Alaska Tsunami Bowl a learning experience

Posted on: February 8, 2010 | musiclover | Comments Off | Print Article | Rate Post:

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By Heidi Zemach for Seward City News
heidizemach@yahoo.com

Seward High’s team of marine science geeks, Perusing Pycnopodia, competed with 21 other teams from across the state at the Alaska Tsunami Bowl February 5-7th in Seward. Team members included Nathan Feemster, Eileen Audette, Maddy Campbell and team captain, Maggie Herbert. They were coached by Adrienne Moretti, an educator with the Alaska SeaLife Center.

Seward placed eighth in the 2010 Alaska Tsunami Bowl. Their 20-page research paper, The Effects of Receding Ice Field on Point Hope tied for second-place in the research paper category. Their overall research project, (including paper and oral presentation) tied for forth place. Last year Seward placed sixth out of the 15 teams competing, but this year was the highest level of participation in the regional competition’s 13-year history. Hot Tropic, a Juneau-Douglas team named took first place. Juneau-Douglas teams have now won the bowl for four years straight. Team Starfish from South Anchorage took second place, followed by Cordova’s Notorious Dog Sharks, who took third.

Nevertheless, the scores weren’t too shabby for a group of Seward students who, like many of their competitors, have never even taken a high school marine science class. And they definitely learned plenty during four months of preparing their research paper; creating and presenting a power-point presentation, and studying often obscure marine science facts twice a week after school. They tackled questions such as, “Why is trawling considered so destructive?” Answer: it destroys seabed communities.” or “What percent of the earth’s surface does the ocean cover? Answer: 71-percent.” And, “What is the freezing point of water at the earths’ surface? Answer: -2-degrees Celsius.”

“It’s a great learning experience,” said Eileen Audette Saturday, as she and her teammates feasted on tamales and enchiladas during a break in the grueling quizzes. More important, is that the subject matter actually affects us here in Alaska, Audette said.

“Today everybody’s nervous about getting up before a big group in the auditorium,” said Alaska Seward Marine Center Tsunami Bowl coordinator Phyllis Shoemaker, Friday afternoon. “But tomorrow when we start the quiz games, they’re more competitive and it’s more like a basketball game—exciting I guess.”

She wasn’t kidding. Teams of students with unusual names and matching shirts rushed from one classroom quiz bowl to the next, studying and strategizing in the hallways and cafeteria until the moment when the door was locked, and the judges took command.

When team Seward entered Mr. Hinders’ history classroom for a round against Fightoplankton, a team from Wasilla, the opposing team was already seated, patiently waiting dressed in sea-blue native-themed dolphin themed tee-shirts. Nathan Feemster, a senior in his 4th year of the Tsunami Bowl, and the entire Seward team, captained by Maggie Herbert, appeared relaxed, while at the same time keyed up, appearing to relish the pressure. While each the Wasilla team members sat solemnly pondering the answers to the questions posed on their own, the Seward team members huddled closely together, talking, gesturing, and scribbling frantically. They even laughed and joked around a little, with Feemster introducing himself to the judges as “Elvis,” and sounding the buzzer frequently, interrupting with the correct answers before questions were even finished being asked. The team completely dominated the Fightoplankton, and won that particular round, 113-28.

Perusing Pycnopodia, (the latter of which refers to a type of ocean plankton) presented their academic research to the judges Saturday morning. The team said they chose Point Hope’s retreating sea ice to research because it gave such clear examples that illustrate the effects of ice melt—for example the long-term effects of retreating ice on substance bowhead whaling. Bowheads generally follow the edge of the sea ice, so when it retreats the whales will follow it, making hunters travel farther away from land to get them, Feemster explained. If the trend continues, at some point in the future, the whales may move too far away for local hunters to be able to harvest, he said.

The Palagic Surimi Bombers, a team from Unalaska gave a presentation about receding sea ice and the importance of a healthy Pollock industry to their city of just 4,000 people. Pollock constitutes 86-percent of the seafood currently caught, and it employs 12,000 people in a single season. The city’s 2-percent seafood sales tax, along with state fish revenue, creates a huge amount of money for their schools, they said. Without the Pollock fishery to depend on, there would be fewer residents in Unalaska, fewer children in school, which means less school funding and fewer books and supplies. It would turn Unalaska back into a village, they said.

The Mountain Village Sea Lions, a group from the Lower Yukon School District, whose village had just 826 residents in 2008, spoke about the effects of shrinking ice on the subsistence resources on which their people rely. They spoke of ponds disappearing as permafrost melted, polar bears drowning, dislocated from the sea ice, starving, and experiencing higher levels of cub mortality. The students also interviewed their elders who have traditionally subsisted on fishing, hunting and berry picking. The elders noted that the Yukon River has become really low, has not as many King Salmon, and that fish there have decreased by the thousands. Their observations about climate change included that there’s less snow, milder temperatures, and that the permafrost is disappearing. They said arctic animals are starting to become extinct. The perceptions of the elders parallel the scientific observations being made, they said.

Speaking softly because she found the experience of presenting before such a large audience scary, Hannah Joe concluded, “We are the children of fishermen that deeply depend on the Yukon River… Our parents are coming home angry, and frustrated.” What used to be seen after a fishing excursion were filled nets, heaving with fish. Now, what the people see after a fishing trip are bobbing net-buoys, with the nets barely containing enough fish to weigh them down,” Joe said.

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