July 03, 2006

Summer Camp in the Bering Sea?

Last week, I discovered a blog post from Nunivak Island, entitled "First Cruise Ship of the Year" that chronicled the arrival of the Spirit of Oceanus and our guests, who were on our Voyage to the Bering Sea cruise.  What was amazing to me, was that the ship arrived in the morning and by that evening, the post was live on their blog, complete with video. 

To understand what a great find blog site is, you need to know that Nunivak Island is part Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge and the second largest island in the Bering Sea and hundreds of miles from the modern conveniences that most of us take for granted. There are only about 200 residents on the island. 

Being a semi-geek,  I was obsessed with figuring out how they managed:

1) To have internet connection

2) To maintain a blog so rich in content

3) To go beyond the basics of blogging and embed video, slides and other forms of media on their site

Martin Leonard, author of the post, is a faculty member at the Summer Science Field and Research Incentive Program for High School Science and Technology Students in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta. This program is sponsored by the UAF- University of Alaska-Fairbanks and their goal is to expose their students to "both the principles of Western Ecology and to Native Ways of Knowing" and is mainly open to top performing high school students that reside within the Yukon Delta who plan to attend the University of Alaska.  The students pay only nominal expenses, with the funding coming from a variety of sources. There are also many sponsors, including a satellite communications company. 

I love that their site is so rich in content.  From historical slide shows, video clips of rare birds, to simply notes posted for friends & family - the site is an enjoyable read.  Really, it is the next best thing to being there!  I'm sure that our guests came away from their experience on Nunivak Island with a true appreciation for the work of these students and a deep admiration for their commitment to their culture and the environment.

Thanks, Martin, for blogging about us and for sharing your program with the world!
 

 

Posted by on July 3, 2006 9:52 AM

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