DOG SALMON, BASC, NASA AND NEW FRIENDS

DOG SALMON, BASC, NASA AND NEW FRIENDS

I’ve discovered that shopping at AC on Saturday mornings results in a higher probability of netting sale prices on food items.  As I trolled around the store, I bought apples for $3.28/lb, discovered that I could save .45 when purchasing 5 lbs of bulk carrots as opposed to the $14.36 bag.  The big draw to the bulk carrots is that the ends have been cut off and they are very clean, making my daily juicing a faster operation.  I passed by the cucumbers at $2.79 each, bought broccoli and cauliflower heads, both for $3.99/lb and bananas that were growing soft on sale for .99/lb.  I have been reluctant to purchase salmon for $14.99/lb, so felt as though I was dreaming, peering into the frozen food bin seeing something I’d never noticed before…Kwik’pak Fisheries Wild Yukon River Keta salmon for a very low 4.99/lb.  I put three packages into my basket and felt very rich and fortunate.  On another pass by, I found a man stocking the freezer, so asked him about the fish.  He said that when the suppliers lower the price, he stocks up because certain people in town like it.  He though, referred to it as dogfish and said that a lot of people won’t eat it.  On the back of the package there is a description that reads:

“This salmon is caught by Upik Eskimos who live in remote villages at the mouth of this 2000 mile long river.  Yukon Keta salmon is a very special fish.  It has the highest oil content and Omega-3 of any Keta salmon.  It’s not just salmon, it’s Yukon salmon!  Cook using any of your favorite salmon recipes.” 

Since it didn’t say to use your favorite dog food recipe, I’m confident that it will be wonderful, or hoping at least. 

On most Saturdays, Nokinba Acker from the Barrow Arctic Research Consortium can be seen smiling as he makes multiple van stops around Barrow and Browerville, picking up people attending the lectures he arranges as a way to enhance life and offer interesting educational programs to the people here. 

I arrived at the library, his last pick up stop well before 1:15 pm on Saturday and enjoyed meeting and talking with Marie, the US Fish and Wildlife Service Educator who had been one of the presenters at the polar bear denning program three weeks ago.  We talked about our work and about our mutual love for jogging and biking.  She said that she moved here in March when it was -25ᵒ F most days.  She talked about jogging and people stopping to ask if she wanted a ride.  “No thank you, I’m jogging!” she shouted, apparently an oddity here in Barrow.  She also talked about trying to ride her bike when the weather became warmer.  I mentioned wanting to bring a mountain bike up for long rides out on the various roads leading out of town to bird watch in the spring.  She laughed and said that she didn’t advise it as the mud everywhere is ankle to mid-calf deep as soon as the snow melts and for quite a while to come.  “You would get absolutely nowhere on a bike!"  She knows from first-hand experience.  It sounds like rubber boots should be on my shopping list for spring. 

On the van ride, I sat next to Valerie, an elementary school teacher who arrived in August.  She is comparing her time here to the time she spent in Antarctica.  I’m fascinated by the people I’m meeting, not only the Inupiat, but the very adventurous non-natives.  On the trip back from BASC, Valerie handed me a very valued gift…a USPS receipt with a note saying, “Susi, come for tea!” and including her email address and telephone number.  She lives in the teacher housing not too far from where I live.  I’ll look very forward to getting to know her better and hearing of her work and adventures.  She said that ¾ of her students are Inupiat.

The NASA presenter was Dr. Kevin Hand who is the Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration at JPL, a simulation lab, exploring dynamics having to do with the possibility of the existence of life-sustaining liquid water oceans, especially on the moons orbiting Jupiter.  The talk was riveting, I thought.  I found myself fascinated as Dr. Hand explained how the use of laws of physics, chemistry and math combined with information gathered by Galileo, the space craft that orbited one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, http://www.dmuller.net/spaceflight/mission.php?mission=galileo can determine the very high possibility of the existence of these oceans.  It’s reasonable to believe that these oceans, including the frozen top layer are as deep as 100 km.  The deepest point of any ocean on Earth is 10.994 km.  NASA has been doing research in Barrow for the past three years because its terrain is believed to be very similar to the frozen oceans on Europa and other distant moons.    

I discovered that all of the talks presented at BASC are video recorded and posted on YouTube.  This one will be posted next week some time.  It and the others can be found by doing a search for “Nokinba” on YouTube’s website.

The day was a beautiful one evidenced by the photos on a previous post.