Day 16 - July 5th – Dead Bird Beach

This morning we awoke and prepared ourselves for our first day of marine debris cleanup. Andy had made a presentation about marine debris to us the day before while we were underway. What he had to say was shocking. Marine debris is an umbrella term for any piece of trash that is thrown or lost overboard from vessels at sea. The majority of this debris is plastic in nature. Since plastic floats and takes a long time to degrade, it poses a hazard to navigation and a threat to the health of sea life for decades. Although it is common practice to dispose of metal, glass, paper, and food scraps at sea, precautions should be made to insure that the material sinks (example: punching holes in bottom of glass jars and metal cans) or it is dumped out so far it has little chance of reaching shore. Plastic, which is illegal to throw over the side in the first place, tends to congregate in two very specific places in the Pacific, called gyres, due to the prevailing currents and wind patterns of the Pacific Ocean (for pictures and related news copy and paste the following link http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/pacific-garbage-patch-pictures/photo2.html).

Occasionally, due to seasonal storms, plastic debris will be blown from these gyres and wind up on beaches that face the direction of these wind and wave patterns. Dead Bird Beach happens to be one of several beaches on Shuyak that have this dubious honor. Dead Bird Beach earned its moniker after oil soaked birds from the Exxon Valdez disaster washed up on it after that horrific spill in the late 1980’s.

We skiffed over to the beach, where we met with several Alaska State Park Rangers who had come over from a nearby park to assist us. We broke into several teams, and split up to cover the entire beach. The beaches in Alaska are vastly different from anything one sees in New York City, Long Island, or the Jersey Shore. The latter are beaches filled with fine to coarse grains of sand derived from quartz, and are part of a network of barrier islands that stretch from Texas to approximately Provincetown, Massachusetts. The former are comprised of boulders and cobbles that have been rounded by incessant wave action as well as abrasion, and are relatively large, in some cases a couple of feet or more across. Dragging fully loaded bags of trash up and down these beaches is no easy feat as the students (and I) will be quick to tell you.

Nonetheless, we patrolled the entire beach, packing out close to a thousand pounds of trash with us when we left after lunch. Once we were back at the Island C the process of loading the marine debris began. The small yellow bags of trash we had collected could go into the hold below decks, while the bulkier items had to be stored on top of the deckhouse or along the fantail near the stern. We had to use a boom crane for the really big stuff, which was a lot more fun then loading stuff in by hand. Finally, we had loaded all of the debris, and we skiffed back over to Shuyak for an afternoon of hiking and exploring the Alaska State Park and Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was a large log home built with timber from the site, and served as an informal headquarters for the staff of rangers and interns living there for the summer season. The property, which looked like it encompassed about an acre of land, also contained several smaller cabins for living quarters, a bathroom and sauna, and a fuel depot. After poking around and surviving several falls on the slippery front porch, we hopped back into the skiffs and headed out with Travis, the ranger on duty, for Hill 508, the highest point on Shuyak Island. 508 stands for the elevation of the hill that was the central focus of the hike.

The hike was remarkable. The trail was very primitive, only a foot across in some spots, and wound itself through a collection of mossy slopes and glens that looked to be out of a movie set of George Lucas. The tree were enormous old conifers, with their lower branches completely encased in wrappings of moss. The moss itself grew everywhere and completely carpeted the ground as far as the eye could see. By the time we had reached the summit, the rain had begun to fall again, so we were only able to grab a quick glance of the Island C swinging at her anchor far below us before the clouds closed in again.

After that, it was back to the beach and off to the Island C to try and warm up and dry off. Not bad for our first day doing beach cleanup.

Photo Update

Hi folks!

We are back and safe, with many exciting adventures to share. Please check out the blog which will be updated throughout today, and our pictures link. The link to pictures is found on the first page of the blog and now features many photos taken by our expedition photographer Justin Stewart (or J-Stew, or Team 1, as he is also affectionately known). Just click on one of the three pictures shown and it should take you to our gallery. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Day 15: July 4th Independence Day

On America’s birthday, we all woke to a warm breakfast of cheesy eggs and homemade bagels. Thinking that we were going to be underway in the next hour or so, we were surprised by Andy’s announcement that we were going to attempt to squeeze some whale/bear viewing before lunch. Split up between two skiffs, we were eager to start our adventure. Andy operated the skiff I was in, and captain Trevor operated the other. After perusing the nearby shores, it didn’t seem too promising that the bears would be coming out for breakfast. Andy slammed our skiff into maximum throttle and we motored out a mile away. At first we saw an innocent sleeping otter, simply floating on its back. While pausing to take advantage of the photo opportunity, we still kept our ears open for any other creatures that might say hello. We skimmed the waters for a little bit longer and there it was…that soft blast of mist in the air: WHALES! The whole skiff was silent, minus the periodic oohs and ahhs. The scene was the epitome of magnificent. There were at least three to five whales feeding all around us; at certain moments it was confusing to decide where to look! Afterwards we all returned to the Island C, enthusiastic to share our photos with others.

We proceeded underway while eating black bean burritos and watching Rush Hour 3. The ship stopped a couple times for people to fish. Jon Sabin caught a humongous ling cod…apparently you’re not supposed to touch its gills or mouth and the only way to pick it up is by its eyes. GROSS. I didn’t think Jon would pick it up for the picture, but he did!

Some of us began to feel queasy again and decided to go to sleep, but those who decided to bite the bullet of seasickness were rewarded by seeing Orcas (killer whales). Andy hadn’t seen Orcas in a few years!

I happened to be one of the nappers, and woke up to an abundance of classic July 4th food: grilled burgers, hotdogs, bbq chicken, grilled pineapple, watermelon, rice crispy treats and homemade chocolate chip bread (desserts were made by Hayley and Emily)— talk about a feast! Once everyone were revived from their food coma, we all crowded in the dark to watch the movie ‘Crash’ (not really an Independence Day movie, but oh well). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, but the festivities were not over yet.

We all congregated on the deck to shoot flares that have already expired (don’t worry, parents, it’s totally safe, and Andy notified the Coast Guard ahead of time). Crew leaders shot rocket flares while the rest shot hand flares. We attempted to shoot everything successively and then sang The Star Spangled Banner. It’s 12:30 am and the generator is off. The boat is making absolutely no noise, so I can pretty much hear every single conversation occurring right now. All I see are the soft white rectangles of everyone’s headlamps since there’s no electricity. Some people just pulled a prank on Shane and Melanie (mind you, it’s completely dark right now)— breakfast crew has to wake up in 7 hours— Hayley and Emily are about to attack me…I think it’s time for bed. Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!


-Jasmine

July 3rd - Day 14: En Route to Shuyak Island

Today began with an air of renewed excitement amongst our crew. We all slept well back on the Island C and the anticipation of our sea voyage to Shuyak inspired high spirits. Shuyak is the most northern island in the Kodiak archipelago. It takes between 8 to 12 hours by boat to get there from the town of Kodiak. Since the Island Sea makes about 7 knots (9 mph) at top speed, our arrival time was predicted to be closer to the 12-hour mark. It took a few hours for everyone to adjust to being on the water, but luckily the seas were relatively calm—maybe about 2 feet at the most. Thankfully, most folks did not experience much in the way of serious seasickness. Most everyone was just drowsy and felt the need to get some sleep.

By the afternoon everyone had awoken from his or her naps just in time for some humpback whale viewing. They were so close to the boat that you could here the sound of them spouting water through their blowholes. At this point we were over half way through the trip, and were coming close to our anchorage for the night in Kitoi Bay on Afognak Island. Afognak is the second largest island in the Kodiak archipelago and is just south of Shuyak Island. Both islands are largely uninhabited, being owned in their entirety by native Alaskan tribes who only allow resource extraction, fishing, some logging, and ecotourism to occur. On the way in to the anchorage Trevor scouted out an underwater shelf on a steep incline that he thought would be a perfect place to find rockfish and ling cod. The sun came out for us, right on cue as Andy prepared the fishing gear. Andy and Trevor taught us how to “jig” for rockfish and within minutes we were plucking them out of the water. Shane caught a tiger rockfish, which we were told is very rare. Trevor estimated that it was 80 years old! Most everyone caught at least two fish within seconds of their lures hitting the water, and for the next half hour the decks were a blur of flapping fish and smiling kids.

As we continued into the bay to our eventual anchorage for the night, Andy showed us how to clean a fish, but only Tom and Mike (our crew leaders) took to it. The fish went straight from the cutting board outside into the oven in the galley and before long we were eating our afternoon catch. What a life!

After dinner we dropped anchor and loaded into two skiffs to motor around the bay in pursuit of some bear watching. Besides being one of the safest anchorages on the way to Shuyak Island, Kitoi Bay is also home to a very large salmon hatchery. In these parts the presence of salmon usually equals Kodiak bear sightings, and we were hoping that would be true tonight as well. For some reason luck was not on our side tonight. We even docked at the hatchery and hiked around for a while in hopes of a glimpse. While we never saw a bear, we did find a rope swing that everyone took part in. I got some great videos as our city kids careened out over the lake and back. I am so proud of the how well they have adapted to country life and now boat life! We returned to the Island C after 11PM, but of course it didn’t feel that late since the sun was still out. Between the whales, the fishing, dinner, and the rope swing, I’m guessing this was one of our best days yet.

Day 13: Transition Day

We rose early today, filled our backpacks, broke camp, and headed back to town. We are getting ready for our week long trip to Shuyak today. The crew leaders are grocery shopping, Shane and I are doing laundry, and the kids are writing postcards and texting friends back home. We’ll head out early tomorrow morning and will be out of touch until our return on Thursday. Hopefully we’ll be able to upload pictures of bears and King Salmon upon our return!! We’ll also upload pictures from our time at Anton Larson Bay from this past week.

Hope all is well down there in the Lower 48! Over and out.

Day 12: The Long and Winding Hike

We slept in a bit with the knowledge that the trail was done and we had only some little cleanup things to do in the morning. Justin and I (Melanie) made cinnamon rolls out of some homemade bread gone wrong the night before and—much to our surprise—they were absolutely delicious. The “huevos rancheros” created with the remainder of the eggs and salsa made for a filling breakfast. We then split into two teams. One stayed at camp and cleaned up some trash that had been left behind years ago when someone lived at this spot. There is an old collapsed shack in the woods behind our campsite, and the trash looked like an old burn pile in the middle of a gorgeous forest. Justin and Michael made up an entertaining story about who these people were based on the tin cans and bullet casings they picked up. It made for a great dinnertime story.

The other team headed back up to the geoblock site to finish up some drilling so things would be neat and clean for the project to resume next year. We only completed what needed to be done in what Andy projects will be a three year project. Some of us were curious where the trail would ultimately lead, so in the afternoon mist we began our hike beyond our geoblock finish line to the end of the trail.

It took a couple of hours to reach “the end” which was a black rock beach on yet another beautiful Alaskan bay. The hike itself was quite challenging. One of the main reasons the geoblock trail ITN is building is so important is that the ATVs have cut so many trails through the wetlands that the many areas were virtual mud pits. When the geoblock trail is complete, they will reseed these other “social trails” to restore the natural beauty of the forest. Jasmine was the mudpit’s first victim. Shane and I could hear the laughing far down the trail and when we came upon Jasmine, her left leg had sunk in mud about an inch away from the top of her boots. Before the boys agreed to pull her out, they took time for a photo op and video. A few steep hills later, Hayley met the same fate, although she sank boot deep with both feet. And like Jasmine, she took it in stride, laughed it off with the rest of us, and kept on walking. We are so proud of how tough our New Yorkers are in the backcountry of Alaska!!

The hike was quite challenging but the beaver lake, the bear tracks, and many scenic overlooks made it worth it. We felt like we were truly “in the wild.” When we got to the beach, the mist had become heavier, but we just put our hoods up and went about our rock skipping contests and beach exploration. We found a small wooden cabin up in the woods, another buoy swing, and an outhouse with no door. The cabin had a number of bunks in it, and on a high wooden table by the only window rested some sort of animal skull. It was a little creepy but mostly utterly fascinating. Talk about living off the grid! There was no one around though, so perhaps this was someone’s hunting cabin or something.

Down on the beach we found a complete otter skeleton! We speculated that a bear had gotten it and dragged it up on the beach, which would explain why it was so far from the water.

I could have sworn that our hike to the beach was mostly uphill, and was astonished by how many hills we had to climb on our way back. We were all pretty beat when we got back to camp. We ate a hearty dinner, and most of us turned in early. Another great day in Alaska!

Day 11: Goal Attained!

Today was an important day for ITN and for us. While the CGPS interns didn’t start the trail, we laid a tremendous stretch of geoblock and finished what needed to be done for this summer. The crew leaders were proud of our speed since we finished a day earlier than expected! To make things even better, it was a very dry day at Anton Larson. We even had some sunshine in the afternoon, and at about 9:30 that night the skies turned blue and we got the first direct sunlight we had seen since our first day here. Ethan and Shane went to work on a campfire right after dinner and soon enough we were roasting marshmallows and making Smores. It’s amazing how much fun you can have when the sun doesn’t go down. After an hour of sitting around the campfire, we walked over to a buoy swing that the crew leaders had rigged. Justin, our resident photographer, took some great shots of “the buoy swing Olympics” commentated by our very own Jon Sabin. We won’t be able to get Justin’s photos on the site until we get back, so let me explain a bit about what a buoy swing is all about:

Many fisherman use large round rubber inflatable buoys to mark their crab pots. They are about the size of a hippity hop (if you remember those) and a myriad of them are lost while fishing and wash up on the beaches here. They are then tied to trees like tire swings would be. The one at Anton Larson is particularly exciting because you have to climb a bank to get to it and then you swing out from the bank and back. It’s pretty safe though, because you can just sit on the ball and there is a line attached to the bottom as well, so you can be reeled back in if necessary.

After the buoy swing we rekindled the campfire and enjoyed the sunshine until after midnight. The light was incredible on the snowcapped mountains that surrounded us. I believe Justin spent some time trying to capture it on camera. All in all, a picturesque way to end the evening.