Well, it certainly has been a while since I contributed to my blog. A lot has happened since I wrapped up my field work for my M.Sc. I finished writing and defending my thesis and then I got the opportunity of my life time, to go do research in the Canadian Arctic.
When I got the confirmation e-mail that all my paperwork had gone through, and there was a lot of it, I was overcome by emotion. The dream I had as a 9 year old, to go to the arctic and see a polar bear in it's natural environment was actually going to come true. Now I wasn't hired as a research technician for studying polar bears, although I was told that there was almost a guarantee that I would see them, I was hired as a freelance biologist/ rope safety technician. My primary job was to assist in all installments of fixed ropes to access cliff ledges where we could easily, and safely access nesting sites of the main study species, the Thick-Billed Murre. When I first started, I had no idea what a Thick-Billed Murre even looked like, having done no previous work on seabirds. I was pretty naive as to what working with them would be like...I mean I worked with bears, how aggressive could these 1.5 kg birds actually be. After flying into Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, the crew and I spend 4-5 days gathering, organizing and purchasing all the equipment needed for 2 months on an uninhabited, fly-in only arctic Island. To say the grocery lists were long, is an understatement...people eat a lot, especially when doing field work. There are a lot of double and triple checking lists and making sure that our gear did not go over the weight limit for our two twin otter flights! You never really know when your flight is going to be in the arctic...there is an estimated departure date and time, but everything hinges on the weather....and not only the weather in Iqaluit, but the weather in Cape Dorset (where the plane has to re-fuel) and on Coats Island...which is really just an estimate. We were lucky, as both the days and both years we were set to fly, the weather was in our favour. The flight to the island is 3 hours with a re-fueling stop. Flying into the island, and seeing the impressive limestone cliffs rise out of the frozen sea is awe-inspiring... well until you get to the beach we land on and you look up and realize you have to haul all the gear we packed on the plane up those cliffs. Luckily, there are two pulley systems set up to help with the hauling...I mean it is not easy. It took us a better part of six days to get all the gear up to camp...for one out of our two flights...but we did it. Opening all the cabins and making sure everything is working is the next important task. We have to make sure the solar panels are working so we can charge our various field and lab equipment. In the 2017 field season we had a bit more trouble shooting to do as only one of the grad students has been there previously, the other 4 of us had not. The next task is to make sure we have some sort of supply of fresh water, where in the early season, that comes from collecting 60 litter barrels of snow and melting them on the stove throughout the day. Later in the summer of 2017, I helped install a gravity fed water system, made of two 60 litter barrels with pipping, that we filled using an electric pump supplied by the melt water stream behind camp. Once we spend about four days opening camp, it is time to start the Science! Stay Tuned for Life in a seabird colony part 2: Let the Science Begin!
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Blog by:
Sarah K. Poole
An enthusiastic, passionate scientist with a love for art and adventure Updates
September 2020
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