First day of fieldwork for the Bear Scene Investigation (BSI) team
After an almost 24-hour trip from Victoria to Bella Bella and a 3-day stint of preparation and decompression, today was the first day back in the field for the BSI (Bear Scene Investigation) crew.
Today’s doses of sun followed yesterday’s 50+ mm of rain quite nicely, and made for a great reintroduction to our coastal study area!
This year we welcome 2 new members to our team: Harvey Brown Sr., our newest field tech, and Zen, our field cat. We also recruited a new Raincoast supporter today: Mike the Mink.
Returning crew include Heather Bryan (‘All-weather Heather’), Christina Service (‘Calamine Chris’), ‘Dashing’ Doug Brown, Howard Humchitt (‘Hard Rock Howard’), me (‘Sunshine’ Artelle), and Newton, our field dog. We were also pleased to be welcomed by our field station’s long-standing mascot: Harold the Heron.
We sadly miss Collin Reid (‘Grizz’) this year, though we wish him well on Goose Island! We also miss our go-to boat-fixing, bait-mixing, do-it-all man Ian Jansma, though we wish him well in his new adventures. We also await the return of our benevolent leader, Chris Darimont (Pappa-bear daddymont) who will be joining us shortly, following a full-time stint of daddy duty in Victoria.
In the coming weeks we will blog frequently, so stay tuned to find out more about the 2011 Bear-Carnivore field crew saga!
PS. Patagonia is a great supporter of ours; one of the ways they support us is by very generously donating equipment used to keep us dry in the wet, wet field. Attached is a recent goofy video we made thanking them for their recent donation of gear (featured in the video), our ‘Christmas in May’. Enjoy!
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
