Back in Alaska

Well I made it to Seward, again! For those that may not know I was offered a job at the Alaska SeaLife Center working in the Aquariums department doing sort of what my internship was this summer. And I took the job!! So I am now an Aquarist I (entry level aquarist) I'm so pumped. Who'd have thought that I would have a real job so soon? I was fully planning on doing the post-college flail for at least a few months.

The work will be extra hard for a while because Seward had some huge flooding a couple of weeks ago so the center has some serious cleaning up to do but I have full confidence that the tanks and animals will be in top shape very soon, but it will take a lot of very hard work to get there. On top of a full time job I still have to finish school, which includes a big research paper on a restoration project, and also a big paper about my internship this summer. So after about 3 months of writing and researching and working I will have a college degree and a real job. Life seems to be falling into place just nicely.

I will be up here for a year and I wanted my car here so I can get out of town when it gets too small, so I convinced one of my best buds to drive up to Alaska with me. The ultimate road trip!! I left form Seattle on the 29th of September and picked her up from Surrey, BC on the 30th and the driving began.  We drove about 400 miles a day, sometimes more and camped our way up through BC, Yukon, and Alaska. After 8 days of driving, 2,831 miles, seemingly infinite stops for gas, two border crossings, tons of wildlife, a broken tent, sun, rain, snow and hotsprings we arrived in Seward on a beautiful sunny evening. It couldn't have gone more smoothly my car is still in one piece and I start work on Monday.

I shot film for the whole trip cause my digital camera was out of batteries and we had no way to charge it in the northern interior of BC/Yukon, so I dont have a lot of photos but here are some from the last bit of the summer internship and one or two from the trip up here. Enjoy!

Resurrection bay from Mt. Alice

Quatro the Giant Pacific Octopus

Oh and yes, I got to hang out with the baby walrus calves, they love to snuggle and are so adorable I can hardly stand it.

Wally #2 Mitik

Nap Time

Feeding Time

Devious... 

Beautiful sunrise at Nancy Lake

I caught a big one!

Bison on the side of the road

Getting a couple of casts in at sunset... no bites

We Made it to Seward!!

Junior Aquarist

I am finally updating you all. Its been a month...or two, but I've been a busy lady. I'm getting the hang of things for sure, and I am now responsible for my own areas of the aquarium. I have two exhibits, and two holding areas that are 'mine.' This means that they are on my schedule with maintenance and feeding, and I can make changes if I want, although to change anything I have to get approval first. This is such a sweet job, it definitely satisfies my nerd side, but it is also a really good lesson in planning, organization, and aesthetics. One of the Aquarists likes to joke that I've been bumped up to a "Junior Aquarist" position... akin to a Junior Ranger. And once I broke my intern badge he stealthily had a new one made for me with my title being "Junior Aquarist" - what a butt head. BUT its all in good fun and we had a good chuckle over it.  

Also I can fillet herring like a boss. 

a photo for starters

I have been giving Octopus Encounters almost every day that I work, and they don't seem to get any less fun the more I do them. I get to take people to our octo holding area, and teach them all about Giant Pacific Octopus, and then we get to feed one of the octos and the people get to interact with them. I often get the question "What do the octopus suckers feel like on your skin?" And really I never have a good answer, its hard to describe but it is such an awesome feeling. Whenever I'm having a bad day, getting to interact with one of our lovely octos always cheers me up. 

The Center also has two walrus claves right now. One is doing really well and the other is a messed up little animal and is more of a day-to-day struggle. But they are both as cute as can be, and ever so dapper. Baby walrus' need 24hr care and frequent feeding, they need to be snuggled with ans scratched and petted, so the rehab department really has there hands full with these two little guys. I might be helping them out a few days a week to take some pressure off of the people who have been working insane hours, but we'll see if my schedule fits theirs. If I do get to help take care of/cuddle a walrus I'll let you know.

A long time ago there was this thing called Fourth of July. Up here that's a pretty big deal, the number of people in town doubles in size. Everyone flocks here for the big race called Mt. Marathon. Its a race up this insane hike that is only 3.1 miles long but goes from sea level to 3022 ft. The top finishers are usually olympic skiers. This year the women's winner was a young gal who skis on the US Ski Team, not sure which event but regardless, she was fast! And very happy too.

A very happy 1st place Mt. Marathon finisher

Also, Gumby ran the race

We've been having lots of adventures, tons of hiking just outside of town, Tonsina Creek, Harding Ice Field, Lost Lake etc. So many pretty places.

Chum salmon spawning at Tonsina

The bridge at Tonsina

Get Stoked!

Cool mushroom on Lost Lake trail

The view from the small cabin half way to Lost Lake

Tree ladder by the cabin

Harding Ice Field

More Harding Ice field

My roommates and I also went out to homer for the weekend, Its a really cool place on the other side of the Kenai peninsula with a lot of really good food, and beautiful views. It was great to get out and go camping for a bit, and to get out of Seward, its great here but a change is always welcome.

First pretty stop on the way to Homer 

Sunset over Kachemak Bay

Camping on The Spit

Beautiful Beach

My roommates and I got to go on a boat tour to Kenai Fijords National Park and we saw so much wildlife, orcas, humpback whales, sea otters, steller's sea lions, tons of harbor seals relaxing on the ice chunks, dall's porpoise, and tons of sea birds. It was a nice sunny day with some thick fog outside of the bay. We went all the way out to Northwestern glacier which is one that doesn't get a lot of trips, it was awesome, and huge and it was calving a lot which makes a huge crashing noise and a big splash. What a lovely day out on the water. 

Islands in the fog

Orcas, they lead us out to Northwestern Glacier

A part of Northwestern

Glacial ice chunks


Until next time! Hopefully that will be soon...

Quite A Salty Workplace

Romper-Stomping!

What an adjustment. I had a day to sorta settle in and then it was off to orientation the next day and then - real job (minus the paycheck) from there on out.  I work a 40 hour week and I'm running around all day. My hands are in saltwater more than they are out, and I'm just covered in it by the end of the day. For those who know me, this is fitting. It's a super active job and I am learning so much. I think my biggest hurdle is that I have three different people teaching me the same thing and they all have their certain way of doing it. But really the method doesn't matter so much as that it gets done, so I am sort of making a patchwork of all the ways to do stuff and patching it all together to get my routine down. I've made a few mistakes, but who doesn't? All the aquarists and the supervisor have been really cool about it, and I'm learning from them, which definitely good. 

The best way to describe what I do here is to imagine taking care of a home aquarium. You know all of the fish in there, you feed them, clean the tanks, keep tabs on how they're behaving, if they're sick you take care of them, if one fish is bullying another you separate them. Well its like that only way bigger, with a lot more tanks, and a lot more fish and invertebrates. What I don't think I really knew about aquariums before this is that there are a huge amount of critters that aren't on display, we have 7 octopus in total and only 2 of them are on exhibit right now. There are countless tanks behind the scenes and more critters than I know what to do with. We all work as a team to keep the whole place working. There is so much to do every day, and we never get the whole list done in one day, but because the smart people who really run the place have it all figured out it is okay is we dont get it done all at once. Things stay stable, and we work through any issues that come up. These people really know the place, they know the plumbing and the water and the behaviors of all the fish. Their job is a hard one and they do it well. I am learning so much and am slowly gaining trust.

As you can imagine I am already behind on my photo a day attempt but here they are:

19.6.2012

20.6.2012

21.6.2012

22.6.2012

23.6.2012

24.6.2012

25.6.2012

26.6.2012

Extra

Extra

 Well there it is. I'll do some more adventuring and get back to you!

PS. As an update the baby beluga is doing well, it is sort of bottle feeding, but he is a very messy eater. (yep that's Jeff Corwin)

Sunset at 11:30? Okay.

I've made it! I arrived in Anchorage yesterday without having checked my email in a few days so honestly I had no idea what was going on with the people at the Sealife center, the plan was to take the bus to Seward stay in a hostel for one night until my internship started then show up today at the center and ask where to go. Well lucky thing I arrived when I did because there was another girl waiting for the same bus and I asked her why she was headed to Seward and as it turns out she is an intern as well, my housemate no less! She was canceling her bus reservation and hitching a ride with the big boss at the center who happened to be in anchorage that day, so I made a few calls and tagged along too. Sweet deal! So not only did I get a free ride to Seward, but I met my roommates and got to explore Anchorage for a few hours. We started the drive at 8pm which looked like noon and felt like 9pm. Yeah my body has no idea what time it is...The drive took us much longer than it should have due to all of the road construction, as we were chugging along I couldn't figure out why I was so tired, but then I realized that thats because it was night time - it only looked like 3 in the afternoon. This really shows you how much we take subliminal cues from the light. So sunset was at 11:30pm and even then it really only got dusky for a few hours and then started to get light again. The Seward highway is beautiful, its as if the mountains decided one day to go for a swim and got stuck once they were up to their knees. 

Time Stamp: 10:00pm 6.18.2012

The big talk around here is the baby beluga. There was a stranding at the far end of the Aleutian chain and the center flew a guy out to go check it out, and he came back with a live baby beluga!! This is BIG news, belugas are rare in the wild and even more rare in captivity, and we have a cetaceans researcher who is trying to develop a better way to track belugas and find out more about them so if the center can step up to the challenge of keeping this poor stranded baby alive there is a lot that we can learn, and hopefully we can save this poor little dude. Hopefully I'll be able to see it since I'm more or less a behind the scenes worker.

Orientation starts tomorrow, and by then hopefully I'll know what I will really be doing, and I get to meet the people I'll be working with. Wish me luck this is going to be an exciting three months!

The mud flats can be dangerous, people get stuck and the tide comes in fast...
Extra Goodie

My Last Bit of School

This summer I will be an intern at the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) I wil be working with and learning about native PNW marine critters and algae. This is my training for Team Zissou, I already have the outfit so now I need the experience. 

Porteau Cove,  BC

If you don't understand what team Zissou is, rent the movie The Life Aquatic...weird but great.

With only a few weeks left of spring quarter I am geting crazy excited about going to Seward in less than a month to work at the Alaska SeaLife Center!! I am taking three really fun classes right now, but as usual I am excited for school to be over. Some of the other ASLC interns are already showing up and most of them will be there by the 22nd of may. I however am on the quarter system, so while they have all been done with school for a few days, I am worried about finals and putting together my portfolio for my Ecological Images class. 

Speaking of, here are some of the photos that I have taken for that class over the course of the quarter. It is essentially a photography class for science kids, so we take nature photos every week. 

landscape from Mt. Baker Highway mile 34

patterns: goose feathers pattern

dissecting microscope: sea urchin test (inside)

This summer I will again attempt to take a photo every day, and post them at the end of the week. I dont know what my internet connection will be like but hopefully I'll be able to keep you all posted about my excellent adventures in the great state of Alaska!