NOAA TEACHER AT SEA
CATHRINE PRENOT FOX
ONBOARD NOAA SHIP OSCAR DYSON
JULY 24 – AUGUST 14, 2011
CATHRINE PRENOT FOX
ONBOARD NOAA SHIP OSCAR DYSON
JULY 24 – AUGUST 14, 2011
Mission: Walleye Pollock Survey
Location: Kodiak, Alaska
Date: July 31, 2011
Weather Data from the Bridge
True Wind Speed: na
Air Temperature: 17.9° C dry/13.8° C wet
Air Pressure: na
Partly Cloudy
Latitude: 57.44° N, Longitude: 152.31° W
Ship heading: n/a
(Limited data, as ship is in port)
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| Lupine, Pasagshak Beach |
Sometimes, science research is messy. Now might be one of those times. We are in Kodiak awaiting repairs to the rescue boat and the arrival of a deck hand before we can get underway. Everyone is doing everything they can to get us moving, but if you haven't noticed yet, Kodiak is remote. The up side of this delay? Kodiak is a beautiful, interesting place to explore, and I have taken full advantage of this opportunity.
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| Staci DeSchryver, Teacher at Sea |
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| Adventures in a Blue World. Issue 7. Cathrine Prenot Fox, 2011 |
In honor of Enteroctopus dofleini, I present to you Issue 7: Eight arms, three hearts, three brains. (Cartoon citations 1, 2 and 3) Check out Issue 7 and some excellent video and let me know if your impressions of this invertebrate have changed at all.
The wildlife viewing both underwater and on land has been spectacular. We drove down to a remote place called Fossil Beach around the bluff from Pasagshak Bay on the southeast side of the island and encountered wild horses on the way there, (spotted?) seals cruising the beach and three Kodiak brown bears on the way home (!). Two of the bears were smaller juveniles fishing at river crossings; the third was a huge adult that ran out in front of the car. The hump on its back was the level of the roof. Seriously? This bear was the size of a small pony. Other wildlife abound: otters, pigeon guillemots and jellyfish swim around our ship, black oystercatchers and fox parade on shore and bald eagles sail overhead. So, while we are all anxious to "get fishin," we are still learning a ton and having an excellent time.
I'll leave you with a photo of one of the bears: a "tiny" juvenile fishing in the Olds River in Kalsin Bay. Oh, and if you have any ideas for interesting ocean organisms for Adventures in a Blue World, drop me a line. I'm working on two really cool ones that I'll deliver in the next several days, but then will be looking for new inspiration.
Until our next adventure,
Teacher on Land, Cat Fox
p.s. To clear up a common misconception: Grizzly and Brown Bears are the same species, Ursus arctos. Inland bears are usually called Grizzlies, coastal are browns.
p.p.s. A few folks have sent me some great new links on octopuses. Here is a video showing octopus camouflage and an interesting article on an octopus from Germany that picked the winners in the World Cup last summer.
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| Fossil Beach. Kodiak, AK |
The wildlife viewing both underwater and on land has been spectacular. We drove down to a remote place called Fossil Beach around the bluff from Pasagshak Bay on the southeast side of the island and encountered wild horses on the way there, (spotted?) seals cruising the beach and three Kodiak brown bears on the way home (!). Two of the bears were smaller juveniles fishing at river crossings; the third was a huge adult that ran out in front of the car. The hump on its back was the level of the roof. Seriously? This bear was the size of a small pony. Other wildlife abound: otters, pigeon guillemots and jellyfish swim around our ship, black oystercatchers and fox parade on shore and bald eagles sail overhead. So, while we are all anxious to "get fishin," we are still learning a ton and having an excellent time.
I'll leave you with a photo of one of the bears: a "tiny" juvenile fishing in the Olds River in Kalsin Bay. Oh, and if you have any ideas for interesting ocean organisms for Adventures in a Blue World, drop me a line. I'm working on two really cool ones that I'll deliver in the next several days, but then will be looking for new inspiration.
Until our next adventure,
Teacher on Land, Cat Fox
p.s. To clear up a common misconception: Grizzly and Brown Bears are the same species, Ursus arctos. Inland bears are usually called Grizzlies, coastal are browns.
p.p.s. A few folks have sent me some great new links on octopuses. Here is a video showing octopus camouflage and an interesting article on an octopus from Germany that picked the winners in the World Cup last summer.
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| Kodiak Brown Bear. Kodiak, AK. |
I grew up on the coast of Oregon near Newport. There we used to visit the Hatfield Marine Science Center at least once a year on field trips. The best part of that trip was the big tank in the middle of the room that held an octopus. You could put your hands into it and "shake arms" as you said. Not only that, but there were tidal pool areas where you could pet the starfish and anemones, or pat the urchins. I guess that's the advantage of being a coastie growing up. These Colorado kids are missing out!
ReplyDelete@Heidi: I have been back to the tidal pool "petting zoo" again, and got to hold another whole range of animals. I would love to have something like that in may classroom...the thing is, they swap water out of the tanks with the bay 24/7! No filters required! (Freezing Cold, however, to stick your hands into!)
ReplyDeleteHi Cat,
ReplyDeleteI spent my entire time in Kodiak hiking and hoping to see a Kodiak Bear. I never did see one. Congrats on the luck!
Jason
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI think I've gotten to spend a bit more time in Kodiak then you did with our delays, but the trick to seeing bears is to drive up the road towards Pasagshak Bay when the tide is coming in or up. The waters push the fish up stream, and the bears descend from the woods to feed. Not to make you sad, but we do a bear drive every night before dinner and have nearly a 100% success rate!
Cat
Hey Mrs. Fox, it's Courtney Colyer. I hope you're having a great time. I was wondering why grizzlies and brown bears are called by different names depending on where they live??? If they are the same species, wouldn't it be easier to call them by the same name??
ReplyDeleteCourtney,
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree that it is confusing!
Basically, different people encountered bears in different areas and called them by what they wanted. Since Kodiak bears are larger than others, they were thought to be an entirely different species...but biologists now agree that they are the same subspecies as the main-land: Ursus arctos horribilus (an amazing scientific name meaning Bear-north-horrible!). People still call them by their common names though, and I have heard local people here refer to a bear we saw as a "grizzly." I think that the names Brown bear and Grizzly and Kodiak Brown bear are kind of interchangable...but when I went to the Bear refuge here, the scientists said they were Kodiak Brown Bears, so I wanted to get it right on the blog.
The moral of this story? When in doubt, check what the scientific name is to figure out what you are looking at! :) Besides, I hind of like the name Ursus arctos horribilus.
Thanks for writing Courtney!!
Mrs. Fox