The Island Life

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When I think of island diving, a lot of things come to mind.

  • Small charter plane? Check.
  • Rented boat? Check.
  • Scuba gear? Check.
  • Reindeer herd? …

…Check.

But not every island is the same.

Welcome to St.Paul island, the largest member of the Pribilof Islands.  Boasting 40 square miles of Alaskan land situated a quick
800 miles from Anchorage, it enjoys one of the most remote locations in the entire Bering Sea.
And thanks to the generosity (and blind faith) of Dr. Ginny Eckert and Jared Weems of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks- I got to see all of it.

Ginny and Jared came to St. Paul because the Pribilof’s blue king crab stock is the only overfished stock in the North Pacific. Despite having been closed to fishing in 1999, combined with habitat protection measures and bycatch reduction plans, the stock has unfortunately failed to recover with no sign of species recruitment.

Their hope is to find out why.

St. Paul is a particularly interesting place to conduct field research.  The tribal government of St. Paul was kind enough to lend us boats and trucks when possible, and the local CBSFA chapter provided housing.  Beyond that, logistics for diving were often inconvenient at best.  Arctic weather meant wind and wave conditions changed rapidly, while cold water and current always remained.

This was one of our dive staging sites; entry and exit included a 15-foot ladder climb.
Jared Weems, Dr. Eckert, and Lauren Divine (part of the Ecosystem Conservation Office of St. Paul and all-around awesome person) prepare to use the commercial boat-ramp as an entry site.
Where do you stage your diving when conditions are too cold to do it outside? Well, the local volunteer fire department works just fine. It’s also the only place on-island where we could refill our tanks by using their SCBA rescue bottle compressor.
In some cases, diving was conducted from the island’s extremely tough Search and Rescue boat, which is designed to provide rescue in some of the most intense ocean conditions imaginable.
Step 1: Throw your coworker in first to check if it’s safe.
Step 2: Realize that you’re in 3 knots of current, and that diving with your coworker only works if you can still see them on the surface.
(Special note: Check out that super sexy Halcyon Infinity BCD! My absolute go-to now for technical and strong current work. Thanks Halcyon!)
Step 3: Ponder why you chose to do marine research in the Arctic instead of Fiji. (Thanks again to Halcyon, DUI Drysuits for providing dry gloves, Fourth Element Arctic Expedition undergarments, and Aqualung for keeping me alive in some serious, serious conditions.)

But the cool part of diving in a place that’s so challenging?  Very few people- and in some places none at all- have ever seen what’s below.  It’s extremely likely a number of our dives landed upon virgin sites that had yet to be seen by human eyes.

While the cold and dark waters deter most people, Cnidarians of all kinds thrive in these arctic conditions.

Lion’s Mane jellies are some of the most beautiful things I’ve seen underwater. Not only are they huge, but their color stands out among the deep greens and blues of the arctic.

They truly appear to fly through the water.
Navigating kelp beds proved difficult in the surge, as all of what you see here would flip upwards and back into our faces the moment the current shifted.
Curious but intimidatingly large, fur seals would occasionally buzz us during our work. This shot was the only chance I got- they were unbelievably fast and fleeting.
Nematocyst-laden tentacles are no joke when they can drape 8-10 feet in any direction- check out the diver in the background for a size comparison.
This jelly was in excess of 6 feet long, with the bell being larger than my head.

Other invertebrates were also surprisingly large:

While others were adorably tiny.

This one was barely the size of my pinky finger.

So what were we doing?  Research was primarily focused on finding and documenting king crab larvae or juveniles.  Jared had spent the last season placing net bags on the seafloor, providing a place for larvae of all kinds to stay protected from predation and allowing us to see the kind of tiny creatures that hide in the area.

This was not an easy job. A single dive could be for 10 net bags, pulling them to place in secondary mesh bags, and controlling buoyancy with huge loads back to the surface- all on single tank.
Net bags are then rinsed into individual buckets for specimen collection at the local NOAA facility.
What’s found is then documented to give a better idea of the larval conditions by area. Here, Dr. Eckert and Jared check a possible king crab find.
A tiny decorator crab makes it into the mix; unfortunately, he’s not what we’re looking for.
Examining a red king juvenile.
Cute, aren’t they? While we only found reds, many king crab variants including the blues we were searching for share the spiky nature of this little guy.

But not everything was focused on crabs- wildlife was everywhere!

Fur seal rookeries exist all over St. Paul, solidifying its place as one of the most important breeding grounds for the species.
Protective blinds (like this one), beach closures, and strict environmental protections are enforced by the tribal population with strong determination. I was exceptionally impressed by the lengths the whole community went to keep the animals undisturbed.
Filming 3D GoPro footage isn’t nearly as fun as watching it afterwards with your 3D glasses.
St. Paul is also an important nesting ground for many seabirds. Here Jared makes a friend with a local puffin.
The main predator of the seabirds is this Arctic Fox- a rare descendant of the mainland species that has a blue/black coat and is native to only St. Paul and St. George.
This expedition made a strong case for puffins being my favorite bird.

Overall, the two weeks I spent with Jared and Dr. Eckert were an eye-opening experience into the challenges and adventure that remote science brings.  Being able to mount this expedition between a couple of people, diving safely despite harsh conditions and unknown variables, and working with the local tribal community to achieve ecological goals all felt like some of the biggest accomplishments I could’ve hoped for this year.

Thank you to Dr. Eckert, Jared Weems, Lauren Divine, the Aleut Community of St. Paul Tribal Government, the St. Paul Ecosystem Conservation Office, the Central Bering Sea Fisherman’s Association, Rolex, and the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society® for making such an amazing experience possible.

Furthermore, thank you to Halcyon, DUI Drysuits, Fourth Element, and Aqualung for your amazing support of this mission.  I couldn’t have done it without their backing- and thanks to Reef Photo and Video for allowing me to document it all!

For more cool photos, keep scrolling!

A Lion’s Mane jellyfish that was trapped in a channel at high tide.
A parent and child share a road while walking to school.

Rats are notorious for destroying nesting bird populations, and constant vigilance is necessary to prevent accidental infestation from visiting ships.
Just because it’s pouring freezing rain and you’re 800 miles from a city doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout in.

Thanks for reading!

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