The lagoons research crew here operates on a late schedule, typically heading out around noon. Sleeping in is the norm, so I didn't get up until 10am. Brian made pancakes and potatoes with onion and sausage. Once everyone was up and ready, we loaded gear into the two four wheeler trailers, and the first group of four headed out on the ocean in an inflatable boat, south to Aukulak Lagoon. Two others drove the four wheelers down and our driver boated back up for the last two. The day was spent photographing and filming the crew setting various nets, checking the nets, and processing fish (documenting species, length, and releasing back to the lagoon). We worked out of two locations, at the northern and southern parts on the west side of Aukulak, and a net out in the middle of the south side. Among many interesting things, they caught several fish that are believed to be a new species of sculpin. They documented details necessary to submit for confirmation. We were on a narrow spit of land separating us from the ocean, and I spent some time photographing over there as well. The landscapes here are fantastic to explore.

After 6pm, maybe 7, we packed both boats across to the ocean and headed back north to camp, stopping at a recent slump along the way where you can actively watch the permafrost melting out and the tundra dropping over the edge. Chunks of sediment, large and small, were continuously dripping and falling as the water ran in small rivulets. The permafrost holds together these sediments until disturbed. Once disturbed, the erosion is quick and dramatic. Gives a new understanding to the way the tundra plants grow down the slope of the land along the ocean. It's easy to see how a small change in the water level could vastly alter the shape of the land.

Back at camp, Brian started on dinner: spaghetti, asparagus, and carrots. I wandered along the beach again, looking at all the treasures: rocks, shells, tracks. I forgot to mention a story yesterday. A few days before we arrived there was a storm that brought the ocean level up past the beach to the grass next to the tents. The grizzly that regularly walks the beach instead walked the path next to the tents. The first tent he passed he made noise that woke the person inside, who saw the outline of the bear. He pushed on her tent and she yelled to scare him off. When he got to the next tent, he again woke the person inside, who saw the outline of a bear, but this time the bear bit the corner of the tent. He left after the inhabitant yelled. We are attentive to bear possibilities, but have had no problems.

While dinner prep was in process, I sat on the beach and painted. After eating we spent some casual time sitting around in the kitchen, chatting, sometimes drifting off for other purposes and returning. I went out to photograph the sunset, then joined the others around a fire on the beach. We watched the auroras that started up after 1am, and around 3am I headed to bed, just two others stayed up later. After a bit I heard "wow" whispered loudly, repeatedly, then a quiet "Jeeesssica." They were trying to let me know that the lights had really ramped up. I leaned out my tent to look, then got up again and went back to the fire to watch with the others until after 4:15. It was magical.

If you'd like to read more about this research in the arctic lagoons, check out their blog: https://arcticberingia.wordpress.com/category/lagoons/

First look outside this morning.

They may be rough and leaky, but these cabins are pretty great.

A little nest in the grass, not sure whose.

Cook cabin and ocean view.

Loading up the boat for Aukulak Lagoon.

Bumping along the Chukchi Sea.

The boat headed back for the rest of the crew.

Getting one of the nets ready.

Getting it anchored in place.

Untangling another net.

Loading it into the boat.

Brian holds one end while Trevor and Marguerite use the boat to set the net in place.

Hauling it in.

There was a heavy layer of algae across most of the lagoon, adding to the weight of the catch.

Sifting through the algae for fish and placing them in buckets of water to wait to be documented.

Marguerite points to some sculpin.

Researchers and their temporary paparazzi.

Cleaning off the net before pulling it in.

A belligerent sculpin. That's his name, not an adjective.

Measuring the length of the smaller fish.

Measuring a larger fish, a flounder.

Hunting for more fish among the bucket of water and algae.

Checking details for proper identification.

More measuring and recording.

A little flounder.

Someone found lunch while waiting in the bucket.

The sculpin have a neat shape and coloring.

If I'm counting right, this is a ninespine sickleback.

A sculpin, belligerent, I think.

Comparing sculpins.

Another sculpin.

Tiny herring.

Shrimp.

What may be a new species of sculpin.

A group of the potential new species.

Looking east along the lagoon.

Looking north toward mount Noak.

The crew checking another net.

ATV tracks across the beach, lagoon on the left, Chukchi Sea on the right.

Mussel shell.

Bear tracks.

Bear, fox, birds...everything explores the beach.

Looking west.

Examining the most recent fish haul.

Lavage is a technique that lets researchers examine what a fish eats while allowing the fish to be released live back to the water.

Getting ready to revisit a net.

Hauling in a net.

Getting ready to pull in this big net.

Getting video footage of the process.

A fish I can't name.

Another fish I can't name.

A sickleback of some kind, I'm not sure all his spines are up to count.

A fish and his last meal.

The lagoon.

Lagoon, left, and ocean, right.

Really nice tracks of an unknown bird.

View of Aukulak Lagoon, Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean at left.

View in the other direction, of the Chukchi Sea, edges are Aukulak Lagoon.

This is a recent slump that fell in the last couple days. It's recent enough that the permafrost is still melting out.

You can see the permafrost, looking shiny and icy.

Rivulets of permafrost melt.

A view with people for scale.

It melts so fast, you can watch as small and large chunks fall and water and mud drip continuously.

Just west of the slump, ocean on the left, start of the Tukrok River that runs next to camp.

Looking back toward the slump and, past the last ridge, Aukulak Lagoon.

Back at camp.

Looking east as the sun sets.

Looking west with the cook cabin.

Tukrok River.

Cabins and Tukrok.

Arctic Ocean and Tukrok River.

A nice, warm fire as we waited for the northern lights.

A little context of where this is: https://goo.gl/maps/GR2K7fXY6172

Aukulak Lagoon was today, Krusenstern Lagoon is tomorrow, and this map below shows where the Anigaaq Ranger Station cabins are (white dot between ocean and river) compared to Aukulak Lagoon.

This morning was full of confusion. After a scant few hours of sleep I was up to pack and check in to see what time our flight to Cape Krusenstern will be. When you fly here, if you're on a charter, you never know when you're leaving until you're leaving. The pilots are busy and rearrange schedules to accommodate as many people as possible each day as efficiently as possible. Things are always in flux. Our leader was told to be at the airport at 10:30am to depart. I had to scramble for a quick shower, final packing, and loading up gear to drive it the short distance to the airport (it is literally just a block and a half away from where I'm staying). We arrived over there just after 10, and found out that they would have been able to get us out if we'd been ready a few minutes earlier, and now we'll have to wait until afternoon. 1:30pm was our new departure time.

We left our gear in their hangar and I walked home for a much needed nap. I had lunch with Tyler, then headed back to the airport to meet up with my little group. There are four of us going: Ranger Stacia from the Fairbanks office, Ranger Julia from here in Kotz, Macy who's a local college student and Arctic Youth Ambassador, and myself. We're going for a project of Stacia's that involves getting video and still footage of a group of four researchers who are working out of the Anigaaq Ranger Station in Cape Krusenstern. They are studying the fish populations of the Arctic lagoons, working to establish data and a knowledge base about this ecosystem for several important reasons. These lagoons are natural fish nurseries that support the subsistence and commercial fishing that local communities depend upon. It is only a matter of time before there is a major oil spill here, and with the opening of the Northwest Passage, new shipping lanes are being established and will likely see heavy use in the near future. With no baseline data, it is impossible to assess environmental impacts and hold companies accountable for damages. This whole region is understudied, there is so much we don't know about so very many plants, animals, habitats, ecosystems. Exciting stuff to get to learn about and watch some of the important work that's going on here. You can read more about their work on their blog: https://arcticberingia.wordpress.com/category/lagoons/

Back at the airport at 1:30, we sat around until about 2. I was on the first of two flights, we fit two people, gear, and the pilot. It's a short flight to Anigaaq, but stunningly beautiful. We flew over town and northwest along the coast, over the beach ridges, ponds, lagoons, spits of land, and thousands of birds. So many that the water had white patches of tundra swans. The weather was unbeatable, warm and blue. We landed on the tundra, just past the ranger station, on the spit of land between the ocean and river. After tossing our gear out, our pilot was off, back to Kotzebue to get the others and the rest of the gear. Macy and I loaded as much as we could in our arms and headed off towards the two cabins that constitute Anigaaq. Already I love it here, the personality of this place is incredible. On our walk we met up with Brian, one of the researchers. He helped load our stuff into a four wheeler trailer and hauled it behind him on the long walk. We met Kevin at the ranger station, unloaded, then headed back toward the landing strip to meet the others. After all of us and our gear were at the station, we chose tent sites and got set up.

Two of the four researchers were still out in the field. Brian is the undisputed camp chef and he whipped up a delicious dinner of rice with sausage and veggies, including cabbage and broccoli. Trevor and Marguerite arrived on the four wheelers from a distant lagoon and helped process some fish that Kevin and Brian had pulled in from the ocean. They measure the species, length, and diet of the fish (using the lavage method to gather food the fish consume without hurting the fish), then release them back to the water.

Sunset was spectacular, as I'm learning to expect from the arctic. A fire on the beach is standard, this crew likes their late nights and late mornings. It's a very agreeable schedule, I love my late nights, and I love getting enough sleep. I was so exhausted still from being up for the auroras last night that I crashed pretty early, not long after midnight.

After landing.

The second flight arriving. Anigaaq Ranger Station cabins in the background.

The old mail station that served the people who used to live out on the cape. Now there are no permanent residents, just a scattering of fishing camps that people use seasonally while fishing and drying fish for winter storage.

Walking the gear to the cabins.

The bunkhouse cabin, sleeps four. Outhouse in the distance.

Cook cabin and bunkhouse.

Exploring the area around the cabins.

Caribou skull.

Our array of tents, the mail house visible in the distance.

Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean.

Ocean, beach, tents, cabins.

Closeup.

Water foul tracks and starfish.

There were several of these dead birds along the stretch of beach I explored.

There were so many starfish.

An isopod exoskeleton.

Crab claw.

Unknown bird tracks that were huge! This is my big size 10 foot in a clunky hiking boot.

Not sure, but this looked like a dried sea sponge.

So many of these shells on the beach. Big and small.

Crab exoskeleton.

Fox tracks.

Bear tracks.

Sandhill cranes. There were many small groups that flew over, beginning the migration. Really cool to have seen them here leaving their northern destination after years of watching them leaving their southern destination while in Badlands.