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Bering Sea Predators

Hi Janet-

Is there ice still there? How big are the ice fields if there are? Are you going through solid pack, or is it mushy, slushy, rotten stuff? Can you see ice algae? Is there a lot of algae under the ice, or not? Is there sediment in the ice?

 Also I'd appreciate it if you could ask the ice seal team their latest numbers of their count. Have they tagged any seals? What kind? Have they tagged them from going down on the ice in the 'man basket' or have they used the zodiac? Have they been following the seals that they have tagged? Are there any ribbon seals in zoos?

Thank you so very much! 

Maggie  

Thu, 05/24/2007 - 10:26

Janet Warburton

Hi Maggie!Have you been drinking a lot of coffee this morning? :) Lots of good questions and I'll be sure to answer them when I'm on the ship. Right now I'm in Nome. The ice is just off shore but very broken up.
Thanks for the questions and I'll be sure to get a seal count for you.
Janet
Education Project Manager, ARCUS
warburton@arcus.org

Thu, 05/24/2007 - 20:57

Maggie Prevenas

Hi JanetI had three cups of coffee this morning, but it was only because I had to go on CCTV to my entire school to tell them about the BEST cruise ;)
No problems, my students and I are so interested in your mission! It is good to be home and watch what's happening from this side of the computer screen. We wish you all warm aloha and look forward to reading your journals.
Maggie 

Sun, 05/27/2007 - 09:03

Janet Warburton

Hi again Maggie! I can finally respond to your questions since I'm on the ship! We were in the ice the first day I was here - on Friday - and then quickly moved out of it over the night. Yesterday we were over 50 miles away from the ice and in open water. The ice is melting fast and most of it has already moved north and past the Bering Strait and is now in the Chukchi Sea.
There are large pytoplankton blooms occuring right now and the scientists know this from satellite photos. When we do see ice, you can see ice algae and the green water around the ice.
As for seals and the seal team...well, I should have Mike Apatiki and Erin talk about that since we haven't been in any ice - they haven't done much. They flew in the helicopter about 50 miles yesterday and didn't see much and had to return because of fuel. They have tagged 3 seals since they left for this tour about 1.5 weeks ago. We are in the ice again now - so maybe their luck will change! There is a NOAA ship that is south of here, near the Pribilofs. They have been tagging a lot of seals since there is some ice around the islands.
Hope this helps!
Janet

Sun, 05/27/2007 - 11:22

Maggie Prevenas

Hi Janet!Thank you so much for asking those questions for me!! I was happy to see the photos of the walrus (and seal meat) drying racks from St. Lawrence. Could you please ask Mike A. when they get a walrus or a whale, do they divide it among the entire village? Do they eat the meat cooked or raw? Lastly, could you please ask him what kind of eskimo lives on St. Lawrence? Lee Harris, from the cruise before, was an Inupiat.
Now for Erin..So what kinds of seals have the ice seal team tagged since they left Dutch? Also did they tag them from the zodiac or get down to the ice on the man basket?
And for Dr. Mike-are you following the ice seals that you tagged earlier from Healy 1? Are there any ribbon seals in zoos?
We didn't see any pollack larvae (well maybe one or two) when the nets were dispersed earlier this month. Are they bringing up any pollack larvae now? 
For the ornithologists(and Gavin)-what kinds of birds have you seen? It's very hard for me to look at a bird and see them as an apex predator! So how deep do the birds that the scientists are studying dive, and what do they eat? What do the organisms that the birds eat, eat? Could one of the ornithologists take me and my students through a simple food chain?
Lastly, have you had a chance to look at any of the seawater under a microscope yet? If you have, what phytoplankton have you seen?
Thank you so much for seeking out the answers. As I present the information and slides I have from my mission to my students in class, I write down the questions they ask me (that I do not know) so I can ask you. It is great having you on board so you can answer my follow up questions! Plus your answers permit me to have a richer content background.
warmly,
Maggie