Thoughts on My Time in Alaska
When I've had enough of computers, I choose an NGO and go volunteer with them for a few months. The further from civilisation, the better. Work, volunteer, repeat. This routine has kept me sane, allowed me to grow, and given me the opportunity to give back. It's very close to the idea of a perfect career for me.
I’ve been to a few places, but nothing beats the time I spent in Alaska. To describe that feeling it might be best to talk about one of my favourite photos that I've ever taken. It shows a group of bubble-net feeding humpback whales in Southeast Alaska. I took it during the summer of 2018, on an expedition when we were away from base for six days, the six of us on a tiny three-person boat. That's how you end up camping in a tent on a boat. :)
I work on a computer as well during these months, creating maps for the NGO I work for, but the offices can be very different from what we're all used to. For example, there was the one on an uninhabited island where four plastic equipment containers served as my table, and the fifth as my chair. Best office I ever had, with regular visits from whales and seals in the strait ahead of me, and a wonderful temperate rainforest just behind my station. After the workday was over, I would explore the wilderness, before heading back to my tent in the forest.
During my time in Alaska (two summers so far), I worked on multiple projects, including creating whale distribution maps and analyzing hydroacoustic sonar data about krill. I also compared these with simultaneously collected whale sighting and behaviour data, bathymetry maps and others, while also living my dream and pretending to be a marine biologist, driving boats, taking photo IDs or collecting whale sound data with hydrophones.
It is definitely a place and kind of work that I would like to return to as frequently as possible.
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