This award is to support the PI's participation in the Pribilof School Districts "Bering Sea Days" and The Alutiiq Museum Fall Lecture Series. The Pribilof School District (PSD) will be holding their 6th Annual "Bering Sea Days" (BSD) educational outreach event October 1-4 in St. Paul, AK. This four-day workshop is designed to educate the students of the St. Paul and St. George schools about the Pribilof Islands and Bering Sea marine life. The Office of Cultural Affairs for the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government, has invited the PI to participate in BSD this year.
Specifically the PI plans to spend a significant amount of time on bone growth and how archaeologists and paleontologists use growth patterns to determine the age-at-death of animals based only on the bones. After BSD, the PI plans to travel to Kodiak, where he has been invited to present a lecture detailing the archaeological research that he has been conducting for the past several years. The Alutiiq Museum Fall Lecture Series is an annual event that was created specifically to address community demand for public sharing of scientific studies on Kodiak culture, history, and environment. This project is in response to the request by an Alaska Native community for the participation of a scientist in public outreach and education in their community and represents exactly what the Program has been promoting among NSF funded research, the return of scientific information to the communities in which the data was collected.
I spent 7 days (29 September to 4 October, 2013) in St. Paul, Alaska, participating in the Pribilof School District’s annual "Bering Sea Days" (BSD). I taught 66 students Grades K-11 about the kinds of things scientists can learn from bones and teeth (Table 1). We also had the opportunity to learn more about post-mortem necropsies of stranded marine mammals. Specific activities were adjusted according to age and maturity. For instance, the younger students (Grades K – 4) sorted through owl pellets to learn about dietary studies and the ecology of owls. Intermediate students (Grades 5-10) analyzed fur seal bones representing the remains of past subsistence meals. Bone samples were obtained from two contexts: one set of samples came from the early historic village site of Zapadni (on St. Paul Island), and one set of samples came from the modern subsistence harvest (also conducted on St. Paul Island). The analyses of these bones were then compared to data from a 2000-year-old archaeological site on Umnak Island (one of the Aleutian Islands). Finally, the 11th Graders had the opportunity to conduct a controlled excavation of a killer whale calf skeleton that had been buried in 2011. Entirely by coincidence, a fresh-dead killer whale calf stranded in the same vicinity, right as we were planning the excavation of the 2011 animal. Although we were not allowed to conduct the necropsy ourselves, NOAA officials videotaped the whole process and shared that video with BSD. As in previous years, students seemed to really enjoy finding the tiny mouse and shrew and bird bones hiding in the owl pellets. Likewise, the students were intrigued by the analysis of the fur seal bones, especially in relation to how the modern subsistence harvest is currently managed. The modern subsistence harvest focuses on sub-adult males, aged anywhere from 2 to 5 years. Comparison of the bones from the modern subsistence harvest and the early historic sample clearly shows that the early historic village focused almost exclusively on harvesting pups. The Umnak Island samples, dating to roughly 2000 years ago, also show a heavy, though not exclusive, reliance on newborn pups. We were unsure of whether or not the excavation of the killer whale skeleton would be successful—primarily because it was unknown whether or not the carcass would be fully skeletonized. Fortunately, all of the bones were completely skeletonized and clean (Figures 1 and 2), and the excavation ended up being a huge success. Through the process of excavating the skeleton, the students learned about archaeological/paleontological excavation techniques, killer whale skeletal anatomy, and killer whale ecology. Now that they have recovered and cleaned the nearly-complete skeleton, all of the high school classes will work together to re-articulate the skeleton, which will be added to the growing collection of articulations inhabiting the school library. A video of the excavation process can be seen at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5ne_AwNGQ The killer whale excavation generated a lot of interest within the community. The BSD organizers decided to issue a press release to the Anchorage Daily News about the excavation. That, in turn, led to the students being nominated for an "Alaska Spirit of Youth" award (www.spiritofyouth.org), an award designed to recognize Alaskan youth "who are making good decisions" and/or "making positive contributions to their community." At the same time as we were planning the killer whale excavation, another killer whale calf stranded in the same general vicinity as the 2011 animal. Although the community of St. Paul would have loved to conduct a necropsy on-site, NOAA officials decided to ship the carcass to Anchorage for a full work-up. However, they graciously agreed to videotape the entire process. They then shared the video footage with us to use during BSD.
