Focus on Phocids

Yesterday we presented our projects and collaborations to the leaders and teachers of the Bering Sea Education Project.

I have made some new connections and volunteered to work with my new teacher friends to connect cultures.

Paul Lukosi, from the North Yukon area, will be learning about Hawaiian Monk Seals from us, and we will be learning about ribbon seals, ringed seals, bearded seals, and spotted seals from his classes.

We’ll also how his culture is so closely connected to these animals. One of the cultural projects his students do is learn to make spears from the elders in his village. I know Ms. Travis would LOVE to listen in on that one :)

We will be continuing our work with the Pribilof Islands and Tonia Kushin.

In ocean sampling. Of course since the ocean forms ice up in Alaska in winter, we will include ice and the melting of the ice as a part of our learning. We are taking a long term look at this, as I hope to loop with my current classes and connect them via physical, chemical and earth science to the changes that affect us down in the central Pacific.

I know you will all learn so much from what we are planning. Tomorrow I fly back home, to Maui. I look forward to planting my feet on warm Hawaiian soil.

Answers

Before I forget, here are the answers to the Captain Crook blog post.

After visiting Hawaii, Captain Cook headed up to Alaska, turned around and then went back.

1. The answer is Captain Cook visited Hawaii on his third voyage.

This is a moose. They are found on Vancouver Island.

2. Nootka Sound is on the far west side of Vancouver Island in Canada.

This is a rare carved ceremonial head found in Alaska. It is covered with lichens. Lichens are one of the dominant land species in Antarctica. The color of the lichen is from algae growing inside a fungus-like organism.

3. Captain Cook's first voyage was to Antarctica (and lots of other places). Antarctica was a definite high point of the mission.

This is a beaded hair cap worn by Aleut women, the native culture of the Aleutian Islands. This cap is beautiful and takes a huge amount of work to make. I'll bet Captain Cook wished he would have stayed in Alaska instead of going back to Hawaii....

4. Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island. Ya, you all know the story.

This is a real seal intestine rain parka actually made and worn by Aleutians. Seal intestines allow water to pass out of the intestine, but not for water to diffuse in. The tiny, perfect, stitches were sewn with sinew. When the sinew got wet, it swelled up and made the parka absolutely waterproof. Isn't that just pure genius?

5. The Mamo's beautiful yellow feathers were used by the ali'i, for capes and ceremonial headwear.

What am I doing here?

While you all were on vacation last week and on Monday, I was working hard and learning, learning, learning. On Sunday, our workshop began at 11:00 and we spent the day learning about the NPRB (North Pacific Research Board) history, and wealth of resources from the many scientists it funds. We reviewed a lot of online resources, began to collaborate on integrating Bering Sea Science into a cohesive whole.

There are teachers here from small villages that border the Bering Sea including Mrs. Tonia Kushin, the science teacher that I have been working with for the past three years. We met and picked up exactly where we had left off. Our remote controlled underwater sampler is ready, but now it is time to set up an exchange of data and problem solve ways the vehicle is going to sample the ocean.

We are lucky to have this collaboration and an idea of where we want to explore in these next few days. There is so much that has been discovered since I was on the Healy 3 years ago!

On Monday, we teachers presented what we had done with our research experience from the Bering Sea. Really excellent teachers from Maryland, to Arizona shared lessons and experiences of teaching others about global climate change in the Bering Sea. We also had researchers and scientists from the Bering Sea share their latest research with us. My head was spinning there was so much to think about.

We learned about sea ice melting, and melt water. Diatoms and cotton candy phosphates. Murre eggs symmetry and uniqueness and krill. Earth workshops and FEAST, BEST, BSERP, NSF, NMML, MATE, GLOBE, and a kazillion other letters that spell out special scientific research missions or education programs. We learned from climatologists, and physicists, biologists and program managers.

My job is going to use these wonderful resource people, combine them with what I already do and know, to help you learn better, so that you will be prepared to take over the world and solve all these major environmental problems that are affecting the Earth.

Got it? Good!

Captain Crook

I am staying at a really nice hotel in downtown Anchorage called The Hotel Captain Cook. Being from Hawaii, I knew some of the history that is shared between Alaska and, what Captain Cook called the ‘Sandwiche Isles.’
I was not expecting a hotel full of giant murals depicting Captain Cook’s explorations and missions. So I took out my camera and decided it would be nice for you to learn a little bit more about him.




1. Captain Cook took three major voyages of exploration. On which of these voyages did he first visit Hawaii?
a. First
b Second
c. Third

2.Here is a picture of native people from Nootka Sound. Where the heck is Nootka Sound?

a. Washington State
b. Vancouver Island Canada
c. Alaska






3. Captain Cook took naturalists along in order to draw and record new creatures or document strange discoveries. Here is a painting of the world's largest creature, the Blue Whale.
He saw it on his first voyage. Where was his first voyage?
a. Africa
b. Greenland
c. Antarctica

4. On what island was Captain Cook killed?
a. Tahiti
b. Hawaii
c. Oahu

Here is the Mamo bird of the Sandwiche Isles. What were the feathers used for?

Stay tuned for the answers tomorrow.

And I'm Off.....or not?

Traveling is always an exciting thing to do. But not too exciting. We don’t want it too exciting because that would involve an element of fear. We don’t want to fear, do we?

On Saturday morning, October 9, I am all tucked up in the Alaska Airlines seat, not a seat open, 107 people waiting to take off from Kahului on our way to Seattle. Backing up the plane. Beep, beep, beep. Now kicking in the engines.

That’s when we stopped. Just stopped. Not going forward, not backward. Frozen. Without the snow and ice.

If an airplane is going to break down, this is a good time. Actually there is never a good time for a plane to break down but to have it happen before you take off, is much better than during takeoff, or while in the air. We all looked around and smiled nervously.

There was no gearing of engines, nor deafening roar. We sat in the middle of the runway, not going forward, not going backward. Parked in a no parking zone.

I thought about those stories, of passengers stuck on an airplane for hours, due to weather delays, or some mechanical malfunction. WHAT! That’s ME!

Suddenly, we began to back up. Slowly, picking up speed. Now this can’t be a good sign. Finally, the pilot addresses the plane.

Seems the hydrolic pressure light blinked on. The airline equivalent of a brake light. Because we want all things mechanical to go wrong before we fly over the ocean, the airline mechanic was going to check things out back at the airport.

Sounds good to me!

Although the flight was delayed by an hour, and more than a few people missed their connecting flights, I remained one happy traveler. After all, I was headed north to meet old friends, make new friends and build cultural collaborations.

Look North!

Dear Students!
The last time I spent time in Anchorage was almost four years ago. At that time, I was on my way to the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study on the USCG Icebreaker Healy. A lot has happened since that mission. Today I am getting ready and packing for a workshop that brings together of scientists, teachers, and community that surrounds the Bering Sea. Why? To share what we have learned from these research missions, and create a plan to learn and share with others.

If you squint your eyes while standing on the north shore of Maui, you can begin to see the ice covered mountains of the Aleutian Islands 1500 miles away. And on those
islands are people, people who have called those islands home for thousands of years. These people have a cultural history that includes strong connections with the natural world. These people are the native people of Alaska. They have a history that binds them to the environment.

You have a lot in common with these people. Knowledge of the moon cycles, limu and fish, the ocean, plants; this all interconnected is what is learned to help them survive and thrive. Masks allow indigenous people to slip from spirit to human and back. The moon mask here is an example of such art. There is a wonderful collection of these cultural works at the airport in Anchorage. This is where we begin. Let us reach our hands out to another culture and in doing so, learn more about ourselves and our unique place on this planet called Earth.

The mask above is a moon mask. Native people of Alaska felt the importance of the moon just as native Hawaiians felt it's importance. Why not practice the Moon Haka that Kumu Makamae helped you learn? Here is the link. Click here and scroll way down to the bottom of the page to get the entire haka, with Kumu leading.
http://manaseekers.yolasite.com/mana-seekers-moon-chant.php