St. Paul Island, July 1

Today we visited St. Paul Island in the Pribilof Islands. Some of you that are fans of the Discovery program, The Deadliest Catch, may find the name familiar. Some of the crab boats featured in that program come to St. Paul to off load their catch. However, in the summer, the island centers more on birding and fur seal breeding. The day was foggy and overcast (again), but we still managed to have a great time. I initially drove zodiac shuttles and then went with one of the groups around the island to see the birds and the fur seals. Well, I should clarify what I mean by shuttles...this trip we have been having many problems with our zodiacs. Often, they don't start, and when they do, they often die midway through the operation. I have been lucky so far, but today I spent the beginning of my day floating around in two zodiacs with the mechanic choosing the lesser of the evils. I chose no reverse over air in my fuel line. In the end, I drove one shuttle, and the zodiac remained healthy the rest of the day. I must reiterate that I have been one of the lucky ones with regards to zodiacs breaking down on me - Stefan has probably had the worst luck of all, getting the brunt of the engine trouble.

Anyway, on St. Paul we first saw a cultural performance by some very adorable kids. The adorable kids were the best part of the performance, as they giggled almost through the entire thing. It was cute, but sad to see how difficult it is to keep the native cultures alive out here as time marches forward and old ways of living are exchanged for satellite TV and other modern conveniences.

After that, we visited the fur seal rookery and some cliffs that were teeming with birds. I visited this island last year under clear skies, but it was still amazing to see all of the wildlife. The fur seal rookeries were a bit emptier than last year, due to the fact that the females are still arriving at the beaches. The bird cliffs had thousands of murres, puffins and auklets - always an incredible sight. I have attached two photos, one of a fur seal and another of a thick billed murre.

Fur Seal


Thick Billed Murre

Blog Thank You

Since this expedition is soon coming to a close, I wanted to take a moment to thank Jess and Mike Pachler for all of their hard work on the oceanlori website and on this blog. Believe it or not (ha ha) I was not very organized before I left and Jess and Mike were left with most of the work to get this trip's blog set up and published. In addition, they host the site free of charge and did all of the website design, which is such a huge help since I am majorly technologically disadvantaged when it comes to this sort of thing. I'm not sure I could pull this all off without them. Thanks especially to Jess, who speedily posts my entries, even on the weekends. I know my Grandparents appreciate it.