Posted by mariej on 07/24/2006 08:47 am

The following posting is from Adam, who is onboard in the Bering Sea... 

I could throw an apple into Russia from the back deck at the moment. The water over there looks exactly the same as the water here though. The birds are blatantly flouting international regulations and casually flying this way and that across the line with a total disregard for the law.

The sea came back down during the night (all 3 hours of it) and the dawn brought another calm day on the water, the boat shrouded in fog. Frustrating stuff for all involved. People are starting to get a little annoyed at not being able to see anything.

All that changed though at the end of the last zig, or zag, not sure which, when we approached St Lawrence. The fog lifted and there in front of us was a spectacular sight. Shear and craggy cliffs with snow and ice reaching down to the water in the gully sections that the elements have cut away. Millions of birds swimming and diving and flying along have congregated here from all over the world. That’s how important the ecosystem is here. It’s a major stop over and destination for birds all the way from Tasmania and beyond, its rich waters feeding them and its cliffs giving shelter. All of us breathed a sigh of relief to have something solid to look at. After a week of nothing other than fog and flat ocean (apart from yesterday’s stormy stuff), it actually feels good on the eyeballs to look at a real feature.
There has been no sign of sea mammals on this side of the island so we are headed back out for another night (like day) of zigzags, then in the morning we will head into the northern of the two towns on the island, Gambell. There we will see George again and do some more of the community work that went so well in the Pribeloff Islands. We will also find out what the locals know about whales in the area and hopefully take some of them out so Dave the scientist can show them how to record what they see in a way that is useful as scientific data.

I’m really looking forward to meeting the people here and hearing what they have to say about the environment and how it’s going. What their concerns are and what they think of Greenpeace being in the area. Hopefully we will ally as strongly as we did south of here and build another block in the Bering that wants to see its ecosystem protected from the factory trawlers and ignorant fisheries management.

Let's leave some fish for the birds and the animals and the locals!!!!!!!!

Adam