Bering Sea Healy Cruise. April 2-May 10, 2009

This spring I flew to Dutch Harbor to board the US Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy for a 5 week cruise in the Being Sea. This cruise followed the same transects as the cruise I took last spring. Here are a few photos of this cruise.

Mt. Redoubt erupted 4 or 5 days before I left for Dutch Harbor. The ash clouds from the first eruption and subsequent ones delayed and canceled many flights in and out of Anchorage. Luckily, the day I flew the volcano was not erupting in such a manner as to cancel flights. But as you can see there was ash and steam coming out as we flew past.

For the life of me I can't find the name of this volcano. Pretty neat one. It is along the south side of the Alaska Peninsula.

Some interesting shapes made of sea-ice around Bristol Bay.

Pogromni Volcano on Unimak Island at the end of the Alaska Peninsula.

Just outside the hotel I was at there are some open areas where the local fishermen spread out their nets and ropes to fix them and roll them up. The local bald eagles take advantage and pick scraps of meat out of the nets. Found out something recently that explained why juvenile bald eagles look so much bigger than the adults. Their feathers are larger.

There are hundreds of these birds in Dutch Harbor.

Just hanging out. I am taking this shot from near a dumpster used by the hotel. There is almost always a few eagles perched along the side of it or in it. But not today.

We had very nice weather the day after I arrived. This the view from the front of the hotel.

View out of my hotel window the nite I arrived. This direction is opposite from the one above.

Pyramid Mtn with snow on it. I climbed it in Sept. 2007 when it was covered in grass and blueberries.

This guy/gal stood still for us for a few minutes to get some good shots.

Leaving on another nice day in Dutch. I've been very lucky to have good weather at least one day when I've been coming or going out of here.

Early on in the cruise we came upon about 700 walrus over a several mile stretch. It was very foggy, thus difficult to get a good shot.

Some ice and sun shots.

We got off the mother ship again this year to sample the sea-ice.

Healy in the ice.

At the end of one transect we were out in open water, off the Bering Sea Continental Shelf, and over very deep water (about 8000 feet). We sent down the CTD to collect water samples. Tied to the CTD was a mesh bag with a bunch of styrofoam cups. Here are the ones I sent down.

We also had some rough weather out in the open water. Here are some shots from up in the crow's nest, 100 feet above the water.

On one of our passes by St. Matthew Is. we had a stow away. This McKay's Bunting spent a few days hitching a ride on the helo deck at the back of the shipl. He/she would hop around looking for bits of food and fly off the ship at time and then come back.
For birders this is one of the rarest song birds in N. America. It only nests on 3 or 4 islands in the Bering Sea, including St. Matthew. It spends the winter in SW Alaska, around the Yukon River delta. It is not endangered but there are less than 6,000 around.

Going thru some very thick and snow laden ice.

Coming into Dutch Harbor this old airplane was taking off. This plane and another like it are still being used out here to service remote villages that do not have runways.

A tugboat helping the Healy put into port.

A close-up of the front of the tug. Just a bunch of cut up and folded tires. Pretty neat.

A beautiful morning in Dutch Harbor, taken from the ship.

Here are just a few of the boats in the vast fleet that go out of Dutch to the Bering Sea.



These next photos are not mine. We had a multi-core on this cruise again. It is sent over the stern and down to the bottom of the ocean to sample mud. When the legs touch down, the weights above push those tubes into the mud as the cable goes slack. As the rig is lifted out of the mud, arms with round disks on the end spring down to keep the mud from coming out of the tubes on the long trip back to the surface. On deep casts this procedure can take several hours.

One of the casts brought up this bi-valve. It fit perfectly in the plastic tube. A fraction of an inch in any direction and the clam would have never gone into the tube. Pretty cool.


A better shot of the walrus we passed by. There were a number of other sightings besides the day of 700. Taken by Liz Labunski.

A Ribbon Seal taken by Liz Labunski.



A typical scene during our ice station days. Here I am helping Jessica Cross bag up some ice cores. Taken by Ned Cokelet.

Here I am taking water samples, one of hundreds I helped take from the CTD which went into the water about 240 times over about 33 days. Taken by Brandi.

On our way south, near the end of the trip we had some very calm days. The water was like glass. This surface bouy is on a mooring that my boss and I have instruments on. On this cruise we were passing by it and were asked to go have a look at it because the real time communications with it were not working. I did not get into the small boat to go have a look. Nothing could be seen that was wrong with the bouy. Photo by Chris Linder. If you would like to see other photos taken by Chris Linder of this cruise, go here: http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/expedition5/journal.html