Geoff York's latest posts

As you might imagine, this sort of work entails some long days and a certain amount of stress on the crew. A key player in a successful field season, and actually the one who makes it all possible, is the pilot. To fly animal capture work for the US federal government, you have to be carded – which basically means meeting fairly high minimum flight hours, having prior low level flight experience, and passing a check flight. Our pilot in the Chukchi exceeds those requirements several times over and this is his third year on this project.

The morning breaks the same as the day before and, once again, it is hard to say which way the weather will go. We’ve had some fresh snow overnight and the temperature is hovering right at -16 C with a wind chill of about -23 C. Winter never completely leaves this far north region as they can see snow during every month of the year!

As will likely be a common scene from here on out, I awake to a snowy, foggy morning. As the sea ice starts to break up, more and more water opens up and that significantly adds moisture to the near shore environment. With the right temperature and dew point combination, fog doesn’t move in, it just happens.

The large lead (area of open water in the sea ice) that existed just offshore from our camp has closed overnight. The ice in the Chukchi Sea is very dynamic, even in the middle of winter. This part of the Chukchi is always ice free in the summer, so everything we are flying over and working on is first year or newer ice and typically not much more than 2 metres thick. Leads are constantly forming and closing and as the season winds to a close next week, the ice should really start to fragment and simply begin melting.

Weather often dictates fieldwork in Alaska, especially when you have to be in the air or on the water. This morning it is foggy with periodic snow. As conditions can change quickly up here, we always assume things will improve and plan accordingly.

WWF International Arctic Programme polar bear specialist, Geoff York, is currently in the Chukchi Sea area with the US Fisheries and Wildlife service, conducting research into the status of polar bear populations in the area. This is the first of several blogs from him during his time there …

In early February, WWF and the US Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to facilitate community-based meetings between village conservation leaders from Chukotka, Russia and Alaskan communities along the Chukchi Sea coast. Although the people who live across the Chukchi Sea from each other are relatively close in miles, our Chukchi partners had to travel around the world to reach the other side and meet their neighbors for the first time. For WWF, this was also an opportunity to highlight the work of the Chukchi Umky Patrol Program we support in Russia, a grassroots effort to minimise negative polar bear human interactions. The Umky program has in addition cultivated efforts to eliminate poaching and manage a relatively new problem: walrus hauling out near villages in huge numbers.

When I come up for my final watch, we are at Unalaska Island, making our way into Dutch Harbour! It is still twilight, but the view is beautiful: steep mountains still mostly green, but with a dusting of fresh snow at higher elevations. The Aleutian Islands are among the most dramatically scenic places anywhere and I always hoped to see them someday. I just never imagined I would arrive to them from Russia!

In the middle of the Bering Sea, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, two ships cross paths. Once again I have a ship on radar right at the end of my watch. This vessel is using the new AIS, or automated identification system, as does the Explorer. AIS lets other vessels know who you are and can also give information on the current routing and even purpose of the vessel. This one is a large commercial trawler heading north, over 200 feet long and very modern- the Starbound.

Today we pass just south of St Mathew Island. We are not planning on any stops until Dutch Harbour as there is weather brewing in the North Pacific. None of us want to face a full Bering sea storm if we can avoid it, so we push on.