Polar Bears

Just caught sight of 2 adult and 2 cub polar bears as we steamed by an ice flow in the Beaufort Sea. Their seal-meat-yellow color is easy to spot against the whites, blues, and greys of the last week as we've steamed through patchy ice and open water, sun and fog. Polar bear count at 11.

The science on board goes well. We've just finished a crazy couple of days at Mooring Station A, eh?... We collected water and pumped for particles 10,000 feet below the surface and recovered and redeployed a "bottom-tethered mooring" with 3 sediment traps (6ft bright yellow ice cream cones) and an instrument that will move 6000 ft meters up and down the mooring wire collecting information on currents and chemistry throughout the coming year. We're interested in how nutrient cycles, currents, and ocean layers would change with less ice cover.

After Mooring Station "A" we made popcorn and watched "A Life Aquatic," because that's what oceanographers do.

Hope all are well.

DRG