animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('B', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         Every step is an act of balance in a vast land full of ponds, rivers, and streams where more than half the landscape is water. There are no roads and your tent could be the highest point on the horizon. Trekking though the swampy tundra of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Y-K Delta), scientists are on the lookout for nests. Counting every species they encounter, one bird eludes them all: the Steller's eider. This mysterious bird is a rare sight for researchers across Alaska. Surprisingly, one of the best places to observe these birds in Alaska is at a facility that is located hundreds of miles from their natural habitat. Watch the video for a glimpse into the strange lengths that scientists are going to in order to learn as much as possible about the elusive Steller's eider. Can you guess what the researchers are doing - and why? VIDEO: Mystery on the Tundra Scientists are going out of their way to learn more about Steller's eiders. (1:34) Why are scientists going to such great extents to learn more about the Steller’s eider? The number of Steller's eiders in the wild are declining. While two breeding populations exist in northern Russia, the breeding population of Steller’s eiders in Alaska has all but vanished and is now classified as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. No one knows why these birds started disappearing in the 1970's. Scientists have proposed a few possible explanations, such as lead poisoning from ingestion of spent lead shot; increased predation from gulls, foxes and ravens; and changes in the coastal environment. As temperatures warm and sea levels rise near the eiders' preferred habitats, will the few remaining pairs of birds continue to be successful nesting in Alaska? Concerned for the Alaskan population, scientists collected Steller’s eider eggs from Barrow, Alaska in an effort to prevent a complete disappearance of breeding eiders. With these eggs, the scientists have created a captive-breeding “reservoir” population. This breeding population resides at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, where researchers and aviculturists have the skills to keep the birds healthy while they learn more about this rare species. VIDEO: Introduction to the Research Project Dr. Tuula Hollmen describes the Steller's eider research project and its overall goals. (1:51) Video Transcript My name is Tuula Hollmen and I am a research professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks and a scientist at the SeaLife Center. I have been working with birds for, I think it is over 25 years now. The main goal of the eider research program is to help support the recovery of eiders in Alaska and the main focus of the program at the SeaLife Center facility right now is the captive breeding program. One of the main goals of having the eiders here is to help buffer the species against extinction. We are also collecting a lot of data throughout the year to help learn more about the basic biology and physiology of the species. The third big goal for that program is to develop captive breeding techniques for Steller’s eiders with the potential that those methods that we develop could be used in the future in a field program to help augment or reestablish a population by using reintroduction as a tool. The Steller’s eider is a unique arctic species. It is the only species in its genus, Polysticta. There is no other Polysticta species. So if we lose the Steller’s eider we lose not just a species but a genus. I think that everything that I have been learning about the species just makes me more convinced that they are a unique species. I think the world will be a different place if we lose this unique species that is not necessarily similar to any other species. Dr. Tuula Hollmen has been studying Steller's eiders at the Alaska SeaLife Center since 2001. Her project allows scientists to keep their eyes on eiders, to observe and learn about a bird rarely seen nesting in the wild.       CLICK BELOW TO LEARN ABOUT SEADUCK SCIENTISTS!   AVICULTURE (n) - the raising and care of birds (especially wild birds) in captivity.   ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT (n) - signed on December 28, 1973, this act provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend.   ECOSYSTEM (n) - a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.   INGEST (v) - to take something into your body (such as food).   LEAD SHOT (n) - small pellets of lead that are shot from a shotgun; used for hunting birds and small game.   PHYSIOLOGY (n) - the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions.   RESERVOIR (n) - an extra supply of a resource to be used when needed.   SPECIES (n) - a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young.   THREATENED SPECIES (n) - any species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future.   TUNDRA (n) - a flat or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions; subsoil is permanently frozen and dominant vegetation consists of mosses, lichens, herbs, and dwarf shrubs.    

  animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() Talking with Kathy, Yosty learned that the common murres in the Gulf of Alaska were starving during this period of uncharacteristically warm water. This common murre die-off event was very puzzling for scientists because there was not a clear reason as to why the birds were behaving abnormally. If the birds were not getting enough food, there must be something in the Gulf of Alaska impacting the food chain. Scientists study all levels of marine food webs, beginning with the organisms at the base — the plankton. Plankton are a diverse group of living organisms that spend at least part of their life floating through the water column, unable to swim against the current. Plankton consist of both plants and animals and help to form the base of the marine food chain. Every organism that relies on the ocean for food depends on an adequate supply of plankton to keep the ecosystem properly fed. Even animals that don’t eat plankton themselves, like the common murres, require enough healthy plankton to feed the fish and invertebrates that they prey upon. So, if the common murres were starving, causing them to move close to shore and inland to search for food, and dying in large numbers, there might be some evidence that maybe something was different about the amount or types of plankton in the Gulf of Alaska those years. Following this lead, Yosty moves forward in the investigation by questioning Gulf Watch scientist Sonia Batten, who specializes in monitoring plankton populations to understand what had been happening at the base of the Gulf’s food chain that might have been related to the murre die-off. Watch the video below to hear what Sonia has observed with the plankton in the Gulf of Alaska. VIDEO: Sonia Batten and Plankton Sonia Batten describes her observations of plankton in the Gulf of Alaska. (4:17) Video Transcript Narrator: Hmm… It all seemed to go back to the murres’ food chain. Why did these seabirds starve to death? Was something wrong with their food source? Yosty needed to start at the bottom of the food chain. She needed to talk to Sonia Batten, A Gulf Watch scientist monitoring plankton in the Gulf of Alaska. Yosty: Hi Sonia, what evidence do you have that 2014-2015 were unusual times for plankton in the Gulf of Alaska? Sonia: We’ve been looking at plankton in the northern Gulf of Alaska since 2000, so we have quite a long time series now. We look at the plankton from spring through fall of each year. We noticed in 2014 and then again in 2015 that there was something unusual happening, and we were kind of expecting it because we knew that the waters offshore were really warm from the end of 2013 through the next two years (really unusually warm, and it’s been called “the blob” by some people). So we were expecting to see something unusual. What we typically see in the plankton… There are two types of plankton. There’s the plant plankton and those are little tiny single-celled plants that float around and take the sun’s energy to grow – and they typically get blooms of those in the spring because there’s lots more sunlight in the spring, there’s lots of nutrients from the winter storms that have been mixed up, and it starts warming up. All those things are really good for them to grow, so we typically see those take off in the spring. And then as they grow they get eaten by the animal plankton and their numbers die back a little and they run out of nutrients and so on, so there’s lower levels of them through the summer. And then sometimes in the autumn we get another bloom because we get a few storms come in and mix things up again and give them more nutrients. That’s the typical pattern. What we saw in 2014 was we didn’t see anywhere near as many of those plant plankton as normal, and we saw big numbers of very small animal plankton that were around. It was quite unusual – we hadn’t seen anything quite like that in the whole 50 years of sampling that we’ve done. Yosty: What impacts could this have on the rest of the Gulf? Sonia: It’s still a question we’re working on. Plankton support everything in the ocean. All of the fish and mammals either feed on plankton themselves, or they feed on something that’s been eating plankton already. If there’s not so many of one type of plankton that might be bad, but there were quite a lot of animal plankton around so there obviously eating something. They may be eating something that we don’t see… One of the things we saw was that the types of plant plankton were slightly different: there were more of the smaller type of cell that are longer and thinner. Those cells typically do better in years when there’s not so many nutrients around, because they find it’s easier to take the nutrients up. It’s possible that those are not such a good food source for some of the animal plankton, or maybe the animal plankton weren’t finding as much of what they wanted and in turn that could mean that there’s not enough animal plankton for the fish and seabirds and mammals. But we still don’t really know – those kinds of patterns take a long time to be revealed. Yosty: Kathy mentioned something called domoic acid and its potential to impact seabirds. How is this related to the plankton that you’ve been studying? Sonia: Some phytoplankton – that’s the plant plankton – can produce a toxin called domoic acid. They don’t necessarily produce it over time, sometimes they produce it as a response to a stress in their environment. One of those stresses could be being eaten, so they produce it to put off zooplankton from eating them. There were reported instances of domoic acid in Alaska, and actually through a wide area of the North Pacific a lot of places were reporting it. Although the plankton have evolved to deal with the domoic acid that’s produced by the phytoplankton when other animals eat the zooplankton they concentrate the toxin, and as you go up the food chain the poison gets concentrated and it can potentially cause problems in larger animals that never ate plankton themselves but have eaten other organisms that have concentrated it. So it’s one explanation for why some of the seabirds may have been struggling in that year.   Plankton are considered one of the environmental drivers, so they’re the link between what happens in the ocean – in terms of water chemistry, temperature, the water conditions – and the fish, because plankton respond to their environment really quickly, and fish feed on plankton and larger organisms feed on fish, so the plankton are the link between the oceanography and the fish. We know that plankton respond really quickly because they have life cycles that are really short, sometimes even days, but all of them less than a year or at least a year is the longest life cycle. So if changes happen in their environment they respond quite quickly, and you can see that in changes in their numbers, and the types of plankton and where they’re at. So by monitoring them it gives you a really rapid response to a change in the environment. In the early part of the twentieth century in the UK, it was kind of hard to know where to send the fishing boats, you know, where they were going to find the herring, and Alister Hardy invented this instrument that could be towed behind ships, measuring the plankton, and it’s called the continuous plankton recorder. Continuous because, rather than taking a sample as a snapshot across, it continuously samples the plankton as it goes. His idea was that if you could understand the food of the herring, the food of the fish, maybe you could predict where they were going to be and then send the fishing boats there. You would build a map, a bit like a weather map, of where plankton were and when they were, and then you could send the fishers. So that was his idea, back in the early part of the early part of the twentieth century. And it took a few years to get routine, but from the 1930s onwards they were using this instrument to do that – to build up a picture of plankton meteorology, basically.         Who is watching the Blob?   Abnormally (adv): different from what is normal   Diverse (adj): a lot of variety   Invertebrate (n): an organism lacking a backbone   Organism (n): an individual life form   Phytoplankton (n): freely floating, often minute plants that drift with water currents   Productive (adj): producing enough energy to sustain life   Zooplankton (n): freely floating animals that drift with water currents  

The Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) is saddened to share that Mist, a two-and-a-half-year-old Steller sea lion, unexpectedly passed away on January 23, 2023. The reason for her death is currently unclear. She appeared to experience seizure-like tremors and passed away within minutes of the episode. This is a heartbreaking loss for both the ASLC staff and the entire community.    The incident occurred January 23 while Mist and three other Steller sea lions were socializing in a new group setting. To mimic natural and social behaviors in the wild, Steller sea lion groupings change regularly at the ASLC, and staff always monitor animals in new situations closely. The introductions went well, and the animal care staff noted play and normal social behaviors throughout the morning.    Mist’s seizure-like tremors began suddenly and seemed unprompted. Due to the close monitoring protocol that day, an ASLC Mammalogist noticed the tremors as soon as they began and responded immediately. The other three Steller sea lions were shifted to another habitat so veterinary and animal care staff could tend to Mist safely. Though these staff arrived within minutes, Mist had unfortunately already become unresponsive.   A necropsy was performed the next day, but no immediate findings could explain the seizure-like tremors. Additional tissue samples were collected at the necropsy, and it could take several weeks for the samples to be processed and analyzed. Although ASLC staff are hoping for answers, the tests may never reveal the ultimate cause of her death.   Mist was born on June 26, 2020, to ASLC Steller sea lions Mara and Pilot. Mist was Mara’s first successful pup and the fifth successful Steller sea lion birth in the history of ASLC. Dr. Carrie Goertz, Director of Animal Health at the ASLC, recalls the special moments leading up to Mist’s birth in 2020, which  was featured on the second season of NatGeo WILD’s Alaska Animal Rescue.   “Waiting for Mist to be born is my most impactful memory of my time with her. It dominated my life in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. When she was born, it was such a joyous event in a crazy world and a crazy time,” said Goertz.    Many ASLC staff members watched Mist grow up, and she became an instant favorite for many guests visiting the ASLC.    “Mist was an animal who touched you immediately with her playful, clever, gregarious personality, and she was quickly a favorite for staff and guests alike. She was a bubbling force of energy and inquisitiveness with a nearly unrivaled level of potential, possessing a balance of intelligence, patience, and cleverness that was uniquely amazing to behold in one individual,” said Michelle Hanenburg, ASLC Mammal Curator.   Since the announcement of Mist’s passing, ASLC Staff members and Seward community members have offered moving tributes, memories, and condolences on a number of online platforms. ASLC Mammalogist Shelby Burman shared her own touching statement:   “I spend more time with these animals than my family, and losing one is unexplainable. I know every small child in the town of Seward will be saddened by this loss as well. To all the animal caregivers in this world, I see you and I feel you. This is the absolute worst part of this job."   The Alaska SeaLife Center is one of only three aquariums in North America that house Steller sea lions. Every Steller sea lion contributes to the understanding and knowledge base of their important species, making the loss of this two-and-a-half-year-old impactful for the entire population.    Update as of March 26, 2023: Unfortunately, a thorough necropsy did not lead to any concrete answers of what caused her seizure. A microscopic examination of Mist's tissues (known as a histopathology report) also did not reveal a cause. Not having a clear answer is incredibly hard for the ASLC staff. We will continue to explore possibilities with professional colleagues, but we may never know what caused her episode. We thank you all for your support over the past few weeks as we mourn the loss of an incredible animal.      About Steller Sea Lions Steller sea lions are the largest member of the eared seal family. The species ranges across the northern Pacific Ocean, from Japan through the Aleutian Islands and southeast Alaska to northern California. Divided into eastern and western regions, the western population is currently listed as endangered, while the eastern population was delisted in 2013 following notable recovery and significant conservation efforts.    

animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('B', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         Individual scientists usually specialize in one particular area. They get very good at knowing a lot about a few things. This is a natural and very normal thing to do, especially when the amount of detail a researcher has to consider in their study is huge! There is no way for any one person to know the ins-and-outs of each and every project. One of the most important lessons we can learn from a disaster the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill is the importance of "thinking big" with science -- really big! We need to ask big questions, such as: “How is this one particular thing connected to that?” or “What influence does something that seems so different and very far away have on my local work?” or “How is this one thing connected to everything?” Scientists might not have the luxury of working on a whole bunch of different projects at once but, through cooperation in large projects like Gulf Watch, they can see the links, or connections, between what they have been focusing on and what others have been doing. In science, we call this "systems thinking." Systems thinking looks at the web of relationships where individual pieces respond both in their own individual ways and together as a whole. An ecosystem like the Gulf of Alaska is not just a collection of individual animals and plants. It is all living things interacting with each other and with the non-living things around them. Gulf Watch Alaska scientists combine data from all of their projects to help them better answer their own specific research questions. This gives each of them a better understanding of complicated ecosystem connections. You can think of each project like different pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. As more and more pieces are combined, a clearer and more complete picture emerges. Click the picture below to solve the jigsaw puzzle! Systems thinking allows the modern scientist to step outside of their lab. They connect with fellow researchers and see the importance of their work on a much larger scale. It requires teamwork and communication as they build a network with different specialties, interests, and research subjects. Watch the video below and listen to the Gulf Watch team as they talk about working together and putting the pieces of this complicated puzzle into place. VIDEO: Monitoring Connections Sonia Batten, Heather Coletti, and Dan Esler discuss connections between the four individual monitoring components of Gulf Watch Alaska. (1:55) Video Transcript (Sonia Batten) The Gulf of Alaska is a really complicated system. You’ve got places like Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, which are these kind of inlets, and they’ve got local things happening there which are really important. And there are people studying the plankton and the ocean in those places, and they do really good detailed local studies, but we’re looking at a bigger area. We go from way off shore across the shelf, and it kind of smoothes out the little small-scale local effects and we’re looking at bigger climate effects and things that affect the whole region. So my data provides a link to what the local studies are doing and gives a broader context. (Heather Coletti) I think our work will really inform and strengthen our understanding of the connections between these systems. They talk about some of the zooplankton in the oceans out in the middle of the Gulf. How does that affect our coast and where we all recreate and live? And I guess I’d say the same thing for some of the environmental drivers, these big oceanographic systems that move through and the changes in the climate. How does that affect where we spend our time and where our resources are? (Dan Esler) I think a really important contribution of the work is to be able to take that long-term view of how things operate in marine ecosystems and how contaminant events are, what the timeline is for recovery from those sorts of things. And that fits in perfectly with the philosophy of Gulf Watch generally, taking this long-term, broad-scale view to understand these bigger patterns in marine ecosystems. I think that’s a really an important contribution for what we’re trying to do. You too can help with long-term ecosystem monitoring right in your own ecosystem -- through Citizen Science! Citizen science is the collection and analysis of data through partnerships between the general public and professional scientists. This collaborative way of doing science allows anyone with an interest in the natural world to engage in the scientific process. Many citizen scientist projects benefit from people gathering local monitoring data and contributing to a larger database. The data provided by participating citizen scientists helps professional researchers build a more complete understanding of ecosystems that they only visit once or twice a year. Recently, the scientific journal "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment" published an entire issue focused on citizen science! Click the link on the right to access the journal. Explore some of the links below to find a citizen science opportunity to join! • Citizen Scientists • The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Citizen Science Central Projects • National Science Foundation • SciStarter • Scientific American Citizen Science Project List • Zooniverse • Journey North       Who is watching the Gulf?      

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animatedcollapse.addDiv('1', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('2', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() Who is watching walrus? DEPLOY (v)- to set something up so that it is ready for action BLIND SPOT (n) - an area that cannot be seen because something is blocking your view DATA SET (n)- all of the information collected UPGRADE (v) - to improve the quality of something; to buy the next version of a product             Results   Cameras at the five sites captured data during the season of May-September 2011. For each of the sites, the timeline below shows (1) when the cameras were deployed, (2) when the first walrus was spotted at that location, (3) the date when the largest number of animals were counted on that site, and (4) the date of the last image taken by the cameras. The team collected census data by examining the photos at the end of the season and counting the walruses. Below are images captured from the haulout site on Cape Seniavin on August 4th, 2011. On this day, over 1,400 male walruses were counted hauled out in this single spot. Click on the thumbnail images below to see the larger versions: Researchers decided to add more cameras at this site in 2012 to avoid blind spots like the one created by the rock in the pictures above. On Hagemeister Island, cameras recorded the disturbance event seen below. Click on the thumbnail images below to see the larger versions: In the fourth photo you can see that these walrus quickly returned to the beach. The scientists couldn't see what caused the disturbance, but they think it was likely a bear or other land-based predator nearby. With clear images like the ones above, Dr. Polasek and her team agreed that camera monitoring at these remote sites is both possible and useful for understanding Pacific walrus behavior. Unfortunately, the type of camera the Alaska SeaLife Center team installed for the 2011 season tended to fail often. Many of the cameras stopped taking pictures before the last walrus left the site at the end of the season. So the 2011 data set isn't as complete as the team had hoped. They knew camera monitoring worked, but they needed to find a better type of camera. In 2011, the scientists were able to begin establishing their baseline. In 2012, they purchased new, more reliable cameras and added more haulout sites to their study. They're continuing to work on their baseline using male walrus in Bristol Bay, but with the help of the residents of Point Lay they've also set up their first cameras along the Chukchi Sea. Check the updates section for images captured in the second season!        

animatedcollapse.addDiv('1', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('2', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() Who is watching walrus? DISTRIBUTION (n) - how thickly or evenly something is spread out over an area             2012 Updates from Bristol Bay In May 2012, the researchers returned to Bristol Bay. Installing cameras was again a big adventure. After their plane broke down, the team unexpectedly spent a night sleeping on the beach of a remote island! Check out some of their observations from the 2012 season! We'll continue adding data as more is analyzed over the winter. Cape Seniavin Disturbance (click to download .pdf) VIDEO: Foot Traffic Disturbance Walruses at Cape Seniavin are disturbed by people walking along the beach. (1 minute) Sometimes just the presence of people on the beach is enough to disturb walrus. These folks might not have known it, but the Marine Mammal Protection Act makes it illegal to get within 100 yards of any marine mammal. VIDEO: Airplane Disturbance Walruses at Cape Seniavin are disturbed by an airplane flying overhead. (1 minute) Just the sound of a plane flying low overhead was enough to disturb these walrus at Cape Seniavin. Scientists are curious what impact repeated disturbances (like planes flying over daily or people using the area regularly) might have on the number of walrus using a haulout. Next Steps In the summer of 2012, the scientists took a huge step. They installed their first cameras along the Chukchi Sea near the village of Point Lay, Alaska. Dr. Lori Polasek hoped that, if the season's sea ice melted past the edge of the walruses' normal range, the animals might choose to haulout on land in this area. She had good reason to expect this, because walrus had hauled out near Point Lay twice in recent summers. Since the beach in this area is so flat, the team could not rely on cliffs or other natural features to provide good vantage points for their cameras. Instead, they constructed a tower. The tower was designed so that local volunteers could rotate the camera angles depending on where along the beach the walrus had hauled out. However, the team didn't get any data from the Point Lay cameras in 2012. This time, it wasn't because the cameras failed to work. Instead, sea ice remained available in that area, so no walrus hauled out at the site this year. An organization called the National Snow and Ice Data Center works together with NASA to monitor sea ice coverage in the Arctic using satellites. Data is collected daily and is used to form models that help scientists predict how much sea ice will cover the Arctic during different times of the year. Satellite monitoring of Arctic sea ice began in 1979. When scientists compare historical data with recent ice conditions, they can say with confidence that conditions in the Arctic are changing. In fact, satellite data shows that the amount of sea ice covering the Arctic was lower in the summer of 2012 than in any other year since monitoring began! So why didn't walrus haul out on land in Alaska if there was less sea ice in the Arctic than ever before? It all comes down to the distribution of ice. Although there was less ice overall in 2012, patchy areas of ice remained floating in the Chukchi Sea. There was enough floating sea ice to allow females and calves to stay near their feeding grounds without having to move to land-based haulouts. This year's results don't mean the end of the research project and Dr. Lori Polasek isn't abandoning the idea of monitoring haulouts in the Chukchi Sea. In fact, the team hopes to add more monitoring sites along this area in upcoming years. Global climate patterns are changing and the impact is evident in the Arctic. These changes are visible in warmer-than-average annual global temperatures and in a decrease in the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic over many decades. Climate scientists know that looking at the conditions in one year doesn't paint a clear picture of long-term conditions in the Arctic. In the same way, the walrus research team recognizes that, just because walrus did not use Alaska land-based haulouts along the Chukchi in 2012, it doesn't mean they won't rely on these areas in the future. Stay tuned for more information as this research project continues. In the mean time, educate yourself about how humans are impacting climate in the Arctic and around the globe. Do your part to help lessen our impact: learn about your carbon footprint and about what earth-friendly actions you can take in your everyday life. Dr. Lori Polasek and her team would like to thank all the sponsors and partners for this research project, including the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, SeaWorld & Busch Garden’s Conservation Fund, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. 2012 Updates from US Geological Survey   Walruses at Cape Seniavin are disturbed by people walking along the beach. (1 minute)      

  animatedcollapse.addDiv('1', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('2', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         WELCOME TEACHERS! The Alaska SeaLife Center and COSEE-Alaska are excited to present the second in a series of virtual field trips. Meltdown is a virtual field trip (VFT) designed to immerse students in the important field of polar research as they learn about how a changing climate is impacting sea ice ecosystems in the Arctic. Educators and scientists from across Alaska have teamed up to bring you this new and innovative teaching tool. Meltdown takes students on an Arctic expedition where they'll connect with researchers studying the marine foodweb in the Bering Sea. Throughout this exploration, students will watch videos, examine images, and piece together foodwebs as they follow Dr. Rolf Gradinger and his team of real-life scientists out onto the ice. OVERVIEW FOR TEACHERS This VFT can be used in a number of ways. Teachers may facilitate a structured experience using the curriculum supplements included on this page. Alternatively, individuals may choose to navigate through the pages on their own, learning about sea ice ecosystems and why changes in arctic climate have scientists concerned. Self-guided exploration can be completed in about an hour.  GRADE LEVEL: 5th-8th TIME NEEDED:  One to eight 1-hour class periods (teachers may choose to use all or some of the supplementary lessons- see teachers guide for details). NUTSHELL: Students will learn about the role of sea ice in the Arctic ecosystem while studying the Bering Sea food web. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After completing this virtual field trip, students will be able to: - Illustrate how changes in the population of one species may affect population dynamics throughout a food web. - Differentiate between the physical properties of sea ice and freshwater ice and justify the reason for these differences. - Describe the conditions necessary for sea ice algae to grow and explain the role of sea ice algae to the Bering Sea in spring. BACKGROUND: At the Northern fringe of the Pacific Ocean, along the United States’ most remote boundary, lies the Bering Sea. Covering an area more than three times the size of Texas (nearly 900,000 sq. mi.), and supporting some of the most valuable fisheries in the world, the Bering Sea’s remote waters have attracted explorers for thousands of years. Now your students can join in the process of discovery as they accompany modern-day explorers onto the ice! In this virtual field trip, students will meet Dr. Rolf Gradinger, a Sea Ice Biologist conducting research in the Bering Sea. They will follow his research team into the field as they work to answer the question 'What does sea ice mean to the Bering Sea ecosystem?' and 'What would it mean if arctic sea ice were to disappear as a result of climate change?' Their quest for answers leads the researchers to look under the ice, where they'll investigate the role of sea ice algae (tiny marine plants that grow on the bottom surface of sea ice during the spring) in the spring Bering Sea foodweb. As your class navigates through this field trip they'll be introduced to the process of science: from initial questions, through development of hypotheses, data collection and, finally, data analysis. Watch as an unfamiliar world unfolds, revealing a complex spring foodweb all stemming from the sea ice algae. The research of Drs. Rolf Gradinger, Katrin Iken and Bodil Bluhm inspired this virtual field trip. Join us as we explore how climate change may impact one of the world's most productive marine ecosystems, the Bering Sea. We also recommend listening to Encounters Radio: Ice Algae, a recorded interview in which host Elizabeth Arnold interviews Rolf Gradinger about this research project. (10 minutes) TO USE THIS VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP YOU WILL NEED: - Internet access, video-streaming capabilities - Access to Meltdown the virtual field trip - Projection system (with audio) to display VFT content or a computer lab (with headphones) - Teacher's guide and corresponding curriculum supplements (arranged as PDFs in the right hand column of this page) UNABLE TO RUN THE STREAMING VERSION? REQUEST A COPY OF ALL MATERIALS ON CD BY EMAIL: education@alaskasealife.org SPECIAL NOTES FOR TEACHERS: Guide to State & National Standards addressed in this field trip (Click to download .pdf) Using Curriculum Supplements We encourage teachers to read through all Curriculum Supplements before beginning Meltdown with your students.  Some projects, like the invertebrate research project, will be completed over the course of several sections.  Videos and weblinks Many sections of Meltdown include embedded videos and weblinks.  All weblinks require internet access.  In the CD version of the virtual field trip, all videos will play without internet, unless noted.  In the online version of Meltdown, all videos will stream from YouTube.  Each video is less than 3 minutes long (exact durations can be found in the description below each video).  Video transcripts are available for each video and can be accessed by clicking the ‘Video Transcript’ button below each clip.  Vocabulary Important vocabulary terms are included in the VOCABULARY box in the lower right-hand corner of each section.  A complete glossary of terms is included as a .pdf in the FOR TEACHERS section.  Age appropriateness This virtual field trip is designed to meet Alaska state and National science content standards for students in grades 5-8.  We understand that students in grades 5-8 may display a variety of skill sets and reading levels, therefore this grade distinction is designed only as a guideline.  The scientific process discussed in this virtual field trip is appropriate for and may be enjoyed by older students as well.  Older students may progress through this virtual field trip at a faster rate than that outlined above.  ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Resources for Invertebrate Research Project: OCEANUS: Arctic Ecosystem Interactive Arctic Ocean Diversity Project: Species Info ARKive: Marine Invertebrates Info General information about Sea Ice: National Snow and Ice Data Center NASA Earth Observatory: Sea Ice International Polar Year: Sea Ice Fact Sheet Resources highlighting Bering Sea & Arctic Ocean research and education: BEST-BSIERP-Bering Sea Project Bering Sea Project: Profile on Sea Ice Arctic Ocean Diversity Project Education Resources Related to Climate Change: NOAA Education Resources: Climate Change Impacts Contact Us: If you have any questions about this virtual field trip, please contact the Alaska SeaLife Center Education Department at education@alaskasealife.org or 907-224-6306. For more information on classes we offer, including our inquiry-based 50-minute Distance Learning programs, visit our website at www.alaskasealife.org.         CURRICULUM SUPPLEMENTS Use the .pdf links below to access classroom activities for each section of the MELTDOWN virtual field trip. Teachers Guide.pdf Introduction_Activities.pdf Background_Activities.pdf Questions_Activities.pdf Plan_Activities.pdf Action_Activities.pdf Results_Activities.pdf Glossary.pdf        

After nearly two months of rehabilitation at the Alaska SeaLife Center, male sea otter pup "Qilak" finds home in Chicago at Shedd Aquarium.  Qilak (pronounced Kee-lak), a five-month-old rescued male northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni), arrived to his new home at Shedd Aquairum on October 24, 2022.  Since his rescue, the pup received around-the-clock care at the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) in Seward, AK, the only permitted stranding marine mammal response facility in the state. Members of Shedd’s animal care and response team worked alongside partners to rehabilitate Qilak before bringing him to Shedd on Oct. 25. For now, Qilak remains behind the scenes at Shedd as he continues to reach milestones and build bonds with the animal care team and other otters.  Qilak spent nearly two months being monitored day and night and receiving regular health exams by ASLC staff. He has feedings every four hours, which has slowly decreased as he continues to grow and progress. He has been doing well since his arrival in Chicago, receiving continual care behind the scenes at Shedd’s Abbott Oceanarium. At five months old, he is a bit older than past rescues, which means he has already met some developmental milestones and continues to show signs of independence. ASLC and Shedd staff worked together to care for Qilak during his last few weeks of rehabilitation. (photo: Shedd Aquarium) The animal care team at Shedd looks forward to watching him continue to grow and thrive. Qilak’s next few milestones will be learning his new habitats, bonding with other otters and more. “As an organization dedicated to care and conservation, Shedd Aquarium is equipped to step in to assist our partners, and in this case, we offered rehabilitation support and ultimately a home for this pup in need,” said Peggy Sloan, chief animal operations officer at Shedd Aquarium. “Our rescued population of sea otters are important ambassadors for their wild counterparts creating compassion for this keystone, endangered species.” For now, Qilak remains behind the scenes at Shedd as he continues to reach milestones and build bonds with the animal care team and other otters.  Qilak spent nearly two months being monitored day and night and receiving regular health exams by ASLC staff. He has feedings every four hours, which has slowly decreased as he continues to grow and progress. He has been doing well since his arrival in Chicago, receiving continual care behind the scenes at Shedd’s Abbott Oceanarium. At five months old, he is a bit older than past rescues, which means he has already met some developmental milestones and continues to show signs of independence. Shedd staff members observe Qilak  at the Alaska SeaLife Center before his transport to Chicago. (photo: Shedd Aquarium) The pup was examined at ASLC and found to be underweight, but otherwise, he was strong and alert. Veterinarians and animal care team members monitored him closely to ensure he remained in good condition. He was already eating solid foods, swimming, grooming and more. During his rehabilitation, Shedd’s animal care team sent a rotating group of support staff to work alongside ASLC for round-the-clock care. ASLC led the pup’s naming that resulted in Qilak, which means dome of the sky, the entire sky or heaven in Inuit.  “Otter pups need care and attention 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it takes a village to rehabilitate a young animal,” said Jane Belovarac, Wildlife Response Curator at ASLC. “While the process is lengthy, there is nothing more rewarding than watching our patients grow and find their homes. We’ve been honored to be part of his second chance at life, and we’ll continue to follow his journey.” Qilak joins the rescued sea otter population at Shedd Aquarium, including the other new arrivals Otters 926 and 929 that can now occasionally be seen on exhibit in the Abbott Oceanarium. There are now a total of six sea otters that call the aquarium home. Find more information about sea otters at Shedd on the aquarium’s website: https://www.sheddaquarium.org/animals/sea-otter.   Shedd Aquarium staff report that Qilak is settling in well. This photo is from when he first arrived at Shedd (photo: Shedd Aquarium)   About Northern Sea Otters The northern sea otter subspecies (E. lutris kenyoni), is found in the Aleutian Islands, Southern Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington. Within Alaska, there are three stocks. The Southeast stock can be found in the coastal waters of Southeast Alaska. The Southcentral population spans from west of Glacier Bay to the eastern edge of Cook Inlet. The Southwest population stretches from the western edge of Cook Inlet out the Aleutian Islands. In Alaska, sea otter populations in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska have stabilized or are continuing to increase. However, in Southwest Alaska, sea otters have experienced a sharp population decline in the last 20 years. The sea otter species as a whole are listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List, while the northern sea otter is listed as “Threatened.” Main threats in the wild include predation, overharvest, fishery interactions, disease, and oil spill. Their main prey species include sea urchins, crabs, clams, mussels, octopus, fish, and other marine invertebrates. Sea otter teeth are adapted for crushing hard-shelled invertebrates such as clams, urchins, and crabs.   About the Alaska SeaLife Center Opened in 1998, the Alaska SeaLife Center operates as a private, non-profit research institution and a public aquarium. It generates and shares scientific knowledge to promote understanding and stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystems. The ASLC is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. To learn more, visit www.alaskasealife.org.   About Shedd Aquarium The John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago sparks compassion, curiosity and conservation for the aquatic animal world. Home to 32,000 aquatic animals representing 1,500 species of fishes, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, birds and mammals from waters around the globe, Shedd is a recognized leader in animal care, conservation education and research. An accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA), the organization is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and supported by the people of Chicago, the State of Illinois and the Chicago Park District. www.sheddaquarium.org  

animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('B', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         Developing a research project proposal is hard work. In order to receive funding for their project, scientists must be able to explain what they hope to learn and why their proposed question is worth answering. For Antarctic research, scientists must have their project selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which coordinates all United States research in Antarctica. As you can imagine, it's a competitive application process! In 21st-century science, it's all about collaboration. The NSF knows that scientific discoveries are made when scientists with different skills team up to answer a question. Dr. Jo-Ann Mellish and her colleagues, Dr. Horning and Dr. Hindle, agree. This team of physiologists have worked together before and value the expertise each individual brings to the group. Without Dr. Horning's special knack for engineering instruments, Dr. Hindle's expertise in modeling data, or Dr. Mellish's skill at assessing animal health, this project would never have made it past the proposal stage. In addition to the benefit of varying skill-sets, working as a team gives scientists a chance to bounce ideas off one another. Talking about ideas leads to better research questions - and to successful collaborations like this one, carried out with support from the National Science Foundation (award #1043779). VIDEO: RESEARCH QUESTIONS Dr. Allyson Hindle explains the team's research questions for the Weddell seal project. (1:23) Video Transcript Dr. Allyson Hindle: “ My name is Allyson Hindle, and I’m a post doctoral researcher. I’m one of the Co-PI’s (Co-Principal Investigators) on this project. I work with a lot of the data on the back end. “One of the questions that we asked was whether changing sea ice conditions might have an impact on seals that depend on the ice. One of the first things that we needed to do, and really the central piece to this project is to look at how much it costs: How much energy does it cost a seal to stay warm in the water compared to on the ice? So in cold water, or in cold air. “I’m an animal physiologist, so I’m interested in the processes that help an animal function, the internal biology of the animal. All of those internal processes help animals do different things that are necessary for survival, like digesting food, staying warm (thermoregulation), contraction of their muscles so that they can swim, all those types of things. “I’m really interested in taking our data and trying to get as many numbers as I can for all of those biological, physiological processes, and then putting it together so that we can make some estimates and predictions about how these animals will live if the environment changes.” Understanding how changes in sea ice cover will impact polar seals hinges on a broader understanding of how different conditions change a seal's ability to thermoregulate. People have known for a long time that water and air have very different physical properties. One difference is in the way that water and air conduct heat. Scientists have calculated that water pulls heat away from a seal's body as much as 4.5 times faster than air. Brrrr! Knowing this, Dr. Hindle and the team believe that polar seals' ability to thermoregulate will be negatively affected if changing sea ice conditions alter the way these species budget the time they spend on ice and and in water. Further, the team hypothesizes that changes in sea ice will affect some animals more than others. They expect that larger animals with more blubber will have a greater buffer against environmental change, while smaller, leaner animals may face more challenges. VIDEO: RESEARCH METHODS Dr. Jo-Ann Mellish describes why McMurdo Sound's Weddell seals were the perfect population to study to test the team's hypotheses. (1:33) Video Transcript Dr. Jo-Ann Mellish: “Weddell seals were perfect for this project because we have an enormous size range to work with. We’ve got weaned pups all the way up to adult females. Not only do we have this body mass range, but during the breeding season we can also get animals that are in really good condition, so one size and really, really fat and those are our weaned pups. “We can get the same size animal that’s really, really lean and that’s our first year or second year juveniles, who are about the same size but they’ve just had their first year of foraging by themselves and they’re not quite as chunky. “Then we’ve got adult females who are enormous. Some of these females are back just to breed, they don’t have a pup that year so they are in ridiculously good health, they have more blubber than you can shake a stick at! Then you’ve got these other females that are the same frame size, but they just finished supporting a pup for the last four to six weeks. So there can be a 100 kilogram (220 pounds) difference in two animals of the same age and the same frame size. So we’ve got big and small, and lean and fat. We've got these four groups of animals that we can look at differences in how they forage, differences in how much energy they burn in a day, and differences in what kind of buffer they might have to adapt to a changing environment.“ In order to test their hypotheses, the team needed to develop a plan. Among the questions they needed to answer were: How would they determine which seals to study and what tools would they use to study the seals once they'd chosen them? These challenges had to be carefully considered before the team traveled to the ice. After all, once you board the plane for Antarctica, there’s no going back for something you forgot!       WHO IS STUDYING SEALS?   PHYSIOLOGIST (n) - a biologist who studies the processes that help living things function   COLLABORATION (n) - the action of working with others to do or create something   ENGINEER (v) - to design or build something   MODEL (n) - in science, a representation of data that makes something easier to quantify, predict, or understand   THERMOREGULATION (n) - the ability to maintain a constant body temperature under changing conditions   DATA (n) - values for something measured   HYPOTHESIZE (v) - to propose an anwer to a scientific question   BLUBBER (n) - an insulating fat possessed by many marine mammals    

Accredited zoos and aquariums are saving more than 30 endangered species and the Alaska SeaLife Center Plays a Leading Role. Seward, Alaska (November 17, 2014) – As American families prepare for the annual ritual of giving thanks, they can add to their list of things to be thankful for a rare victory in the battle against global climate change – more than 30 endangered species brought back from the brink of extinction thanks to America’s accredited zoos and aquariums.  With climate change, population growth and deforestation, and poaching threatening species around the world, we are facing what scientists call the “Sixth Extinction.”  But the 229 accredited members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums have built a unique infrastructure to save endangered species – breeding programs that coordinate across many institutions to ensure genetic diversity, systems so that animals can be safely moved between institutions, and partnerships with local, national, and international conservation organizations working on re-introducing these animals to their native ranges.  Because of that infrastructure, there is good news in the face of the extinction crisis:  from the Florida manatee to the California condor, the Hawaiian crow to the Puerto Rican crested toad, the Chinese alligator to the American bison, zoos and aquariums have saved more than 30 species, and are working today on dozens more. Over the next several months, AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums will be celebrating these successes, and inviting the public to support efforts to save even more species.  In November, in honor of Thanksgiving, AZA is spotlighting endangered birds, including: ·         All four species of eider sea ducks saw a decline in population from the 1970s to the 1990s, and two of the species are currently listed as threatened in the U.S.: thespectacled eider and the Alaska-breeding population of Steller’s eider.  For over thirteen years, the Eider Research Program at the Alaska SeaLife Center has conducted field, laboratory, and captive studies on Steller’s and spectacled eiders in Alaska.  Currently, the Alaska SeaLife Center houses captive breeding flocks of both spectacled and Steller’s eiders, making the organization the only facility in the world to house these species for research and conservation purposes.  The Steller’s eiders at the Alaska SeaLife Center serve as a unique reservoir flock of the threatened Steller’s eiders in Alaska, and the Center works in close partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop methods to recover the threatened eiders in Alaska. ·         Bali mynah have striking white plumage with black wing tips and bright blue coloration around the eyes. The species can approach 10 inches in height.  Bali mynahs are nearly extinct in the wild because poachers collect them for the illegal pet trade, where they are valued for their striking plumage and beautiful songs. Because of this poaching, Bali mynahs are found almost exclusively in zoos.   But much has been done to help the Bali mynah's wild population recover, including protection of their native breeding grounds.  In 1987, 40 Bali mynahs from US zoos were sent to the Surbaja Zoo in Indonesia to form a breeding group, with resulting offspring released into the wild. In 2009, Bali mynahs raised in managed care were introduced to a neighboring island, Nusa Penida, and seem to be doing well so far. ·         The largest bird in North America, the California condor once dominated the western skies, able to soar to 15,000 feet and travel up to 150 miles a day in pursuit of food.  With its keen vision, the condor hunts for carcasses of dead animals, and then swoops in to feast, serving as nature’s clean-up crew.  But destruction of habitat and poaching decimated the species, and by 1982, only 22 birds remained in the wild.  The San Diego Zoo Global, the Los Angeles Zoo and 16 other AZA institutions took the lead at captive propagation, working with a network of government and non-profit partners.  Beginning in the early 1990s, zoo-bred condors began being reintroduced into the wild.  From a low of 22, there are now more than 435 condors in the world, with almost 250 free-flying in the West. ·         Prior to the 1960s, there were probably around 10,000 Guam rails living on Guam, a South Pacific island. Sometime between 1944 and 1952, brown tree snakes arrived on Guam, most likely on cargo ships. The snakes’ population rapidly increased, because there was plentiful prey (such as the Guam rails) and no natural predators. The tree snakes wiped out the native animal populations, and by the 1970s, 9 of the 11 native bird species, including the Guam rail, had disappeared.  Trying to save the species, the last few birds were removed from the island in the 1980s. In 1989, reintroduction of these birds began on the island of Rota, near Guam, as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Species Survival Plan® (SSP) for the species. ·         The palila Hawaiian songbird is one of the endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper species and efforts to expand the palila population back to its historic range at Pu`u Mali have included experimental releases of captive-bred birds, as well as relocation of wild birds to protected areas. The palila was the first animal to have a federal circuit court case named after it, in a precedent setting case that increased protection for endangered species.  While several zoos are working to preserve the palila, they are not currently on exhibit to the public. ·         Known in Hawaii as Alala, the Hawaiian crow is the most endangered corvid in the world and is the only crow species found in Hawaii. The birds are extinct in the wild, and the remaining population is managed at zoos, where the chicks are fed and cared for by animal care staff they never see to ensure they do not imprint on humans.  The last `alalā were recorded in their natural habitat in 2002. Planning is underway to restore the `alalā to the Big Island of Hawaii beginning this year.  ·         The Waldrapp ibis, also known as the hermit ibis or the northern bald ibis, may not be viewed by some as the most attractive bird, but their strong character and bizarre appearance give them unique appeal. They look almost comical with their bald heads, long red beaks and crazy crest feathers going every which way. Their black feathers take on brilliant sheens of purple, green and orange when viewed in bright sunlight. With only about 420 wild Waldrapp ibis remaining, this is one of the world's most critically endangered avian species.  But thanks to a very successful breeding and release program, there are over 1,100 Waldrapp ibis in captivity, and offspring from zoos are being released back to the wild.  For a list of AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums where you can see some of these incredible birds in person, please visit the AZA website: http://www.aza.org/SpeciesBeingSaved. About AZA Founded in 1924, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, animal welfare, education, science, and recreation. AZA is the accrediting body for the top zoos and aquariums in the United States and six other countries. Look for the AZA accreditation logo whenever you visit a zoo or aquarium as your assurance that you are supporting a facility dedicated to providing excellent care for animals, a great experience for you, and a better future for all living things. The AZA is a leader in saving species and your link to helping animals all over the world. To learn more, visit www.aza.org. About the ASLC Opened in 1998, the Alaska SeaLife Center operates as a private, non-profit research institution and public aquarium, with wildlife response and education departments. It generates and shares scientific knowledge to promote understanding and stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystems.  The ASLC is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. To learn more, visit www.alaskasealife.org.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the death of Richard C. Hocking, the Alaska SeaLife Center’s esteemed Aquarium Curator of 24 years. Richard passed away November 21 at his home in Seward at the age of 70. Richard was born in Seattle, Washington on April 16, 1951. His curiosity about the natural world was evident from a young age when he declared his intentions to become a forest ranger. He loved camping and exploring at a little forested lot near the Skykomish River as well as during many family trips throughout his home state of Washington and to various national parks. Richard enjoyed numerous hobbies including reading on a variety of subjects, backpacking, skiing, kayaking, photography, movies, traveling, and scuba diving. Diving in particular became a prominent interest in his life as evidenced by his PADI divemaster certification in 1983. While Richard’s job with the Washington Department of Fish and Game paralleled his childhood dreams of being a forest ranger, his passion for the ocean truly defined his life's work. For over four decades, Richard grew his career in the zoo and aquarium industry. He began his legacy in 1976 with the Seattle Aquarium as an Aquarium Biologist. He worked there up until 1989 when he became employed with the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium as an Animal Care Technician and additionally assisted with diving and collecting operations. His time at Point Defiance ended when he left for Alaska in 1997.  Richard began his career at the Alaska SeaLife Center as the Aquarium Supervisor in 1997, before the building was even finished. He quickly was promoted to Aquarium Curator in 1998, a role he upheld until his passing. While he significantly shaped the aquarium exhibits and led the division at the Center, his management role never stopped him from doing any task; from checking water quality to leading a tour, Richard took part. “Richard was truly an ASLC treasure. Both a teacher and a student, he had a gift for sharing his endless knowledge of marine species and a passion for marine conservation. His contributions to ASLC for the past 24 years can be seen and felt through all of the exhibits,” explains Husbandry Director, Lisa Hartman. Richard was known as one of the most hands-on curators in the building. While his main role was managing a group of aquarists to maintain and display the species in the Center, he immersed himself in many other aspects of ASLC. Richard managed and secured permits that allow the Center to collect and display fish and invertebrates. He was very involved in the long term monitoring of invasive species in Alaskan waters and would often set and check green crab traps and tunicate plates. He not only was in charge of food procurement and inventory management for fish and invertebrates, but for every single species in the facility.   Always looking towards the future, Richard hoped to educate and motivate the next generation of ocean stewards. He found joy in working with youth and became involved in the Center’s after-school program, Ocean Science Club, leading dissections and classes. Richard was also active as a judge and mentor for the Alaska Ocean Science Bowl, an academic competition for teens involved in ocean science. “Richard knew more about the ocean and the creatures in it than anyone I have or more likely ever will meet.  The only thing that he enjoyed more than learning about the world's oceans was teaching others about it.  He got particular joy out of teaching the next generation about the wonders of the sea. I remember fondly how much he loved the time he got to spend as a judge for the Alaska Ocean Sciences Bowl and as a mentor for the Seward Team. Can you think of a better job for Richard than being a judge in an Alaska Ocean Science competition? I can't,” expresses Aquarist, Chuck DiMarzio.  Richard will be remembered for his kindness, infinite knowledge, selfless work, and inspiring conversation. In 2017, his coworkers fittingly designated him as the “Unsung Hero” for making a consistently important contribution to the day to day operations of the Alaska SeaLife Center. “If you know the ASLC, you know the impact and resource of Richard Hocking. He was a purveyor and connoisseur of biology and natural history, just as eager and willing to share with or learn from a first year college intern as he was a professor emeritus. If you knew Richard, you knew he valued people, what each individual may uniquely be able to offer, and great conversation,” recounts Aquarium Manager and Dive Safety Officer, Jared Guthridge.  A public memorial exhibit to celebrate the life of Richard C. Hocking will be open December 8, 2021 at the Alaska SeaLife Center from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM. The life, work, and stories of Richard will be displayed throughout the Center and the public can tour at their own pace. A more formal outdoor memorial service is being planned for Spring 2022.

  Get ready for a summer of ocean discovery at the Alaska SeaLife Center! With camps designed for a range of age groups, each week blends hands-on activities, animal observations, and real science happening in our region. Campers will explore Alaska’s marine ecosystems up close through behind-the-scenes experiences, creative projects, and field-based learning connected to Resurrection Bay. Registration is open now – click below to reserve a spot     Jr. SeaLife Discovery Camp June 8 - 12 Ages 6 - 8yrs   Drop off: 8:30 am – 9:00 am Camp: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm Snacks provided. Campers should bring their own lunch.   Wonder, Discover, and Explore at the Alaska SeaLife Center! This playful, discovery-filled camp sparks a love of learning through hands-on experiments, art, cultural activities, and interactive games. Campers explore Alaska’s unique ecosystems, see fascinating animals up close, and uncover the wonders of the natural world. Daily adventures include tours of the Alaska SeaLife Center, real research activities, and creative projects that build confidence, friendships, and a deeper connection to nature.       Ocean Explorers Camp June 22 - 26 Ages 9 - 11yrs   Drop off: 8:30 am – 9:00 am Camp: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Snacks provided. Campers should bring their own lunch.   Dive into an unforgettable ocean adventure at the Alaska SeaLife Center! This week-long camp brings Alaska’s marine world to life. Campers will enjoy hands-on activities, games, animal observations, SeaLife Center visits, and engaging scientific exploration. Each day offers fun, exploration, and a chance to connect with the marine environment, experience the wonders of Resurrection Bay, and dive into real science happening right here in our region.         Marine Science Camp July 20 - 24 Ages 12 - 15yrs   Drop off: 8:30 am – 9:00 am Camp: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Snacks provided. Campers should bring their own lunch.   Plunge into a world of marine science at the Alaska SeaLife Center! This week-long summer camp is perfect for ocean lovers and budding scientists. Become a junior scientist as you explore Alaska’s amazing marine animals, uncover the secrets of local ecosystems, and learn about conservation in action. Spend your days in the lab, observing marine life, doing fieldwork in Resurrection Bay, and discovering creative ways to share what you’ve learned about Alaska’s waters.    

Seward, Alaska (October 31, 2016)– The Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) is pleased to announce it has received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to work with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to create and sustain a nationwide network of animal care professionals to respond to oil spills and other disasters. “We are honored to lead this unprecedented effort to create a vital national resource for wildlife response in the event of oil spills and other disasters,” said Tara Riemer, ASLC President and CEO. “By sharing the expertise and knowledge of the Alaska SeaLife Center with animal care professionals at AZA accredited zoos and aquariums, we will significantly enhance disaster preparedness across the United States. We are very grateful to the Institute of Museum and Library Services for recognizing this need and supporting this ground-breaking effort.” The Alaska SeaLife Center has nearly twenty years of experience in wildlife response. Under the three-year $455,119 grant, ASLC will work with the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center (WHC) of the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, to develop and deliver training courses, a mutual aid framework, and searchable database to facilitate rapid identification and deployment of appropriately trained specialists from the AZA community. “Disasters do happen, and we have a responsibility to prepare as thoroughly as possible to support wildlife and the animals in our care,” said ASLC Operations Director Chip Arnold, the project director. “We look forward to collaborating with our AZA colleagues to ensure the nation’s most highly trained veterinary and wildlife care staff are prepared to respond to disasters where and when the need is greatest.” Obstacles faced by animal care professionals in previous disasters will also be addressed, including provision of federally required Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, or HAZWOPER, certification, and training on the nationally recognized Incident Command System that manages responses to oil spills and other disasters. Updates and refresher certification programs for those previously trained will also be provided, and a train-the-trainer program will be implemented to broaden the network’s reach and support its sustainability. In addition to supporting wildlife response, the trainings will support preservation of animal collections at zoos and aquariums in the event of natural disasters. “Disaster preparedness is a priority for zoo and aquarium collections and wildlife,” said Steve Olson, Federal Relations, Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “Bringing the cutting edge expertise of the Alaska SeaLife Center to the AZA community is vitally important to our mission and the public.”   About ASLC: Opened in 1998, the Alaska SeaLife Center operates as a 501(c)(3), non-profit research institution and public aquarium. It generates and shares scientific knowledge to promote understanding and stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystems. The ASLC is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. To learn more, visit www.alaskasealife.org.   About WHC: The mission of the WHC is to advance the health of wildlife in balance with people and the environment. Through our projects and programs, we focus on critical issues involving free-ranging and captive terrestrial and aquatic wild animals. As key components of the One Health Institute and the School of Veterinary Medicine, we provide broad-based service, training and research activities as they relate to wildlife health and conservation. To learn more, visit http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/whc/. About IMLS: The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov. About AZA: The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation. AZA represents more than 230 institutions in the United States and overseas, which collectively draw more than 183 million visitors every year. These institutions meet the highest standards in animal care and provide a fun, safe, and educational family experience. In addition, they dedicate millions of dollars to support scientific research, conservation, and education programs. To learn more visit www.aza.org. 

  animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('B', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         Thousands of individual animals died as a result the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Some died soon after contact with the oil. Others died more slowly as a result of the toxins. It is difficult to measure how animal populations continue to be affected by contact with oil after the cleanup. The long-term harm from chronic exposure to the chemicals in oil remains a problem in some areas, especially where oil can still be found under rocks. Since 1990, scientists have been gathering data about locations where oil continues to linger, as well as the movement of toxic chemicals throughout the Prince William Sound ecosystem. The Lingering Oil project is studying the recovery of harlequin duck and northern sea otter populations in Prince William Sound because there are long-term health concerns for both of these populations. The Gulf Watch Alaska team is collecting data by taking samples in both oiled and non-oiled sites in Prince William Sound. Click on the images below to learn more about these two species. Scientists use a variety of skills to capture ducks and otters in order to collect tissue samples. These methods are designed to safely capture the animals and then release them unharmed. According to Dr. Esler, “It might not be the greatest day for the animals, [but] their long-term survival is not compromised.” To capture harlequin ducks, the team uses a floating mist net. This net sits above the water like an invisible wall. As the ducks come in for a landing, they are trapped in the net. Researchers can then safely remove the ducks and take them to the veterinarian for sampling. Capturing sea otters is a bit more challenging. These cute and fuzzy creatures are, in fact, the largest member of the weasel family (the Mustelids). This is a group of animals who are not known for their sweet and cuddly personalities. Think of a sea otter as a floating badger or wolverine! Watch the video below to see divers use a Wilson Trap to safely capture and handle sea otters for sampling. VIDEO: Capturing Sea Otters United States Geological Survey (USGS) video showing how divers use Wilson traps to capture sea otters in the wild. (3:53) Video Transcript (This video contains music and some ambient sounds but no dialogue.) Watch the video below to learn more about the scientists' field work as they monitor the effects of lingering oil in Prince William Sound. VIDEO: Lingering Oil Dan Esler describes how scientists are studying the effects of lingering oil on harlequin ducks and sea otters. (1:48) Video Transcript The lingering oil studies occur in western Prince William Sound, which is where the oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill landed, and actually there’s still some oil out there today – small pockets of oil that’s buried in sediments on beaches, throughout western Prince William Sound. So that’s where the lingering oil issues are still important to track. From the USGS perspective, we’re looking at effects of that lingering oil on wildlife. So considering effects of exposure to that lingering oil, and also to understand what that might mean to individuals and populations of the wildlife that live out there. The main species that we’re thinking about in terms of lingering oil are harlequin ducks and sea otters, and that’s because there’s a long history of understanding that lingering oil’s been an important constraint on population recovery of those two species, and so we’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the timeline and the mechanisms by which those species are recovering from the oil spill. We’ve measured exposure in a number of different ways. For example, with harlequin ducks we’ve used an enzyme called cytochrome P450 1A. It’s a long word basically for an enzyme that gets induced when any vertebrate’s exposed to hydrocarbons. So if you and I were exposed to oil, we would have an induction of that enzyme that would be measurable and then could tell us whether one has been exposed to that. The enzyme itself is part of a cascade of physiological processes that any vertebrate goes through once they’ve been exposed to oil. And it could be indicative of physiological harm, or it could be indicative of just exposure without physiological harm. So we’re not inferring harm from induction of the enzyme, what we’re inferring is that they’re still exposed to oil with the potential for harm.         Who is watching the Gulf?   Concentration (n): the amount of something in a specific place or given volume   Recovery (n): a return to a normal state of health   Tissue sampling (n): various procedures to obtain bodily fluids, muscle, skin, fur or feathers for testing  

animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() animatedcollapse.addDiv('B', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()           Nearshore and benthic (bottom-dwelling) organisms are good gauges of change in the environment. Many are sedentary, sensitive to change, and easy to access for study. Scientists are usually more able to discover the source of change in this kind of habitat. Once those sources are found, they can identify and compare changes that are natural from those that are man-made. Click the image below to discover the different zones of the nearshore ecosystem. The Nearshore Ecosystems team collects data in the tidal areas. Researchers are focused on learning about the variety and abundance of the species living at sites in Prince William Sound, the outer Kenai Peninsula, and Lower Cook Inlet. This data will help scientists find answers for questions like: • Is the nearshore environment changing significantly from year to year? • Have resources in this environment recovered from the 1989 oil spill? If not, are there reasons other than the oil spill? • Are changes in offshore conditions also causing changes in the nearshore habitats? This project focuses on organisms that are considered crucial to the nearshore ecosystem’s health. One such key species is the black oystercatcher. These shorebirds are good candidates for monitoring projects because they have a long lifespan. Over that lifetime, the oystercatcher lives in and depends upon intertidal habitats. This is where they mate, nest, and raise their young. Even though black oystercatchers aren’t benthic animals, they eat a diet of creatures that are. Their menu of mussels, limpets, and chitons are easily effected by changes in the environment. If oystercatchers aren’t healthy, it probably means that something significant has happened to the shellfish that they eat. Click on the image below to learn more about the black oystercatcher, a critical species of the Nearshore Benthic Systems in the Gulf of Alaska project. Click the audio icon to hear the call of the black oystercatcher. Scientists, like the National Park Service’s Heather Coletti, are trying to address the following questions: • Are the numbers of black oystercatcher nests changing from year to year? • Is the number of eggs or chicks in each nest changing? • Are chicks supplied with the same variety and amount of food each year? • Does this data change from one location to another? Heather and her team monitor the habitat of black oystercatchers using a variety of methods, including the use of shoreline transects to survey nest sites and sample prey remains at oystercatcher nesting sites. VIDEO: Monitoring Nearshore Systems Heather Coletti describes her work studying black oystercatchers for the nearshore systems component of Gulf Watch Alaska. (1:50) Video Transcript The nearshore is that interface between the terrestrial system – land – and the oceans. And there are several influences from the ocean that meet at the nearshore and then we have anthropogenic and natural influences from the terrestrial, and in some heavily populated areas that’s pollution and runoff, and how the nearshore really is affected by all those influences. And it’s essentially where the densest human populations live, along the coasts. Our program is essentially monitoring the nearshore food web. So we start out at the sea grasses and algae, which are the primary producers of that system. And then we look at invertebrates – benthic invertebrates – whether it’s mussels, clams, limpets… And then we have surveys for higher trophic level predators, like your sea ducks, sea otters, sea stars. We monitor oystercatchers, which are a pretty charismatic shorebird that is essentially confined to the nearshore and the intertidal. They feed exclusively in the intertidal on benthic invertebrates. So that’s your mussels, your limpets, that’s their two primary food sources, but they’ll eat some barnacles and some worms. So we have several aspects of their biology that we are monitoring. The goal of any monitoring program is to look at change over time and understand change over time, what’s driving it and if there’s any way to predict what those outcomes may be. That’s ultimately the goal and we are in our first few years of monitoring, and right now looking at what the natural variation in these systems is like. That hasn’t been fully documented yet.       Who is watching the Gulf?   Abundance (n): the quantity or amount of something   Benthic (adj): pertaining to the seafloor and the organisms that live there   Data (n): values for something measured   Density (n): the number of inhabitants per unit of area   Distribution (n): the way in which something is spread over an area   Intertidal (n): the benthic shore area between the extreme reaches of high and low tides   Nearshore (n): the marine zone that extends from the high tide line to depths of about 20 meters   Organism (n): an individual life form   Prey (n): an animal taken by predators as food   Riparian zone (n): the area of land next to a lake, river, stream, or wetland   Subtidal (n): the benthic area below low tide that is covered by water most of the time and exposed briefly during extreme low tides   Tide (n): the alternate rising and falling of the sea at a particular place, due to the gravitional attraction of the moon and sun   Transect (n): a path along which scientists count animal populations and plant distributions    

  animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() The Gulf of Alaska is part of the North Pacific and reaches from the Alaska Peninsula in the west to the Alaska archipelago in the southeast.  The coastline includes mountains, glaciers, temperate forests, towns, and cities. Powerful currents in the Gulf of Alaska have helped shape the surrounding land and communities, and circulate necessary nutrients and marine life from the deep waters to the surface. These circulation patterns allow the Gulf of Alaska to thrive with life and sustain some of the largest United States’ fisheries, as well as provide essential habitats for seabirds, marine mammals, and fish to feed and reproduce. As described in Gulf Watch Alaska: Long-term Monitoring, the Gulf of Alaska was impacted by a major oil spill on March 24, 1989. The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil. An estimated  250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 orcas, and billions of salmon and herring eggs were lost to the spill. Since the spill, scientists have been conducting a long-term ecosystem monitoring study to gain a better understanding of both natural and human-caused impacts to the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem. The Gulf Watch Alaska long-term monitoring program consists of a team of scientists who work together to measure and watch different parts of the ecosystem spill area. Through cooperation in this project, scientists can see the links, or connections, between all of their areas of study. In science, we call this “systems thinking.” Systems thinking looks at the web of relationships where individual pieces respond on their own and together as a whole. An ecosystem like the Gulf of Alaska is not just a collection of individual animals and plants. It is all living things interacting with each other and with the non-living components around them that drive physical and chemical processes and affect the conditions for survival. The process of systems thinking allows the Gulf Watch Alaska team to harness the power of a network of scientists that all specialize in different research subjects. This power makes the team of scientists well-equipped to solve any mysteries unfolding in the Gulf of Alaska. One such mystery arose in 2014 when people across the Pacific West coast began to notice large quantities of dead or dying birds washing up all along the shore from California to Alaska. As this event expanded, scientists began investigating the intricate network of natural processes in the Gulf to try and uncover the mystery of these dying birds. Yosty Storms is a former colleague at Gulf Watch Alaska. She is now working for the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program in Anchorage. Recently, Yosty has heard a lot of talk regarding the birds washing ashore, as well as other very unusual events happening throughout the Gulf and surrounding land areas. Let’s follow along as Yosty visits with the Gulf Watch Alaska team and investigates these odd occurrences. Watch the video below and meet Yosty! VIDEO: Meet Yosty Storms Meet Yosty Storms and learn about a mystery occurring in the Gulf of Alaska. (1:42) Video Transcript Narrator: Meet Yosty Storms. Yosty works at the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program in Anchorage. But when she was a student she worked with Gulf Watch Alaska. That's a long-term monitoring program looking at a large range of the North Pacific Ocean, especially the area impacted by a massive oil spill back in 1989. This area has taken a very long time to recover, because some of that oil is lingering on the beaches and offshore. That oil continues to affect the health of fish and other wildlife. Gulf Watch Alaska is a team of amazing scientists who are "on watch" for this ecosystem, keeping tabs on its recovery from the oil spill, and to see if they can detect other sorts of changes – the kinds that might be the result of global climate change. The majority of Alaskans live in communities along the coastline of the Gulf of Alaska, or within the watersheds that drain into it. Some of these communities, like here in Cordova, are dependent on the Gulf of Alaska for their local economy and jobs. Others, like the Native Village of Eyak, have over 10,000 years of history in this region. Everyone at Gulf Watch Alaska agreed that 2014, 2015, and 2016 were very, very unusual years for the ecosystem. So let’s go along with Yosty to see if we can put the mystery together. The first question Yosty wanted to ask some of the scientists was: just how unusual were these years?         Who is watching the Blob?   Archipelago (n): a section of water containing many islands   Cooperation (n): working together to accomplish a goal   Ecosystem (n): a community of living things and nonliving surroundings linked together by energy and nutrient exchange   Essential (adj): something that is necessary or very important   Habitat (n): a place that provides an animal or plant with adequate food, water, shelter, and living space to feed, breed, seek shelter, and raise young   Intricate (adj): very detailed, complex   Lingering (adj): sticking around, lasting for a long time   Sustain (v): strengthen or support physically or mentally   Thrive (v): to be healthy and successful   Watershed (n): an area of land that contains a common set of streams or rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water, such as the ocean    

    animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init() WELCOME, TEACHERS! The Alaska SeaLife Center and Gulf Watch Alaska are excited to present this virtual field trip (VFT)! Join the Gulf Watch Alaska team of scientists as they discover the mechanisms behind a mystery unfolding in the Gulf of Alaska. Learn about the work of a collaborative team of scientists from many different ocean science disciplines, and follow along with the narrator as she explores the scientists’ process of initially observing unusual phenomena in the Gulf of Alaska and seek to discover the causes and connections. You can use this VFT in conjunction with the “Gulf Watch Alaska: Long-term monitoring” VFT, or as a stand-alone piece. GRADE LEVEL: 6-8th TIME NEEDED: Between one and four 1-hour class periods (teachers may choose to use all or only some of the supplementary lessons). NUTSHELL: Students will learn about the mystery of the seabird die-off that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska, during the winter of 2015 – 2016. They will explore various aspects of the investigation and how, collectively, the scientists were able to begin uncovering the mechanisms behind the extreme die-off event.   LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After completing this virtual field trip, students will be able to: • Understand the process of scientific thinking and the use of the Scientific Method as a tool to develop questions and search for answers. • Understand the collaborative nature of science and how researchers from various disciplines working together can provide a ‘big picture’ view of a dynamic marine ecosystem. • Explain how an ecosystem is composed of many different components, including physical and chemical processes that drive the ecosystem and determine the conditions for survival of marine life. • Use evidence to make a claim about the cause or causes of a change in a population. BACKGROUND: In this virtual field trip, students will meet various scientists and researchers working for the Gulf Watch Alaska long-term ecosystem monitoring program, a project of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, investigating the marine ecosystems since the 1989 oil spill. This program focusses on a recent mystery that has unfolded in the Gulf of Alaska, beginning with the observation of an extreme seabird die-off event. Organized into three main pages, this VFT follows researchers along on an investigation to uncover what caused this mortality event. This VFT can be used in a number of ways. Individuals may navigate through the pages on their own and meet the scientists through the links provided on the right-hand bar. Self-guided exploration can be completed in a couple of hours. Alternatively, teachers may facilitate a structured experience, working through each page of the VFT together in class. Lesson plans (links included on the right-hand column of this page) are available to supplement online content. TO USE THIS VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP YOU WILL NEED: • Internet access, video streaming capabilities • Projection system (with audio) to display content or a computer lab (with headphones) • Corresponding lesson plans (linked as PDFs in the right hand column of this page) UNABLE TO RUN THE STREAMING VERSION? REQUEST A FREE COPY OF ALL MATERIALS ON CD BY EMAILING education@alaskasealife.org. CONTACT US: If you have any questions about this virtual field trip, please contact the Alaska SeaLife Center Education Department at education@alaskasealife.org or 907-224-6306. For more information on all the classes and programs we offer, including our inquiry-based Distance Learning programs, visit our website at www.alaskasealife.org.         CURRICULUM SUPPLEMENTS Use the .pdf links below to access classroom activities for each section of the Gulf Watch Alaska virtual field trip experience. Lesson 1: Observation Observation Poster Template Lesson 2: Investigation Lesson 3: Discovery          

Seward, Alaska (January 15, 2015) - Science meets art as the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) brings the Buzz Saw Sharks of Long Ago exhibit to Seward, Alaska. The exhibit is on loan from the Idaho Museum of Natural History (IMNH) and is done in collaboration with Ray Troll. Areas around the aquarium will be transformed into the Paleozoic marine world of the humongous, whorl-toothed shark.   “Summer of Sharks” at the Alaska SeaLife Center opens April 17 with fossils, sculptures, and artwork featuring the majestic Helicoprion. This prehistoric giant is the world’s only animal – past or present – with a complete 360-degree spiral of teeth. Imagine a fearsome behemoth equipped with a circular blade of teeth and strong jaws that researchers believe crimped and cut its prey.   The Buzzsaw Shark roamed the Permian Seas more than 270 million years ago. Now, it has come back to life thanks to the informed imagination of Alaskan artist Ray Troll and Idaho State University researchers.  Obsessing over this prehistoric marine species for more than 20 years, Troll is now the go-to guy for all things Helicoprion. Detailed artwork from Troll include a 17.5-foot-long by 8-foot-high mural of sharks, as well as 21 individual pieces. His colorful artwork combined with informational graphics explore a side of scientific history you have never seen before.   Sculptures by artist Gary Staab welcome visitors as they travel back in time. A hanging 15-foot shark sculpture and a giant shark head bursting through the wall watch over visitors as they are immersed in Troll’s ode to this extinct creature. The exhibit, which was previously at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington, also includes four fossils of the shark’s unusual and complex whorl dentition dug from Idaho phosphate mines. Three casts of rare fossils and an interactive shark jaw showcase the power of the animal kingdom’s most unusual set of teeth.  “I’m really excited to have the ‘Buzz Saw Sharks of Long Ago’ be a big part of the Alaska SeaLife Center's ‘Summer of Sharks.’ I think visitors to this special exhibit will find the fossils, life-sized models and colorful artwork to be pretty amazing. I can guarantee that folks have never seen sharks like these ancient wonders before. It's going to be wonderful to get to share them with my fellow Alaskans,” Ray Troll said recently when asked about the exhibit. Children and adults alike will enjoy a humorous documentary film about the artist as they sit on a whorl-patterned “art couch,” activate the whorl tooth mechanism, “walk the whorl,” and ponder the incredible bite of a “large-as-life” Helicoprion head.  “This is the Alaska SeaLife Center’s first traveling exhibit, and we are thrilled to have such scientifically significant artifacts and the fantastic artwork of Ray Troll here at the Center. This is a milestone for ASLC and a major event for Alaska,” President and CEO Dr. Tara Riemer said. Buzzsaw Sharks of Long Ago explores the many ways that people have come to better understand the natural world through mysterious fossils and the quest for creatures of the deep. Troll hopes Buzzsaw Sharks will not only intrigue visitors, but also inspire them to take action and help protect all species of shark and marine life. Summer of Sharks is open April 17 through Labor Day and made possible by our presenting sponsor BP. About the ASLC Opened in 1998, the Alaska SeaLife Center operates as a private, non-profit research institution and public aquarium, with wildlife response and education programs. It generates and shares scientific knowledge to promote understanding and stewardship of Alaska’s marine ecosystems. The ASLC is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. To learn more, visit www.alaskasealife.org. About the IMNH The Idaho Museum of Natural History is home to permanent and special collections in Anthropology, Earth Sciences, and Life Sciences, a place where researchers pursue scholarly study of the collections and publish their findings in peer-reviewed and museum-sponsored publications.  

The Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) and multiple partners responded to a male ringed seal that was found out of his habitat on an oilfield in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea on Dec. 17, 2025. This is the Center’s first ringed seal response in over four years and one of only 30 ringed seals admitted in the Center’s more than 25-year history, making the case exceptional for the ASLC Wildlife Response Program.  The seal, part of the Arctic subspecies listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, was first observed by oilfield operators. Staff contacted NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency that manages the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, for guidance. With coordination from NOAA Fisheries, the ASLC, the local operators, and Alaska Clean Seas, the young ringed seal was brought back to the ice, but repeatedly returned to the oilfield.  The ice extending along the coast of Alaska’s Beaufort Sea is a remote Arctic region where winter sea ice extends miles from shore and is often stacked by high winds, making it unlikely that humans could safely escort the seal to open water. Crews at the oilfield used an auger to drill breathing holes in the ice to encourage the seal to access the sea. Although the seal placed his head in the open holes, he did not swim away. When the seal was found moving into areas with heavy machinery, and taking into account the seasonal low light conditions, he was placed into a crate to prevent accidental injury from vehicles. With continued risk to the animal, NOAA Fisheries authorized transport to the ASLC for rehabilitation (MMPA/ESA Permit #24359).  Any response involving ice seals in Alaska requires careful consideration of regulatory policy and respect for the Indigenous communities that rely on these animals for subsistence. In rehabilitation situations involving Alaska’s four ice seal species (ringed, spotted, bearded, and ribbon), the ASLC follows a precautionary non-release policy developed by NOAA Fisheries, an Alaska Native organization, and the Ice Seal Committee: ice seals transported outside of their natural range for treatment and care are not eligible for release. This policy eliminates the risk of disease transmission between marine ecosystems from these individuals, particularly for animals originating from remote and culturally significant regions. In this case, the collaborative decision to admit this ringed seal was not made lightly, as it shapes this seal’s future.  “This response reflects the complexity of wildlife response in Alaska,” said Jane Belovarac, ASLC Wildlife Response Curator. “Our priority with live animals is always to rehabilitate, release, and see animals thrive in the wild. When relocation efforts in situations like this are unsuccessful, and the animal remaining in place is not safe, we are prepared to provide the specialized care needed to ensure their well-being.” ?Currently, only the ASLC and two other facilities in the United States care for ringed seals. As one of the very few ringed seals in human care and a member of the Arctic subspecies listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, this seal will serve as an important ambassador for his species and teach us more about the challenges that his species faces as Arctic conditions continue to change.  The ASLC remains committed to working alongside federal agencies, Indigenous partners, and industry collaborators to protect the health of ice seal populations and the ecosystems they depend on. This response reflects the complexity of conservation work in Alaska’s rapidly changing Arctic and the importance of thoughtful, collaborative decision-making when human activity and wildlife intersect. We thank the partners and crews involved in the response, including Alaska Clean Seas, the Ice Seal Committee, members of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, and NOAA Fisheries.    The Center acknowledges the ongoing generous support of the Wildlife Response Program from supporters like ConocoPhillips Alaska, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, PetZoo, Partners 4 Wildlife, Matson, GCI,  and a number of individual donors, funds, and foundations such as Stanley J Williams Fund, Mesara Family Foundation, The Theresa Bannister Fund, and the NC Giving Fund.   Call first! Before approaching an injured or stranded marine animal in Alaska, call the  24-hour Stranded Marine Animal Hotline at 1-888-774-SEAL(7325).             

animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         In Antarctica, every day is a work day! If weather permits, the team is up early prepping their gear. Then it's out to the ice for a day of tagging or recapturing seals. When weather conditions are poor, the team spends their time catching up on lab work, downloading data, and maintaining equipment. Watch the video below to learn more about what daily life was like for one of the researchers on this project. VIDEO: A DAY IN THE LIFE John Skinner discusses his daily routine as part of the team working with Weddell seals in Antarctica. (4:21) Video Transcript My name is John Skinner, I’m a Research Associate here at the Alaska SeaLife Center, and I was a part of the team that went down there for this research. Mostly as a logistics coordinator, meaning that I was the one who coordinated all the stuff that we were using out in the field to make sure that it made it from McMurdo station out to the site safely, and that the equipment was being set up properly. A typical day for us was we would start somewhat close to mid-day, because that’s actually the optimal time to find animals hauled out on the ice. We’d get our gear together at the lab and then we would hand carry it out to what they call the Ski-Doo line, where all the snow machines are lined up. My job was to unbury them after the last storm, get them running, warmed up and ready to carry the group out to the field site. Part 1: The Capture When we get out to the site, we have all our equipment and we’ve identified an animal that we’re going to work with that day. One of the huge advantages of the Weddell seals is they just don’t have a response to predators, they don’t really understand that there’s anything dangerous about us. So often a capture event just consisted of walking up to the animal, taking a look to make sure it’s safe for us to approach, and safe for the animal for us to approach, and then taking a large hood, and then sliding it over their head. As soon as the hood goes over they just lay there, and it’s done. They don’t fight, there’s no struggle. We send the vet in and then sedate the animal to make sure that they would be safe to work with. Then my job would kick in, that’s when I would unload the hundred or so pounds of gear and set-up our tripod over the top of the animal and get the animal into a sling, a net the animal could be rolled into, and then hoist the animal into the air and get our weight, our mass. Once we got that mass we would bring out our big tent which was this very compact-when-stored system. We would fold it out, and then basically envelope the people and the animal inside of this tent. Once this was set up we’d work within there safely and actually it was pretty warm inside. First off we would get a blood sample and then we would go ahead and do some measurements of the animal. We need a length and a girth. Then we would start to prep the animal to put the instruments, the data loggers that we use, onto the animal. We had several heat-flux sensors along the animal’s body, at different locations where we’re trying to capture the distribution of heat that the animal is giving off. Then it was just about waking the animal up, making sure that they were happy and healthy before we were willing to let them go off on their own and enter the water again. Part 2: The Recapture When we leave the animal we have a plan for how long they need to stay out in the water for us to collect enough data. So we could sit there at our desks and track the animal’s progress and we had a schedule of when we planned to pick the animal up, but if we saw them moving out towards the open ice edge there was a good possibility we could lose the animal for good and never get those instruments back. So we would track them on a daily basis and see where they were going and then decide pretty much each day a schedule of who we needed to pickup and what a priority that animal would be. We’d start out with a GPS coordinate that we could get from this ARGOS, which is the on-board instrument's tracking system, to head out and we knew approximately where we needed to go. Once we got within a kilometer or two of the animal’s actual location (according to ARGOS) we would use signals from the VHF portion of that, we could track using a handheld antenna. Once we located the animal’s position we would go in and basically assess the situation from a distance, sneaking in and kind of cutting off its path to the water and then putting the hood on it and getting the instruments off and then, just sigh of relief. We don’t stop. Our research is every day, there are no weekends down on the ice. Once back at the station at the end of the day, there's more work to be done. Scientists examine their data, sort and store samples, and clean and repack their gear. Finally, it's time to head to the dining hall, then off to bed to rest up for another day. Scientists come to Antarctica ready to work hard - and the team will continue this daily routine for nearly two months! When the summer melt makes working conditions on the sea ice unsafe, it's time to pack up and return home. Once back in their labs, the science team can finally sit down and begin the process of interpreting their results.       WHO IS STUDYING SEALS?   RECAPTURE (v) - to capture an animal again   INTERPRET (v) - to find the meaning of something  

Overview Our Science Mission The overall goal of our Science Program is to develop an understanding of the role of marine mammals, birds and fish in the arctic and subarctic marine ecosystems, and to generate scientific knowledge relevant to resource management and policy. Our projects focus on Alaska marine life and environments, but reach globally with international collaborations. The Center’s unique geographic location, marine cold water research facilities, live animal collections, and specialized staff allows us to use a combination of experimental and field research to:  Investigate physiological and ecological processes affecting marine animal population  dynamics.  Conduct controlled experiments to understand factors affecting reproductive success and  fitness in marine species.  Monitor marine animal responses to environmental variability and stressors.  Evaluate human impacts on our marine environment and animal populations.  Develop tools to support recovery and restoration of marine resources.   Thus, an overarching science theme of our science relates to understanding of upper trophic level responses to environmental variability. Under this concept, we use marine mammals, seabirds, and fish as windows into the ecosystem they inhabit. As the arctic and subarctic are undergoing rapid environmental changes, understanding responses of these species to change is becoming urgently more important. A more holistic understanding of upper trophic species role in the arctic and subarctic marine ecosystems is essential, and our science team is developing research programs and partnerships towards integrated marine ecosystem studies to address these emerging broad scale topics.  Staff and Facilities    The CSEO works closely with the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) to periodically review research accomplishments, as well as programmatic research directions and strategies. Our current permanent research staff includes two in-house principal investigators, two affiliate scientists, two research associates, and several technical and research support staff.  One of our principal investigators holds a research faculty positions at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Our three center veterinarians also participate in many research activities. Additionally, our facilities offer research opportunities to post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, visiting scientists, and affiliate researchers and external collaborators. Over the years, we have hosted over 700 visiting scientists at our facility. Our facility is located on the shore of the Gulf of Alaska in the North Pacific Ocean, with access to the Alaska marine environment from our back door. We are located next to the Seward Marine Center of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and the home port of the new global class ice-capable research vessel R/V Sikuliaq, operated by UAF. Our dry and wet indoor laboratories and our large outdoor research deck offer year-round access to either temperature-controlled or ambient-temperature research opportunities in cold marine or fresh water habitats. The laboratory facilities and equipment are outfitted to conduct research on marine animal physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, energetics, and diet analysis. Our resident animal collection involves a diverse variety of marine organisms from tiny invertebrates to large Steller sea lions. Our largest resident, male Steller sea lion Pilot, peaks at well over 1700 lbs during the breeding season. The resident fauna offers scientists opportunities to study animals year-round in their natural salt water habitats and at ambient northern latitude temperatures. The combination of our location, in-house collection of marine mammals, seabirds, and fish, and our laboratory facilities offers scientists unique opportunities to study the marine life of the North.    Other Department Activities Linked to our scientific goals, we work closely with our education team to integrate science components into education conducted at the Center. Most of our science projects are presented either in the public exhibits of the Center, or as part of special outreach programs offered by our education department. The Center offers unique opportunities to inform and engage the public on our research. Every year, our scientists give as many as 60 outreach presentations to the public, and we host a monthly open science seminar series at the Center.    To learn more about our scientists and current projects, we invite you to Meet our Scientists and explore our Science Spotlight.   Brief History of the Science Department The Science Department has been part of the Alaska SeaLife Center since its opening in 1998. Over the years, the department has developed a strong focus on research in biology, physiology, and ecology of marine mammals, seabirds, and fish – the so-called upper trophic species of the marine environment. During the first decade, much of our research was centered around five species-focused research programs involving Steller sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, spectacled and Steller’s eiders, and Pacific salmon. These programs built a strong emphasis on research in the physiology and biology of upper trophic species amongst our staff and infrastructure. To date, our research staff has authored close to 400 journal publications and delivered over 700 scientific presentations at conferences.   

animatedcollapse.addDiv('A', 'fade=1') animatedcollapse.ontoggle=function($, divobj, state){ //fires each time a DIV is expanded/contracted //$: Access to jQuery //divobj: DOM reference to DIV being expanded/ collapsed. Use "divobj.id" to get its ID //state: "block" or "none", depending on state } animatedcollapse.init()         With their hypotheses developed and their study subjects chosen, Dr. Mellish and the team began the detailed process of planning their fieldwork. The team's field season in Antarctica needed to coincide with the seal's reproductive season, which runs from late October to December. It would be important to arrive by early October to maximize their time before the late spring ice melt made it unsafe to work on the sea ice. The team chose research sites on Erebus Bay, a pupping and breeding area just a short snowmobile ride from the U.S. base at McMurdo Station. From the Erebus Bay location, they'd select forty healthy seals to participate in the study. It was decided that only healthy animals should be studied and that, of the adults studied, all should be females. This would help prevent outside variables from complicating the data. Navigate through the pictures below to learn about the tools the researchers used to select healthy animals for their project: The team was able to work directly with each seal to complete its initial health assessment. However, to collect research data from the healthy animals, the researchers would need to monitor the seals as they went about their daily lives. Since a lot of a seal's time is spent beneath the sea ice - where it's difficult for researchers to observe them directly - this data would have to be collected remotely. To do this, the team outfitted each seal with specially engineered instruments, called data loggers, that would record and store the team's data. VIDEO: STUDYING SEALS USING DATA LOGGERS Dr. Markus Horning explains how the research team used data loggers to collect data for the Weddell seal project. (2:19) Video Transcript My name is Markus Horning, and I am an Associate Professor of Wildlife with Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. I’ve worked with Weddell seals in the Antarctic ever since my first trip to the Antarctic in 1981. My expertise that I bring to the table is related to my ability to bridge engineering and biology. I’m a biologist by training, I have a Ph.D. in biology, but I’ve always dabbled in electronics. We really can accomplish much more in our attempts to study and understand these animals if we use what we call “telemetry devices.” Basically, we use fancy electronics that can go with the animal where they go and where we can’t. Often times where I come in is figuring out, ‘Okay, this is the question, this is the data we need in order to be able to answer this question we have about the biology of this animal.’ Then I ask, ‘How can we get that data?’ and I find specialty sensors that give us exactly that data that we need. In this project we actually have several separate devices that we glue to the back of an animal. These are multi-channel devices - they have many different sensors. The information that we’re really most interested in is the information we get from the heat flux sensors. We glue these onto the surface of the skin of the seal and they measure exactly how much heat the animal is transferring to the cold water or cold air. To be able to understand this data and the patterns we see in terms of heat dissipation, we also need to record the behavior of the animal. That’s why we’re recording dive depth, swim speed, because that really determines the physiological state of an animal. If everything works well we find our animal after about five days, I’d say, and everything is still attached. We immobilize the animal a second time and we just peel everything off, or we shave a little bit of fur off. We get everything back home and we download the data. We want to recover the equipment so we can use it again on another animal, but also because the devices that we use actually record the most important information in memory. So, unless we recover the device we don’t have access to the data that we really want.       WHO IS STUDYING SEALS?   HYPOTHESIS (n) - a proposed explanation to a question that must be tested   PUPPING SEASON (n) - the time during the year when seal pups are born   OUTSIDE VARIABLE (n) - something not being tested in a study that could impact the data   DATA (n) - values for something measured   MONITOR (v) - to keep surveillance over something   REMOTELY (adv) - from a distance, without direct contact   DATA LOGGER (n) - a device that measures and stores data on the activity or condition of an animal.