NOAA TEACHER AT SEA
JASON MOELLER
ONBOARD NOAA SHIP OSCAR DYSON
JUNE 11 – JUNE 30, 2011
NOAA Teacher at Sea: Jason Moeller
Ship: Oscar Dyson
Mission: Walleye Pollock Survey
Geographic Location: Gulf of Alaska
Date: June 11, 2011
Personal Log
Welcome back, explorers!
Today was my official first day in Kodiak Alaska! Kodiak is a small city on Kodiak Island, which lies off the southern coast of Alaska. The city had a population of 6,653 people in 2009, and is likely growing due to its unique population of animals, including salmon, Kodiak bears, and bald eagles. The city’s main livelihood comes from the ocean, where halibut, pollock, several species of salmon, scallops, and crabs are pulled from the waters surrounding the island. A second source of income comes from tourism.
I woke up today to find the city covered in mist with rain steadily falling. This was bad news for several of our scientists and Tammy, the other teacher at sea on our trip, as they were unable to fly in from Anchorage due to the weather.
The weather, however, did not stop me from having an active day in the city. The first thing that I did was move onto the ship into my stateroom, where I will be sleeping during the research expedition. I was surprised at the size, as the room was larger than several college dorm rooms that I had seen.
Once I was moved in, I began to explore the ship. While I have not been given an official guided tour as of yet (that will happen when Tammy arrives), I was able to move around and find some of the rooms that I will be in frequently during the trip.
In talking with several individuals onboard, I found out that some of the best hiking in the area was within walking distance of the Oscar Dyson. Even better, hikers in this area occasionally saw bears. As I still wanted to see a bear in the wild, I immediately left for the bridge that would take me to another island right off the coast of Kodiak Island. I passed through town on the way.
After walking through town, I reached this bridge and crossed it.
After crossing the bridge, I came across the following park which had some stunning nature trails. I am going to let my photographs do the talking for this next part of the blog, as words do not do justice for the beauty of this place.
Surprisingly, I did not see a great deal of wildlife, only seeing songbirds. I still have time to see a bear, but I did not spot one today and did not see any bear tracks. Deer tracks were in abundance but I did not see any deer on the pathways.
All in all, I was out hiking on the trails for over three hours, and was soaking wet when I got back.
After the hike and a change of clothes (it rained the entire time), I went out to dinner with a few of the ship’s engineers to a sushi/seafood restaurant. The salmon just melted in my mouth, I have never had salmon that fresh. I also had the opportunity to taste Alaskan king crab, and wish that I hadn’t. I am now addicted, and it is expensive at $47.00 a pound being the market price!
Science and Technology Log
The science and technology section of this blog will begin after the survey of the Walleye Pollock has been started.
Species Seen
Arctic Tern
Pacific Red Elderberry
Reader Question(s) of the Day!
The reader question(s) of the day will start after the survey of the walleye pollock begins. I will answer at least one question during each log, and hopefully will be answering more than one. Please submit your questions to me at jmoeller@knoxville-zoo.org.