tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37742882089341056022011-07-07T14:28:24.803-08:00St. George Island - AlaskaRyan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-16205031256281535362009-08-16T13:14:00.007-08:002009-08-16T13:45:57.389-08:00

As I sat down on the cliffs of South Rookery yesterday I noticed little black dots floating around in the surf. The dots were too small to be SAMs playing in the surf so I focused in on them with my binoculars and what did I see but this year's pups getting their flippers wet in the surf!!The above photo isn't that good due to the extreme foggy weather that day but it gives you an idea of what

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-45408811837477613472009-08-12T12:55:00.007-08:002009-08-12T14:10:31.186-08:00

I should have posted photos of females giving birth to their pups at the height of the pupping season but just recently an event occurred that has given me the excuse to do this now. The last pup of the year (we think) was witnessed being born. This is what the event looks like...almost there!Poor little guy was born right into a puddle!

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-90792995689518262642009-07-31T11:07:00.009-08:002009-07-31T15:24:12.365-08:00

Yesterday was the second day in a row that I have seen non-breeding males (aka sub-adult males or SAMs for short) actually in the rookery. For the first half of the fur seal breeding season, SAMs are blocked from entering rookery limits by aggressive territorial beachmasters. Now that we're halfway through the season, beachmasters are no more the aggressive bulls they once were and that is

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-48229005709174412622009-07-26T19:09:00.004-08:002009-07-26T19:32:49.129-08:00

FOG ... It just happens here. A lot.Clear and calm days are a rare deal and really spectacular when they happen. I just want to make sure that Earthwatchers who are coming are bringing good waterproof boots and rain gear. Also, just prepare yourself for the possibility of your Pen Air flight being delayed or even canceling due to bad weather. It's never a pleasant thing and puts a kink in plans

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-3719262909004246682009-07-26T18:38:00.005-08:002009-07-26T19:03:11.570-08:00

I figure you must be scratching your head a little at the title so I'll just go ahead and dive right into it.Right now on all the rookeries about 95% of the females have arrived on shore, given birth to a pup, and are well into their foraging routines. What that last bit means is now that the pups are born moms have to leave the rookery to feed in order to provide good quality milk for their

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-23350560495488667782009-07-21T22:28:00.008-08:002009-07-22T00:16:54.960-08:00

It's official! Today at the rookery I witnessed 2 pup's first attempts at 'swimming'. Okay, clarification, they weren't actually swimming rather they were more like flapping their flippers around in a big puddle. But that counts!Every year the pups always amaze me when they dare to jump into what I would consider freezing temperatures. Somehow they manage. If it weren't for their dense fur it

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-22539664831718227612009-07-13T12:50:00.007-08:002009-07-13T14:48:42.629-08:00

Above is a photo that perfectly depicts what is happening on the rookeries right this moment. See the large napping beachmaster just right of center? All the females surrounding him are a part of his harem.So what is a harem? A harem is a congregation of females bred by a single male. The size of a beachmaster's harem can vary greatly in size from as small as 1 female to as many as 50.

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-9270611153844032622009-07-08T12:29:00.009-08:002009-07-10T17:45:25.644-08:00

Over the course of 21 days, this spring a group of 8 people picked up close to 10 tons of marine debris off 7.5 miles of coastline. All in all over 2 million square feet of coastline were scoured including sections of beach in all 5 major fur seal rookeries! The overwhelming majority of debris collected was fishing related with the most common debris types being fishing line and net (trawl and

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-71812766403683756612009-06-13T12:29:00.011-08:002009-07-10T17:39:01.971-08:00

Okay, I know I haven't updated in a long while. I apologize!One of the most common questions from Earthwatchers when they first step off the plane is, 'where will we be working?' The answer: South Rookery.South Rookery (or just South for short) is a quarter-mile stretch of rocky coastline on the southwest side of the island that plays host to thousands of fur seals each year. South is a special

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-63493085495462642742009-06-05T22:18:00.006-08:002009-06-13T12:27:30.956-08:00

Welcome Earthwatchers to the 2009 fur seal season! If you like Alaska, marine mammals, remote islands, and village life in the Bering Sea then look no further than this! My goal with this blog is to post observations and updates of the fur seal rookeries, snapshots and blurbs on life in the Bering, and anything else I think you might enjoy that will help introduce you to St. George while also

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-62060944073854863912008-11-17T13:58:00.011-09:002008-11-17T19:16:23.367-09:00

As of this week the fur seal rookery has officially disintegrated from a few thousand to just a few 100 animals. It is at this point in the life of a fur seal where the "known" ends and the "unknown" begins. Due to the fact that fur seals spend the majority of the year out at sea little is known about them. That's just the nature of the beast with marine mammal biology and basically all of marine

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-69046320828433948012008-11-01T18:19:00.010-08:002008-11-01T19:28:09.266-08:00

That's right. It's no joke. The above photo was indeed taken at the rookery just last week! The island received over a foot of snow and yet the seals continued to stick it out on the snow/ice covered rocks. Karin and I both figured many would leave and not come back but the majority of them stayed despite their repeated slipping and sliding around. I planned on carrying out an entanglement survey

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-74253663153508199142008-10-18T12:14:00.006-08:002008-10-18T12:36:59.637-08:00

It is just too bad that the killer whales didn't show for the majority of the Earthwatch groups this year. It is a spectacular sight to see! Not long ago a pod of about 5 killer whales were spotted breaching and tail slapping just off the shoreline from the village. There were two large males, one maybe two females, and a calf. It was hard to say whether they were feeding or not but it did not

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-44672549928430697992008-10-13T11:53:00.009-08:002008-10-13T13:14:52.688-08:00

This is a hard topic for anyone who has ever witnessed an entangled animal but it is nonetheless an important topic that needs to be better circulated. It is easy to think that what we throw "away" actually goes away but where is "away" anyways? A significant amount of garbage in coastal cities and towns actually finds its way into the ocean. As is the case with the village of St. George and many

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-79952912557443601922008-10-09T11:56:00.005-08:002008-10-13T11:51:55.091-08:00

Twenty five mostly Aleut students in the Pribilof Island Marine Science Camp have discovered the second known population of a new species of large brown marine algae, Aureophycus, near St. George Island this summer. Student researchers were immersed in studies of seawater temperature, salinity, marine habitats and sea creature biology for 11 days in July.During an early field trip, first a 20

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-50438615949995817742008-10-03T23:06:00.007-08:002008-10-04T14:32:29.834-08:00

Well, as the title implies, winter is indeed here. Yesterday afternoon the snow blew in and maintained for 15 minutes. It was over before many of us had the chance to go outside and check it out however, I did get a chance to snap a few shots. The light was just perfect after the squall had moved through; High Bluffs never looked better!Many are wondering, I'm sure, why I've been slow on the blog

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-54657512094744007062008-09-11T21:51:00.007-08:002008-09-11T22:48:22.762-08:00

The last week has been the beginning of the next chapter for pups. Everyday more and more are molting their black fur for a sleeker more silver look like the pup on the right in the photo. The new fur is denser and more insulating than the original and is therefore more akin to what older fur seals have.Besides the molting of the old black pelt, the pups are larger now weighing in at around 35-

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-37131744742019338482008-08-28T12:05:00.005-08:002008-08-28T18:41:35.695-08:00

Just the other day the St. George reindeer herd roamed close enough to town to be seen without binoculars! It was the first sighting of the herd all season and a spectacular sight to see.The herd is a little over 300 animals with two main "sub-herds". The larger herd ambles around the south and east side of the island. This is the one we saw. The smaller herd has a larger concentration of males

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-9680531662510186222008-08-22T14:15:00.014-08:002008-08-24T22:11:39.731-08:00

It has been a while since the last blog entry and the rookery has changed a lot since then! Let me fill you in...Almost all the females expected to arrive at South Rookery are here! The number of dark whiskered females (young females) has rocketed from barely 5% back in June and July to roughly 20-25% of the total rookery population. The reason for this increase is due to the recent surge of 3 to

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-66082589581785518812008-07-19T18:37:00.028-08:002008-07-29T19:01:54.294-08:00

The last few days we've had a sub-adult male steller sea lion camped out on the rookery! Unfortunately St. George is not a breeding ground for sea lions like it once was, but in the fall there are a few places on the island where they can be found hauled up on the rocky shore like big, bulky canoes.Okay, a little taxonomy you might find interesting. All seals are classified under the group

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-51011246071715676522008-07-13T18:19:00.010-08:002008-07-20T00:48:10.886-08:00

So what do you think? Would an older, more experienced fur seal mom raise a healthier pup that's more prepared for its first year of life, than a younger mother? How do we even know what a good seal mom is? And if we did, why does it matter?All of these questions are the basis of a new study on St. George that Earthwatchers are getting a chance to contribute to. The study itself is called a "

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-39528302047352030742008-07-11T10:17:00.010-08:002008-07-13T00:07:33.115-08:00

We have a new project this year! Both St. George and St. Paul Island are within killer whale (orca) habitat and the question has been raised, 'what effect is an increasing killer whale population having on the northern fur seal populations of the Pribilofs?'Killer whales are natural predators of the fur seal and with a declining population of fur seals and an increasing population of killer

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3774288208934105602.post-71017575978735310052008-07-07T17:53:00.000-08:002008-07-07T22:18:59.728-08:00

Welcome Earthwatchers!This blog is an attempt to inform all of you Earthwatchers who will be coming to St. George Island with what is currently happening at the northern fur seal rookery to help give you an idea of what to expect when you arrive. Also, I intend for it to be an update for those who have already come and gone.For those who don't know we will all be working on a small rookery (

Ryan Kingsberynoreply@blogger.com0