The winds were finally dying down, the snow and ice had stopped falling, everything in sight was crusty. I heard over the radio, "Roger that, we (the Nuvuk AP) will be heading out to the Point today.” Super, a workday in the field!!
The trail had snow in all the valleys, the ridges, were all covered in ice. The four wheelers handled in all well. Ahead, the tents were still up. Further examination when we got there showed a little shifting of the fly, and a fair of amount of accumulation inside. Of course, a quick snowball fight sent many folks scrambling for cover.
The blowing wind finds cracks and holes in the supply tent. Fortunately, everything was still inside and not scattered over the site.
Next stop was the Driftwood Feature. On the way over, the site looks a bit tortured, not very friendly.
Some people have corner offices, I have, ….., snow, ice and gravel. I think I have the better view.
Driftwood feature check-in, ah good, the snow, ice and wind, had not beaten the beach too much. We didn’t gain much beach yet we didn’t lose much either. Plans were discussed, shared, off to work, and to warm up.
The Drfitwood Feature was pretty secure after the three days of storms. A little snow, a little ice, and a very nice beach view.
The erosion of the driftwood feature is inevitable. We had every person available excavating in there today. Uncovering interesting stuff!!
Another 100+ individual artifacts were collected today with numerous bucket shots used to collect the smaller wood fragments. We worked well even with Claire having left. Many wished that we could continue to work tomorrow to make up for the days we were stuck in the lab. No luck though, we also have a busy day tomorrow!! More on that later…
I started reading up on the whales that frequent this area of the Arctic Ocean after we sighted the gray whales. A big book, The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals by Perrin, Wursig, and Thewissen, was borrowed from Laura and gave me an excellent overview of what the research says about these enormous mammals. As I read, I remembered seeing some posters over at BASC about whales. More information, and pictures too, this time from the Department of Wildlife Management for the North Slope Borough. Their research focused on the three most common whales are here. The bowhead whale, the gray whale and beluga whale. Each of these animals could be an entire journal entry but there is not enough time to go into such great depth. For today, an appetizer portion of whale info is in order. Sunday, Chef’s Choice will go into more detail. If you have a specific question, send it along to Ask The Team.
Bowhead Whales (Latin name: Baleana mysticetus)
This is a good size bowhead skull. The baleen plates hang down like curtains from the top jaws, I'm not sure if they are attached to the bottom jaw. I'll find out tomorrow.
So, big jaws!! Actually bowhead whales have the largest mouth in the world!! Up to 4m (12’) long!! That’s a big mouth. Let’s take a look a skeleton next.
Check out the mouth on this guy!! The rest of the body is just dwarfed
So, what does a bowhead whale off the coast of Barrow, AK eat? Why krill and copepods of course!! Krill are small, like less than an inch in length.
Krill look like mini-shrimp. I think I would quite a few, what if I was a 60 ton (120,000lb) bowhead!! WOW!!
Big mouth, small food. How does that work? Bowhead whales have baleen which are overlapping plates of hair-like material that is made from stuff like our fingernails. The whale fills it’s mouth with a huge quantity of sea water, and krill. They then use their tongue to squeeze out the water and leave behind a lovely bite of krill, copepods, and whatever else is in there. Yum, Yum!!
Gray Whale (Latin name: Eschrichtius robustus)
I put these together fast to represent what we saw as the gray whales spouted and surfaced. To make it more life like, place the computer on one side of the room and start walking back, until you can just barely see it.
Gray whales are temporary residents here, similar to the scientists at BASC. We both migrate north in the summer and then head back down south later in the winter. At times, the gray whales either leave too late, or get here too early. The bowheads are able to smash through up to 60cm (2’) of ice, the grays on the other hand want nothing to do with even floating ice. In 1988, three grays whales got stuck in the ice here at Barrow, lots of effort, and a Soviet Icebreaker later and the whales made it to safety.
I need to find a copy of the 1988 article that explains about this story. I think my friend, Steve Schuch, wrote a beautiful song about this event. I'll see if we can post it.
Tomorrow, or Sunday; more whale info, Scientist of the Week, and maybe some crazy Barrow-style Birthday Behavior!!
Thanks for joining the expedition!!