Survivor: SaltWater vs. AOI

I live in a bunk house in Downtown Anchorage with the 8 people I am training with, but there are other bunk houses in this complex. There are 3 other bunk houses which are all occupied by observers and observers in training employed by another company, SaltWater. The are nice people, but they aren't as close as the 8 of us, and looking around the class of all the other companies, I'm really glad that I got put with these kids. It kind of feels like we are in compition with the SaltWater company because we live right next to each other. There is some mingleing with them, but all of us would rather hangout with our group. Come the weekend, everyone hangs out, but during the week its AOI vs. SaltWater.

This last week was extremely busy and nerve recking. In this training, we each have to pass each test with an 80% or better or we have to get a ticket home. This happened to 3 of the 26 in the class, all SaltWater kids, making each one of us realize that it could happen to us as well, and got us to start buckling down more. I've been up the last three nights until 1 doing reading and homework. I feel confident in my ability to do the job once I get out there on sea. The hardest part of the training is learning how to fill out all the paperwork to the specifications that we need to. This will become second nature in some time, but it needs to be immaculate as soon as I deploy. We are being drilled on how to fill these sheets out so that all the number crunchers on land who have never been on the boats, know what it is we are giving them.

Today a professor from the University of Alaska Fairbanks came into class and gave a three hour lecture on how to identify all the marine mammals found here in Alaska's seas. I was on the edge of my seat for all three hours getting excited about all the critters that I've seen on the discovery channel or Plant Earth. My mind was wondering for the three hours about the chance I have to get see them up close. She was showing us all these pictures taken by observers and data taken by the observers on the boats about where different whales, sea lions, dolphins, polar bears, seals, and birds we'll see out at sea. She showed us video of a sperm whale eating the fish caught on a long fishing line that is trailing behind the boat. There is a good chance we'll get to see three different types of seals, three different types of Albatrosses, Beluga whales, lots of killer whales, along with dolphins and porpoises. We are going to be expected identify all interactions with all the marine mammals with the boat in order to help give better information to the regulating agencies about the interaction of the Alaska fishing industry and their competition with these marine mammals with their food source. But more importantly, there is not a lot of research done on the mammals in the arctic compared to those in tropical, warm areas for obvious reasons of scientist rather living in the tropics then in the arctic. So our job is to try and add some info to the what has been collected.

There were some observers who came in the bunk house last night that have been working for AOI for a couple of years. It was great to talk to them to get a better idea of what we are getting our selfs into. The three of them were coming into Anchorage to get their fall deployment. They all had taken the last 3 months of summer off and were coming back to work through the winter. They were showing pictures they had taken off all the seals, whales, and cool things on the boats they had seen in their time out there. Hopefully I get so lucky. The guy that came in told us that most of the observers out there are female, its like a 60/40 ratio, so the fishermen are a little upset when they see a guy jumping on the boat to be the observer rather than a female. They told us not to worry about the fishermen getting upset about having to have us on the boat, they haven't really ran into jerks. I kind of figured this would be the case, but it was nice to hear some confirmation on this feeling.

After talking to the priers all night, I got re-motivated about what it is that I'm getting prepared to do. All this training is important and this opportunity is one of a kind. I'm still loving this city of Anchorage, and it's upsetting me that I am not getting a chance to explore out side the city. The city is just a city like any other smaller city. What makes this city is what is outside the city. I need to climb some of these mountains before I ship to Dutch in 7 days. Next week is going to be much more laid back, but the final test is Thursday. That test is the same in that we need to get an 80%, or all of this training is for nothing. No one is leaving from AOI, no man left behind.

- Casey