Sea Otters Of Alaska

People

Randall Davis

Randall was the Principal Investigator for the project. He has worked extensively with marine mammals for many years, including saving oiled sea otters from the Exxon Valdez spill.

Fred Weltz

Fred was brought up in L.A., but now resides in the cabin and makes his living as a commercial fisherman. Fred met Randall when Randall was living in an adjacent cabin on an otter study project, and wandered past Fred's outhouse while Fred was otherwise occupied.

Lori and Rebecca

A great double act. Two graduate students from Randall's department at Texas A+M University. They cooked and cleaned for us. They kept us in Snickers bars and fruit drinks. They suffered our bad jokes and my guitar playing. For the next team they had to cope without Randall, so they were busy being trained to run the project without him.

Bruce, Laura-Lee, Laura, Jim, and Diane - the volunteers.

That's in the order I met them.

Bruce turned up while I was waiting for the Anchorage flight to arrive in Cordova. He had been staying in Cordova and so turned up just before the plane came in. Now retired, he seems to spend all his time on Earthwatch and related projects, with his trusty cameras, taking photographs of wildlife to fill his album with.

Laura-Lee was the first to spot the 'Earthwatch' label on me as I waited in the arrivals hall of Cordova Airport. She's a medical student in North Carolina, and has a fondness for mud.

Laura is unemployed but seems to enjoy drifting between jobs with the US National Park service. She hails from Connecticut and she enjoys dressing up in Civil War costume.

Jim is another man of leisure, and interrupted his RV tour of Alaska to do the project. He didn't bring his fishing gear, but managed to borrow a rod from Fred and two lures from Barney. With two casts, he managed to lose both lures in a stream full of salmon!

Diane works in Washington DC, but not for the government. She managed to get our brains close to burnout with complex debates on life, the universe, and everything in the evenings.

Barney and Maxine

Fred's parents. Although they are both well into their 80s, they still enjoy the outdoor life. They were escaping from L.A. and staying in a cabin on the other side of Alice Cove. In the morning Barney would be out chopping wood, and later he'd be catching fish. They came over to our cabin for dinner a couple of times, bringing the day's catch for all to share.

Sonya

Three days before the end of the project, there was a visitor at the door. Sonya is a journalist from Anchorage who was writing a piece on the project. She interviewed us all and spoke at length to Randall and Fred. I can't wait to read the finished article.

Randall and Fred

Lori

Rebecca

Bruce

Laura-Lee

Laura

Jim

Diane

Barney and friend.

Sonya

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