Speed: 15.8 knots (kts)
Course: 353.2 degrees (just 7° west of due north.)
Location: 58.22° N, 167.68° W
Depth: 56 meters
Anyone who hasn't worn a 'Gumby' survival suit previously had to practice putting one on quickly. It has head-to-toe coverage and is really the only hope of surviving for a little while in the Bering Sea's frigid waters.
Looking sideways into the bridge of USCG Cutter Healy. It takes a good-sized crew to safely get a 420-foot long ship out of harbor. We also had the assistance of a tugboat to pull us away from the pier and to escort us out into the shipping lane.
Hello from the Bering Sea! We departed yesterday right on time (15:00), got out of Dutch Harbor, and began cruising north. The Aleutian Islands separate the Bering Sea to their north from the rest of the Pacific south of the chain. I'm thrilled to be in a brand-new-to-me major water body and it feels very different than the other parts of the Pacific I've been to. We've had it pretty easy so far weather-wise by Bering Sea standards, with only a modest swell and mild winds. Still, it is usually gray and sometimes foggy, and so far on the cruise it is nearly always drizzling. Yesterday afternoon we had our general briefing on what to do and what not to do onboard, and those of us who have never donned a survival suit practiced getting into one quickly. We also all made our introductions and explained what we will each be working on during the cruise.
This landmark has been featured a lot in the TV show Deadliest Catch, symbolizing either arriving at Dutch Harbor or in our case, leaving.
There are a lot of shades of gray out on the Bering Sea. So far, though, winds and seas have been pretty mild.
After dinner I went to the bow and watched seabirds for about 45 minutes. These birds are pretty small, out in the big ocean, and so can be hard to spot and photograph. Still, I got some pictures of a few to give you an idea of what I was seeing. I got two more lifers yesterday, Short-tailed Shearwater and Mottled Petrel. I also added a few "trip" birds- Tufted Puffin and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (I've seen these species before but each was new to the cruise.) I also saw a little pod of small whales that I couldn't identify but one of our Marine Mammal Observers dialed them in from the bridge and told me they were Dall's Porpoises.
A Tufted Puffin swimming away from the Healy in the Bering Sea. In contrast with the Horned Puffins I featured earlier, this species has an all-black body, an all-orange bill, and a yellowish tuft sweeping back behind the eye. Nice combover!!
Sometimes groups of Short-tailed Shearwaters like this would cross our bow.
A blow-up of a single Short-tailed Shearwater. These birds are amazing fliers and spend nearly their whole lives at sea. Shearwaters sometimes drag a wingtip along the face of a wave, earning their name.
Only about the size of a sparrow (8.5 inches from the tip of their bill to the tip of their tail), Storm-Petrels fly low over the water looking for tiny fish, squid, or large zooplankton to eat. All related seabirds don't require fresh water as tubular glands above their bills secrete salt. Thus, Albatrosses, Shearwaters, Petrels, and Storm-Petrels are collectively called 'Tubenoses.'
I'm standing my first geophysical watch today starting at noon. I'll explain more about that and what it entails later but I've got to earn my keep and help monitor the incoming data from the ship's sonar systems. Tonight in the science lounge our chief scientist Brian Edwards will give an overview of the mission's goals and how we will accomplish the data collection expected of us.
SPECIAL FEATURE:
Birds like shearwaters and storm-petrels spend nearly their whole life at sea. What biological function forces them back to land, once a year, typically on remote islands?
What geologic process caused the formation of the Aleutian Islands and continues to add islands o the chain every now and then?
That's all for now! Best- Bill