Back in Barrow after almost exactly a year--There is WAY,WAY less ice this year than last. They only took 4 whales this year rather than the 11 they took last spring and the 18 they took in the Fall hunt. Don't know if it means anything yet--probably just part of the normal cycle. We've spent the last week training the new high school kids, only three back from last year, 7 new with two of them from the villages. One from Atkasuk which has only 250 people so Barrow seems huge to her.
Finaqlly got out to the point today with some of the new NSF grad students, convinced Perry the bear guard that the best way to train them to ride ATV's was to take them out slow and easy, which worked out fine. It looks like we lost abou 5 meters of coast over the winter including most of the Driftwood Feature that the Ipituak stuff was found in. Other than that we're in pretty good shape. Tomorrow will be our first real day of work out there. So we'll see how everyone feels tomorrow--There are two of us returning, with 5 new, one from Australia, two from Anchorage, one from Washington and one from New York. all seem nice. The new York guy has two books coming out on the andean Ice Maidens from Peru. One lady from Anchorage is studying maritime boat building in Sweden and Tasmania. Will write more in the next day or two--The poictures are of artifacts we recovered last year in the field--Enjoy--
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Dave, what do you mean by "they only took 4 whales this year...." Who is "they?" Is losing 5 meters of coast normal? That sounds like a lot. Sounds like you have quite a few new folks working with you. Hope you all gel as you don't have much time. Stay warm.
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