Polar bears

As luck would have it, the weather is good, but we are required to take the second mandatory crew rest day for our pilot (two off during any 14 day window). He would much rather be flying, but the rules are very clear. With only two more flight days for the season ahead, we begin to make plans for our return to Anchorage on Saturday. For our pilot Howard and our lab technician Jessica, it has been almost seven straight weeks of fieldwork – and as much as they like the job, they are ready to be home.

The winds have dropped a bit when I check the weather station data and we still have mostly clear skies. We coordinate with our fixed wing pilot in Kotzebue and make plans to meet up somewhere out on the ice west of Point Hope. We try to get the airplane out well ahead of us as he has much more endurance than our helicopter. Ideally, the plane will find a bear or at least tracks and we can take it from there.

The weather holds and even improves as we head into the last week of the project. Clear skies and sun, though the winds are forecast to pick up during the day. We’ll launch in the late morning as we’ve noticed over the years that the bears seem less active earlier in the day. Tracks and bears are also both easier to spot in the low angle light of the evening hours.

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 …

Brownie, a 5 year old husky cross, can boast to be the dog who’s on top of the world. Well, furthest north at any rate. She’s on polar bear alert guarding the scientists and support team of the Catlin Arctic Survey way out on the floating sea ice of the Arctic ocean.