st. paul island.

        As the final component of my year-long contract with NOAA's National Marine Mammal Laboratory, I was asked to fly out to St. Paul Island, Alaska and join my boss and a team of northern fur seal biologists to help gather data that will someday be useful in understanding the cause of this population's long-term decline. It was one of the more nerve-wracking flights I've ever been on. I've never been too fond of flying and a three hour trip straight out into the middle of the Bering Sea in a thirty-seater plane with broken, ratty seats was not exactly exciting. It was surreal when we finally came across tiny St. Paul Island, it seemed so barren and forgotten. Little did I know what life pervaded the forty square miles of volcanic remains. My stay lasted two weeks and during that time I was exposed to more novel ideas and images since my first trip to Peru. It felt so nice to be amazed at so many things in such a short period of time.

This is where we stayed. The locals refer to it as "Staff Quarters." Scientists from 

several different agencies stay here during their research. It made for lively conversation at dinnertime! 

I was provided with my own little room in the back corner of the building.

                                       

Foxes roam this island like stray dogs. This one lived right outside of staff quarters and had a den

 full of kits under one of the storage structures. You could hear them barking when they got hungry. 

I fed them fur seal kidneys for lunch one day!

The Russian Orthodox Church.

Here are some photos of where we did the majority of our work.

 Part of my job was to spot dead northern fur seal pups and fresh placentas 

to take back to the lab for necropsy and disease analysis.

A very fresh placenta:

Evidence of how aggressive northern fur seals can be:

Now, let me introduce you to my favorite northern fur seal of all time, ever: Pink Toes! 

He is partially albino and I love him.

This is the beautiful murre egg I found on the cliffs on the 

Russian-facing side of the island.

My pathologist friend, Terry Spraker, forced me into helping him catch foxes for analysis of a 

rare joint degenerative disease they carry on the island.

There's so much to see in this world, isn't there?