued, they left in a hurry. The hut is very well preserved. Touring around the hut is almost eerie with all the objects, pictures, and personal items strewn everywhere as if the men were still living there.

Shovels in the “mud room” of the hut. The handles all looked hand-made and well used.

A big stack of seal blubber. They used blubber as fuel for their stoves. Didn’t really smell even though you might think nearly 100 year old seal blubber might stink.

Wheel barrow out in the horse stalls added to the original hut. Yes, they brought horses to Antarctica in one of the early expeditions. I don’t think it worked out too great for the horses.

Apparently they had some time for bicycling? I can say I would be terrified to ride this bike around on the ice down here.

The kitchen. Lots of jars and utensils. They definitely weren’t roughing it. Actually, what I was most surprised with about this hut was how much stuff there was. There had to be hundreds of jars and trinkets. Every corner was riddled with interesting objects.

A note written on the side of R.W. Richards bed. If you can’t read the picture, it says “August 14, 1918, Losses to date: Haywood, Mack, Smith, and Shih” (I can’t really read the last name in the list)

Dead, mummified seal outside the hut.

Cross with Erebus in the background. I’m sure many of the men stranded at this hut for those 20 months did a lot of praying.

We’ve also had the chance to go to the ice edge for some wildlife viewing. Terrill taking pictures with some curious Adelies checking him out.

Rafted ice just beyond the ice edge. I do not know the name of the hill feature in the background. You can tell it was a beautiful day though. The open water in the picture is where penguins have been poking their heads up and swimming around.

Adelies are funny penguins. They act like little grouchy busy-bodies. Very fun to watch.

Close up head shot of an Adelie.

Our camp is being pulled in a day. We will live in McMurdo for the remainder of our time here (we leave on the 14th!). Here’s a couple more photos of camp life before we leave. Toasting bagels in the morning. I had never seen this type of toaster before. It works great!

The variety of shoes we see around camp. Chacos, down booties, and Sorell boots. I usually wear tennis shoes or Haflinger clogs.

Mike’s Chacos have recently been the most appropriate footwear. Around all the doors to our huts where dirt has accumulated the ice has started melting. There are puddles one to two feet deep. This is Mike probing the ice around the step to see where he can safely go for a dry step.

Most of our gear is pretty great, and we make do even when it isn’t. Kaitlin has had to hold her pants up with a carabiner all season. Kind of funny, I’m sure next year she’ll make sure the zippers work on her snow pants! 

Well that’s all I have for this update! Hope you enjoyed! Share these with whoever might be interested and email me if you want my past and/or upcoming updates!

-Erika

This wraps up our first series for Field Diaries – Reflections of Life in the Field.

The inspiration for these series comes from the idea that field diaries, or subjective reflections, are just as informative and useful as objective research field notes and serve as an important avenue in outreach connecting scientists and science to the public.

Please share if you were inspired and thanks for reading! Share this:
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Its an Ice Life |Field Diaries – Weddell Seal Team

March 7, 2016 / Allison Cusick

The sixth post in the Antarctica: Weddell Seal Team series comes to us from Erika Nunlist.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first post in this series for more background on the project and the team. You can also read the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th posts if you missed them.

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 4 days left to reach their goal!

The Ice life

November 25, 2015

Life and work are still moving right along down here on the ice. We only have about three weeks left which seems absolutely crazy. I can’t believe it’s been going so fast!

First off, I had a question from someone asking ‘what is the overall objective of this project and how is it going?’ I’ve been caught up in the day-to-day activities so maybe I should take a step back for a second and briefly say a little more about the project as a whole.

The overall objective of this project is to study the long term population trends of Weddell seals. This project has been going on since the 1960’s which presents a unique opportunity to look at multi-generational data on a population of large mammalian carnivores. The oldest seal the project has had so far was 31! She was here last year but didn’t return. I believe the project has documented her with 23 pups, some of which have already had their own pups. She had her first pup in 1990, and only took 1993, 2010 and 2011 from having pups. This is an extreme case though and most of our pup moms are between 10 and 18 years old with many fewer pups to their name. Just an interesting history on an individual to help give you a sense of the information we can get out of the data this project collects!

Our short term or seasonal objective is to work hard, document all the animals in our study area, tag all the pups, and stay happy and healthy!

As our pups get older, they start to molt their ‘lanugo’ fur in favor of their adult pelage. They can have some interesting and comical molt patterns. This guy with his mohawk reminds of some kid out of an inner city punk rock band.

Another photo of the same pup with his mom. Notice her red tags and his yellow temp tag and blue normal tags. Both their tags allow us to document their association. You can also see the pup’s splotchy molting pattern again.

One thing I was surprised with was that the seals have claws. They aren’t very sharp and kind of look like dog claws. What I’ve seen the claws used for is traction on ice and scratching themselves. The molting pups especially scratch themselves a lot. Must be pretty itchy molting all that fur!

I’ve been up in a helicopter two more times recently. Both were attempts to get to an isolated seal colony. One of the flights was abandoned because there was too much wind at our destination, the second attempt was successful. More on that later. Our first flight was commissioned out to the New Zealand base, or the kiwis. This is a photo of the kiwi AStar-B2 helicopter picking us up at our camp.

We had to bail on our first flight out to White Island, where the remote seal colony is, but we did a reconnaissance flight instead. This is a shot of the kiwi base as we flew over. McMurdo is just on the other side of the wind turbines you can see in the top right.

Sea ice and multi-year ice can be under a lot of pressure and can have some interesting shapes. This is actually a picture of ice on the ice shelf (which is a floating glacier – very different from sea ice) under pressure just outside Scott Base in the shape of large ‘rollers’. I think they look like something you might see in a desert but formed entirely differently.

A view from the helicopter of one of our larger colonies at Hutton Cliffs. We had a lot of pups born here this year. Every other day we walk the entire colony and check every individual. This photo covers around a mile left to right.

Another aerial view of one of our colonies – this one is called North Base.

Mike and I in the kiwi helicopter.

On our second attempt to White Island, we had a AStar-B2 helicopter out of McMurdo. You can see John, our pilot, enjoying himself. Often the pilots just fly and don’t get the opportunity to get out and walk around. He went with us to check out the seals. This picture also shows Mike and Terril putting our gear in the carrying cage.

White Island is unique and very interesting for multiple reasons. First off, it is the most southern mammalian resident population in the world. It is also an isolated population very few individuals – last year our project saw less then 20 seals. This small population was isolated due to an event in the middle of the last century when the ice shelf broke out unusually far allowing a small subset of the seals to be trapped afterwards. The seals themselves didn’t seem to different to me, but apparently (and obviously) they are very inbred. One interesting side-effect apparently might be more female pups born than usual. No clue as to why, but an interesting observation non-the-less.

I’ve had some questions on the weather we experience down here. I have to say, it really hasn’t been that bad. We had some colder, windier days to start the season off but since then we’ve had a lot of beautiful days. Recently, the temperature has been steadily climbing. Lately it’s been in the low 20’s which is warmer than places in the states! James told me it was around -10 degrees F in couple nights ago in the Centennial Valley which was about 30 degrees colder than it was here when we were talking. This is a photo of one day that the weather wasn’t good enough to work in. It was snowy, windy, and low visibility.

Later that same day we hadn’t been able to work, it cleared up into beautiful day. Sound like a familiar weather pattern for any of you living in Montana? We didn’t end up working that day even when it did clear up so we had some free time. Running is another thing that some of us do when we have the energy and time. This is a photo of Kaitlin running back from Little Razorback – around 1.2 miles from camp. Each of those bamboo flags are 50 meters apart for some depth perception. There’s also another out and back that adds up to 3 miles round trip. If you add both out-and-backs you have a nice 5+ mile run.

Terrill and Kaitlin ‘hi-fiving’ in front of camp. They both did the same run but in different directions. Good way to blow off some steam and enjoy Antarctica when you’re not working! Our crew plans on doing the Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving in a few days, excited for that!

We routinely drive our sleds around on rough terrain. Because of this, we have had multiple sleds break down on us. Mostly its our suspension systems breaking because of all the ‘streugy’ (rough icy molgul features on the ice) we drive over. When a sled does break, it’s a pretty painless routine. We put the sled on one of our siglands and tow it with another sled back to McMurdo. In McMurdo we have great mechanics that seem to be able to fix anything. Usually we’ll have our sleds back in a day or two depending on their work load. These are pictures of one of the broken down sled scenario.

Mike getting the gear together in the morning.

Eric on a survey of another colony we call South Base.

Blueberry peach pie from scratch with our event number. Pretty tasty!

No rolling pins around here, had to make due with a Coors Light can. Worked out great! Photo by Ross.

Our first adelie penguin! We haven’t had any more emperors lately, but we have had loner adelies run through camp, yes literally run. They are just as curious as the emperors but less comfortable hanging around.

One afternoon when we finished work early we went to check out a snow cave about 10 minutes away from camp. Here’s Ross with sunglasses and a headlamp – an unusual combination around here!

Mike entering the snow cave.

Inside the snow cave. Photo by Ross.

Icicles in the snow cave.

B-009. First time fooling around with light painting. Cursive by Kaitlin with a headlamp!

Kaitlin and Mike in another, shallower, snow cave (thus the brighter blue background).

Looking up into a crevasse. So beautiful!

Hope everyone enjoyed the update!

-Erika

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for the seventh and last post in the series, coming tomorrow!

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 4 days left to reach their goal! Share this:
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A Typical Weddell Work Day in Antarctica |Field Diaries – Weddell Seal Team

March 5, 2016 / Allison Cusick

The fifth post in the Antarctica: Weddell Seal Team series comes to us from Erika Nunlist.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first post in this series for more background on the project and the team. You can also read the 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts if you missed them.

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 5 days left to reach their goal!

A typical work day

9 November 2015

The last couple weeks have been very busy, very awesome, and very fun! We had our two PI’s, Bob Garrott and Jay Rotella join us for the last 16 days. They are both professors and Montana State University and have been running this project for the last 15 years. While they were here, they worked every day out in the field with us and helped us set a new record on the number of pups tagged in the study area! We’ve now tagged around 630 pups with a few (maybe 10-20) to go. The most we tagged in a day was around 60 I believe.

While they were here, we also did our first survey of the entire study area. Our work so far has been focused on the main colonies where we know the majority of pups are born. The purpose of a survey day is to see where else the seals are in the study area and capture the distribution of the animals we generally aren’t as focused on (i.e. the single males and females). To do a survey, we drive around and make a note of every seal we see in the entire study area which has come to about 1500 animals this year (this number will continue to increase throughout the season).

I know many people are interested in exactly what we’ve been doing on a daily basis for work. So for this update I’m going to detail, step by step, a typical day as best I can. I must admit, I haven’t been great about pictures so many of the work photos in particular were taken by Ross Hinderer. Thanks Ross!

Our day begins in the gear hut where we keep and dry out all our seal covered gear.

Every morning we have to pack up our tools and organize them in our tagging harnesses. In each tagging harness we have two tagging pliers, a pair of nippers, a genetic sampler, a hole punch, a third tagging plier, and a brush. We also have our data book, field computer, several strands of tags, and vials to hold our genetic samples.

Tools in the tagging harness. One person will often wear this all day and have easy access to the tools.

In a separate pack we also pack materials to weigh our pups. This includes a scale and weigh bag (specialized duffel bag designed by Bob) which come in three sizes to use as the pups grow. The scale connects to the weigh bar and also to the weigh bag. Two people then stand on opposite sides of the bar and lift the pup together. We weigh pups at parturition, 20 days old, and 35 days old. Pups are born at about 60-80 pounds and can gain 2-6 pounds a day. We’ve started weighing 20 day old pups recently and they seem to average around 140-170 pounds. The heaviest 20 day pup so far has been 208 pounds. Building some good leg muscles! Can’t wait for those 35-dayers!

Additional gear we bring each day is photo bars (I’ll explain later), lunch stuff (ramen, hot water, cocoa, tea, etc.), a handful of flags, and survival bags (the red water proof bag – mandatory to have enough survival gear for each person).

When we’ve gotten all our gear together in the huts, we have to uncover our sleds, load all the gear onto the sleds, start our sleds, gear ourselves up, put on helmets and finally take off. Writing it all out makes me realize actually how much work we have to do every morning before actually going to work. With our whole crew working on it though, it really goes pretty quickly. This is a photo of penguins hanging out watching us get ready one morning. There were completely unaffected by all the hustle and bustle.

Once we get to a colony, we usually split up into groups and start working up the colony. Each group usually has their own set of tagging, weighing, and photo gear. We then go to every seal in the colony to check if there’s a pup that needs tagging or weighing. This is the normal looking scene at one of our colonies. You can see about how seals are distributed throughout the colony and another group working up seals in the background. These seals are all here because of sea ice cracks that allow them to get in and out of the water from holes they rake out with their teeth. Most of these cracks are very obvious and easy to cross but if they aren’t we have probing poles we take with us to help navigate.

Exploring part of our study area with the probing poles. This is an area with many cracks covered in snow that we don’t go to often because there really aren’t more than a handful of seals.

When we do find a mom and newborn pup it looks something like this. In this picture, Mike and I had walked up to this mom and pup pair, noticed the pup did not have tags yet so we copied down the mom’s tags and retreated to get the tagging stuff ready. At this point, we prepare two sets of tags (one pair for each flipper), write down the mom and pup information in our book, and get the weighing stuff ready. An important note, not every single of the 600-odd pups this year were weighed. That would be a ton of work. Instead, we enrolled certain pups in this particular part of the study depending on the mom’s age and history in the project. In the end, we enrolled about 180 pups in the weigh study each of which will ideally be weighed three times. Most of those pups were also enrolled in the swim study which just means we’ll take the temp tag (also explained later) off of them when we’ve weighed them for the last time. Photo by Ross.

A closer view of me writing down information in the tagging book. I’ve gotten pretty good at writing with gloves on! It’s not easy and my writing I fear is not always 100% legible. On warmer days I wear thinner gloves which makes it a little easier to write. As for entering the data into the computer, we use the butt end of a pencil which works great. After recording the necessary info, we walk up to the seal pup and tag, weigh, sex, and genetic sample the pup. There are several ways to do this and it often depends on the temperament of the mom. Some mom’s really don’t care about your presence and a single person can go up and tag the seal pup all by themselves. Other times the mom really does care and can be quite aggressive. In these instances, two or three people work together to get the pup tagged. One person tags while the other two either help drag the seal pup a short distance away or distract mom or both. Photo by Ross.

An example of a very peaceful mom and pup pair.

We always tag the outer webs on each flipper and the end product looks something like this. Sometimes we also will put a temporary third temperature recording tag in one of the inner webs. Next photo.

We call the temperature recoding tags ‘temp tags.’ The pups will wear them for about 35 days before we take them off again. The idea behind these tags is that air temperature and water temperature are different so by looking at the temperature record logged in these small devices, you can see that difference and figure out how much time pups spend in the water.

In this photo, you can kind of see the two blue normal tags and the yellow temp tag. This is a fun photo because it’s a pup that has actually been swimming. You can tell it’s freshly wet and the mom is still in the water. Photo by Ross.

Beside weighing and tagging, the last integral part of our day to day work is doing photo projects on moms with pups that we’ve chosen to weigh. A photo project entails setting up six bars (like I’m doing in the photo) evenly around the seal mom and taking photos from 8 different angles with the seal and bars in the frame. The photos are then put into a program (by Kaitlin) that can calculate the volume of the seal by referencing the bars (which are a meter long and different colors every 20 cm) and then the weight can be derived using a standard density. This may sound easy enough to do, but it is one of the hardest parts of the job. We have to make sure the seal mom stays still (very hard when she wants to watch you) and take good photos with cold hands, blowing winds, a moving pup, etc. It’s not thaaatttt hard but can be very frustrating. Photo by Ross.

So why do a photo project? This is a relatively new aspect of the project and it’s an attempt to get at how much these mom’s weigh without actually having to weigh them on a scale. We do have a weigh sled (photo) that we can weigh mom’s on, but it can’t go to all our colonies (because of rough ice) and mom’s are often very hard to coax onto the sled (we use their pups at motivation to get on the sled). We did weigh about 30 moms on the sled this year, but we got maybe 70 photo projects. So if the photo projects do work, you can see just in numbers that it would be potentially a better option. Of the mom’s we got on the sled, weights ranged from roughly 900-1100 pounds.

At the end of each day, we refuel our sleds, unpack all our gear, and cover our sleds. We fuel our sleds with a premixed fuel that is 50 gallons of gas and 5 gallons of oil per barrel. Antarctica primarily runs on fuel (some solar too) but if you calculate in the amount of effort and resources it takes to get the fuel here, fuel works out to be about $34.00 a gallon. We go through a barrel about every 5 days.

And that’s it for this this update. I have another one coming very shortly because I actually split this one in half. Hope you enjoyed and hopefully it wasn’t too much writing. The next one will be many more pictures and a lot less writing… I think.

Again, feel free to share with others and send me an email if you want me to add you to my list.

-Erika

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for the sixth post in the series, coming tomorrow!

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 5 days left to reach their goal! Share this:
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Camp Life in Antarctica| Field Diaries – Weddell Seal Team

March 4, 2016 / Allison Cusick

The fourth post in the Antarctica: Weddell Seal Team series comes to us from Erika Nunlist.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first post in this series for more background on the project and the team. You can also read the 2nd and 3rd posts if you missed them.

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 7 days left to reach their goal!

B-009, Permit number: 2013-007, NSF, Antarctica

Settling In

October 26, 2015

We’ve been very busy the last couple weeks settling into camp and field work. Sorry to keep people waiting for this update! A lot has happened over the last weeks so hopefully my pictures and comments will highlight some of it for you.

Our camp and snowmobiles in some nice evening light. The dark feature in the back is called Big Razorback, it’s an island and part of the Dellbridge Islands in McMurdo Sound that make up a caldera from a historical volcanic explosion. I have a map later and will elaborate on the geography, etc.

I’m sure people are curious about what and how we eat down here. For the most part we eat very normally besides having fresh fruit or vegetables. We cook on two Coleman, two burner stoves or the grill. Breakfast for me is usually yogurt and granola or toast. Lunch is usually a brownie and a bumper bar – a bumper bar is kind of like a cliff bar but way better. We also don’t have any fresh dairy products (except for cheese and butter) so the yogurt is actually a powdered greek yogurt that you mix with water and let sit for about 8 hours. It’s pretty good and I have to admit, I didn’t even know powdered yogurt existed! The picture above is of steaks thawing out on our wash water. The two drums are sitting on our propane heater because the source of this water is actually an ice burg about a half mile from camp. We’re constantly adding ice to these drums, letting in melt, using it, and repeat. Pretty good system!

Below is a picture of Terrill grilling steaks on our camp grill. Apparently this is one of the only field issued grills in Antarctica. It works great and is awesome to have! We’ve cooked everything from chorizo sausage, to pork loins, to halibut, to chicken, and steak on the grill so far.

Collecting ice burg chunks for our wash water with ice axes, our siglin sled, and skidoos. This much ice will probably last us a little more than a week. Mike, Eric, and Me from left. Photo by Ross.

A big part of our initial work was flagging roads to our seal colonies. We flag them not only to navigate the cracks around here safely but also in case of ground blizzards. We drill holes in the ice (me on the left) every 50 meters and then stick a bamboo rod with a flag on the end in the hole (Mike on the right). The worst weather I’ve been out in so far was up against Mt. Erebus (the big one by Mike’s flag) where we could barely see the next flag. At some points we’d have to stop and wait to see the next flag and then quickly gun it to the flag before stopping and waiting until we saw the next one. Photo by Ross.

This is where I sleep. There are two sleeping huts at camp. This one has three beds and the other one has four. I share this hut with Katie and Terrill. We have a propane heater in the back right that hooks up to two 100lb propane tanks at a time. We have to switch these tanks about once a week. These huts stay very warm and the beds are very comfortable. We also cover the windows with boards so the huts stay nice and dark despite the nearly 24-hrs of daylight we have. No trouble sleeping for me!

Inside the outhouse. The seat on the left is for ladies – the urine funnels into a tin can that we then have to remove each time and dump down the urinal – upper right in the photo – which then drains into large 50 gallon waste water drums outside of the hut. When the drums are full they get sent back to McMurdo and eventually off the continent. The seat on the right is for pooping only. There is a 5 gallon bucket under the seat. After we go, put a piece of cardboard on top of our doo so it’s more pleasant for the next person. When these buckets full, we change them out and they are also eventually shipped off the continent. This is not a heated hut so everything freezes and it really doesn’t smell too bad at all. Notice the blue foam insulating the seats – a very important detail so the seats are never too cold.

And another essential part of camp, it turns out, has been emperor penguin visitors. These guys are very curious creatures and will walk miles to check something out. In this case, I’m guessing they walked at least 5 miles to check out Big Razorback and our huts. They waddle around, making squawking noises and slowly shuffle on only to come back through around 3am to wake everyone up in camp.

This is one of the bigger groups we’ve had. Apparently these are groups of bachelor penguins – looking for the ladies maybe? Or just confused? Still haven’t figured it out.

Emperor penguins from a distance look pretty simple, but when you get up close the designs they have in their feathers are intricate and beautiful. In this picture and the following picture notice how the males are bowing their heads to each other. I haven’t researched what this means but I’m guessing it might be a display of dominance or some other social behavior. Not sure.

Woke up to this one morning. Pretty interesting to see all the outer penguins laying down with inner ones standing up. Also not sure why they were doing this. Very cool though.

One morning of work consisted of getting into a helicopter and flying around our study area to look at our seal colonies and the crack system on the ice. We flew in a Bell 212 that picked us up right out of camp. The flight was about half hour or 45 minutes. It was an awesome first helicopter flight!! Went by too quickly.

Ross and Terrill during the flight.

Kaitlin and I during the flight.

The Bell 212

A photo of the ice edge and the Dellbridge Islands/caldera I mentioned earlier from the helicopter.

The following map is a quick one I made to illustrate where we are and where we work a little more.

A photo of our crew that Alasdair took a day that he came out with us to photograph our work.

There have been a couple days that we haven’t been able to work due to bad weather. One of these days the winds picked up so much that our huts were actually moved. Notice how hut 13 has been slammed into hut 18? Mind you, hut 13 is probably about 10,000lbs. The winds gust to move that had to have been at least 120-150 mph. Everyone was fine, and our camp is now put back together.

Another picture of our huts and how 13 moved. You can see where it was, parallel to the kitchen hut on the far right.

Besides our huts moving, our outhouse also got blown away. You can barely see it in the distance, about 500 m away. There were four ice anchors holding the outhouse down and four ice screws also in place on each side to minimize movement. Regardless, the cords holding the outhouse down (at about 4,000lb test) broke and the outhouse blew away. We also have that back and secured even better than before.

Eric and I during one of our earlier work days surveying the southern end of study area. We went to the ice edge this particular day to check out a whole bunch of juvenile seals rumored to be there. The open water is in the background along with a seal. I haven’t been enjoying myself at all by the way, no fun at all down here as you can tell by the pictures. 😉 Photo by Ross.

And, last but not least, a seal pup!! I’ve been working so hard on tagging them and getting to the next pup, I’ve hardly taken any pictures. Managed to get this one before my camera died. My next update (don’t expect it very soon, we’re going to be incredibly busy for the next several weeks) will illustrate in much more detail exactly what we’re doing with the seals and why. Along with anything else people are maybe curious about! Let me know!

Hope everyone enjoyed and I hope it wasn’t too long!

-Erika

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for the fifth post in the series, coming tomorrow!

If you would like to help support this project, head on over to their campaign on Experiment! They only have 7 days left to reach their goal!

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