The Warming North Pacific

February 21, 2021UncategorizedKodiak Island wildlife, Our Changing Oceans, Robin Barefield, Warming North Pacific, Wildlife in Alaskaadmin

The climate-change-induced temperature rise in the North Pacific Ocean has impacted flora and fauna from the tiniest phytoplankton to the largest whales. Since pre-industrial times, the oceans’ water temperature from the tropics to the poles has increased by 0.7°C. Scientists predict the water temperature will increase another 1.4°C to 5.8°C by the end of the century.

Melting sea ice and retreating glaciers offer the most visual evidence of these temperature changes, but our warming oceans’ impacts are many and varied. Most changes are subtle and occur slowly over time, but others explode into a mass mortality incident produced by something as seemingly innocent as a bloom of algae.

During the summer of 2015, warm weather across the North Pacific and West Coast of North America produced sea temperatures much higher than average. This warm water spawned massive algal blooms. While much of the algae was harmless, certain phytoplankton species in the bloom produced dangerous neurotoxins. Since plankton forms the base of the ocean’s food chain, this bloom negatively impacted marine life and fisheries from California to Alaska. Biologists identified nine dead fin whales near Kodiak Island in June and believed toxic algae caused their deaths.

During 2015, researchers noted extremely high levels of the algal toxin domoic acid, leading to closures of recreational razor clam harvests in Oregon and Washington. Fisheries managers also closed a large portion of the Washington state Dungeness crab fishery and some of the sardine and anchovy fisheries in California. Biologists measured the highest domoic acid levels ever recorded in Monterrey Bay, California, in May 2015.

Toxic algal blooms directly impact marine organisms, but ocean warming has also created many subtle changes to the biodiversity and population structures of organisms in the oceans, especially in the once ice-dominated areas of the northern Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. Warming ocean waters have significantly affected gray whales in recent years. Increasing seawater temperatures in the Bering Sea have reduced winter ice cover in the region, which has led to a reduction in productivity. Primary productivity in the northern Bering Sea declined by 70 percent from 1988 to 2004. This previously ice-dominated, shallow ecosystem favoring large communities of benthic amphipods, the favorite food of gray whales, has been replaced by an ecosystem dominated by pelagic fish (i.e., those that dwell neither on the bottom nor on the surface). Gray whales have responded by migrating farther north, but biologists cannot predict what will happen if amphipod communities disappear from this region.

During the summer of 2018, the waters in the Bering Sea soared nine degrees Fahrenheit (5°C) warmer than average. Gray whales responded by migrating farther north to the Chukchi Sea. Still, amphipods might now be disappearing from this region as well, forcing gray whales to consume less nutritious krill, and krill might not contain the amount of fatty acids the whales need to build adequate blubber. By the spring of 2019, numerous reports noting gray whale carcasses washed up on beaches from Mexico to Canada were alarming whale biologists. By the end of that year, 214 dead gray whales had been sighted. Of these, 122 carcasses had landed on US beaches, 11 on the shores of Canada, and 81 on Mexico’s beaches. In the United States, 48 whales died in Alaska. Since most whales sink to the ocean floor when they die, the recovered carcasses probably represented only a fraction of the number of gray whales that died in 2019. Most of the whales died on their northward migration after a winter of fasting.

The warming ocean impacts the animals living in the sea and birds and animal that depends on the ocean for their food supply or any part of their life cycle. In Prince William Sound, surveys suggest the horned puffin population in that area declined 79% from 1972 to 1998. Biologists believe this decline in numbers is due to significant changes in the food base due to global warming. In the fall of 2016, hundreds of tufted puffins starved to death in the Pribilof Islands. Like the earlier deaths of horned puffins in Prince William Sound, researchers blamed their deaths on a shortage of food linked to higher-than-normal ocean temperatures in the Bering Sea.

In my recent posts on sharks, I noted that sharks have become more common in the North Pacific in the past decade. Pacific cod populations have crashed in recent years, and the numbers of halibut, pollock, crab, and salmon also seem to be on the decline. As the North Pacific warms, will other types of fish and invertebrates move in to fill the void left by the once-dominant species, or will the ocean become a toxic cesspool, lacking any life?

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

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Pacific Sleeper Shark (Somniosus pacificus)

January 31, 2021Fish, Kodiak WildlifeKodiak Wildlife, Pacific Sleeper Shark, Robin Barefield, Sharks, Sharks in Alaska, Somniosus pacificus, Steller Sea Lionsadmin

The reclusive, deep-dwelling Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus) remains an enigma to biologists. Once believed to be sluggish bottom-dwellers that scavenged or fed on small fish and slow-moving prey, researchers now think Pacific sleeper sharks play a pivotal role in the North Pacific’s food web. Biologist Lee Hubert with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game studies Pacific sleepers, and he has learned the sharks spend little time on the bottom but instead move continually through all depths and are stealth predators of fast-moving prey.

I can understand how Pacific sleepers earned their reputation as sluggish sharks. We occasionally catch immature Pacific sleeper sharks when we halibut fish, and when reeled up to the boat, they look dead and move very little. I was surprised to hear these sharks are voracious predators. This shark’s ability to remain still, though, is one of the reasons it is such a successful predator. When it glides through the water, barely moving its body, it minimizes hydrodynamic noise, allowing it to elude acoustic detection by its prey.

Pacific sleeper sharks dive to depths exceeding 6500 ft. (1981 m). They typically remain deep during the day and then move to the surface at night, where they feed under cover of darkness. These sharks probably have poor eyesight, but they are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic fields. They can detect even minute electrical signals, such as the beating of an animal’s heart or its diaphragm’s movement. The shark does not need vision to detect these signals and attack its prey. Its dark grey body and stealth movements make it an efficient predator under the cloak of darkness.

The mouth of a Pacific sleeper shark is large and acts as a vacuum to inhale prey. Fish, such as salmon and cod, can be swallowed whole, but the shark uses its teeth to aid in eating larger prey items. Its upper jaw has small, sharp conical teeth used to hold the prey, while the teeth in the lower jaw interlock, forming a serrated blade used for slicing. A Pacific sleeper shark’s bite resembles the shape of a three-quarter moon.

Because they make little noise when traveling, a sleeper shark attacks with little warning. It might slowly swim up underneath a seal resting on the surface and attack the seal’s midsection, inflicting a fatal wound. Researchers know Pacific sleeper sharks eat fish, squid, octopuses, and marine mammals, but they are still trying to discern how much impact these sharks have on the their ecosystem. The number of Pacific sleeper sharks has increased dramatically in the North Pacific since the 1980s. Because they live very deep much of the time, it is difficult for biologists to estimate their population size. Still, in many areas where commercial fishermen caught few sleeper sharks in the 1970s, they now catch many.

Investigators are particularly interested to learn how many marine mammals Pacific sleeper sharks kill and eat. Pacific sleepers can grow to twenty feet (6.1 m) in length and weigh more than 8000 lbs. (3600 kg). They grow nearly as large as an adult orca, and recent evidence suggests these sharks might eat endangered Steller sea lions, especially sea lion pups.

In a 2014 study, biologists inserted “life-history transmitters” into the abdomens of 36 juvenile Steller sea lions.These transmitters record temperature, light, and other properties during the sea lions’ lives. When a sea lion dies, the tags either float to the surface or fall out onshore and transmit the data by satellite to researchers. After 17 of the original 36 tagged sea lions died, researchers noted that 15 of the transmitters indicated that predators killed the sea lions. Usually, when a predator kills a sea lion, the tag is ripped from the body and floats to the surface, recording a rapid temperature change and exposure to light. Three of the transmitters relayed data that suggested a very different type of predator, though. They recorded an abrupt drop in temperature, but they did not float to the surface and sense light, indicating that tissue surrounded them. The apparent explanation is that a cold-blooded animal, such as a shark, had eaten them. Other than sleeper sharks, great white and salmon sharks are the only other candidates living in the area near where the sea lions died. But both great white sharks and salmon sharks have counter-current heat exchangers in their bodies, giving them higher body temperatures than those recorded. Biologists think a Pacific sleeper shark is the only predator in the area that is large enough to eat a sea lion and has a body temperature as low as those recorded.

Pacific sleeper sharks live in polar and sub-polar regions year-round. They range from Baja California north to the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas and the Okhotsk Sea off Japan. Biologists know little about Pacific sleeper shark reproduction and only recently learned they give birth to live young. Their social structure is also unknown, but researchers have photographed them feeding together in large numbers on whale carcasses.

Pacific sleeper sharks probably have a lifespan of more than forty years. Their tissue is toxic to humans and believed to be toxic to many other animals, so they have few natural predators except perhaps for other sharks.

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Salmon Shark (Lamna ditropis)

January 12, 2021Fish, Kodiak Wildlife, UncategorizedAlaska wildlife, Lamna ditropis, Lamnid Sharks, Robin Barefield, Salmon Shark, Sharks in Alaskaadmin

I am always thrilled when I see the dorsal fin of a salmon shark protruding from the water as it swims near the surface. I love seeing any apex predator, but sharks conjure an air of mystery and fear. I wonder if the shark is chasing prey or if it is just watching and waiting for a fish to make the fatal mistake of swimming into its strike range.

Salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) are some of the fastest fish in the ocean, and their high metabolism makes them voracious eaters. Salmon sharks are closely related to great white sharks, makos, and porbeagle sharks. Because their body shape so closely resembles a great white shark’s shape, people sometimes mistake salmon sharks as juvenile great whites.

Like other species of lamnids, salmon sharks have a conical snout, dark, round eyes, and a keeled, lunate tail. The salmon shark and porbeagle shark can be distinguished from great whites and makos by their smaller secondary caudal keel below the primary keel at the base of the tail. While the porbeagle shark inhabits the Atlantic and Southern Pacific, the salmon shark lives in the North Pacific.

A salmon shark has a bluish-black to dusky gray back, fading to white on the stomach. It has long gill slits and large teeth. Salmon sharks can grow to over 10 ft. (3 m) in length, but they average 6.5 to 8 ft. (1.9 – 2.4 m). They can weigh more than 660 lbs. (300 kg). Females grow larger than males.

Like other lamnid sharks, salmon sharks manage to sustain elevated body temperatures, even in the cold North Pacific. Their core body temperature measures approximately 80°F (26.7°C). They maintain this warm body temperature because they have a counter-current heat exchanger of blood vessels, directing heated blood through their core and dark musculature. This elevated body temperature permits the shark to live and hunt in a wide range of depths and water temperatures. The warm blood flow allows their brain, eyes, and muscles to function at peak performance.

A salmon shark is a big marine animal with no fur or blubber to keep it warm. To maintain its body heat, it must consume a large amount of food each day. Like a great white shark or a mako, a salmon shark aggressively chases its prey and sometimes even explosively breaches out of the water while in pursuit. Salmon sharks feed on fish, squid, other sharks, seals, sea otters, and marine birds. A study done in 1998 determined that salmon sharks consumed twelve to twenty-five percent of the total annual run of Pacific salmon in Prince William Sound.

While salmon sharks are most abundant in the North Pacific Ocean near Alaska, they travel as far south as northern Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands. Researchers have recorded salmon sharks dives as deep as 2192 ft. (668 m). Although biologists do not entirely understand salmon shark migrations, they believe the sharks spend the summer in the northern part of their range, and then they migrate south to breed. In the western North Pacific, salmon sharks migrate to Japanese waters to breed, and in the eastern North Pacific, they migrate south to the Oregon and California coasts. Their migrations are complicated, though, and they segregate by size and sex. Their migrations also depend upon available prey species in various areas. Scientists have determined that although many salmon sharks migrate south in the winter, some remain in the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound year-round.

Male salmon sharks mature at five years of age, while females do not reach sexual maturity until they are eight to ten years old. They breed in the late summer or early autumn. Embryos develop inside their mother for nine months until she gives birth to between two to five pups. The developing embryos consume any unfertilized eggs in the womb. The mother provides no parental care to her young after birth, and they must fend for themselves. Females usually produce a litter every two years.

Male salmon sharks have a maximum lifespan of 25 years, while females can live 17 years. Other sharks sometimes eat salmon sharks, but humans pose the biggest threat. In Alaska, no commercial fishery exists for salmon sharks, but some sport fishing companies specialize in shark charters. Salmon sharks are big, strong, aggressive fish, and they pose a challenge and thrill for sport anglers. Each angler is limited to two salmon sharks per year. Salmon shark meat reportedly tastes similar to swordfish.

In my next post, I’ll describe another species of shark common in Alaska. Pacific sleeper sharks were long ignored as large, sluggish fish, but research over the past few years suggests Pacific sleeper sharks might play an essential role in the North Pacific’s food chain.

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Pacific Spiny Dogfish Shark (Squalus suckleyi)

December 20, 2020Fish, Kodiak WildlifeDogfish Shark, Pacific Spiny Dogfish, Pacific Spiny Dogfish biology, Robin Barefield, Sharks in Alaska, Sharks near Kodiak Island, Spiny Dogfish, Squalus suckleyi, Wildlife of Kodiak Islandadmin

One of the most abundant sharks globally, Pacific spiny dogfish belongs to the family Squalidae (the dogfish family). Pacific spiny dogfish range from the Bering Sea to Baja California to Japan and the Korean Peninsula. They are most common off the west coast of the U.S. and British Columbia. Dogfish are typically bottom dwellers and inhabit depths from shallow coastal waters to 4,055 ft. (1,236 m). They prefer water temperatures ranging from 44.6° F to 59° F (7-15° C).

Pacific spiny dogfish are small, streamlined sharks. Males can grow to 3.3 ft. (1 m), while females measure a maximum length of 4 ft. (1.2 m). A dogfish has a distinctive snout, large eyes, and a flattened head. The body has a cylindrical shape. The top half is dark gray with scattered white spots, and this color fades to light gray or white on the underneath side of the fish. The teeth of a dogfish have sharp edges, but they are specialized for grinding instead of tearing. Dermal denticles comprise the scales of a dogfish. These denticles are the same rigid material found in their teeth, and they make the skin very tough.

A dogfish does not have an anal fin, but it has two dorsal fins, with a spine in front of each fin. These spines are venomous, and the shark uses them as protection against potential predators, such as other sharks or humans. The dogfish employs its two dorsal fins in different ways. The first dorsal fin helps it maintain stability while swimming, and the second dorsal fin provides thrust. The large caudal fin (or tail) allows the shark to maneuver quickly and efficiently through the water.

A dogfish has five gills on either side of its body, but unlike bony fish, a dogfish does not have gill covers. To breathe through these gills, the shark must remain in constant motion, so it either must continually swim or rest in a current where water rushes past its gills. A dogfish has an adaptation called spiracles, aiding it to breathe in calm water. These specialized gills, located behind the eyes, allow the shark to breathe when resting or eating.

Dogfish earned their common name from fishermen who observed them hunting in packs like dogs. Schools of hundreds of dogfish swim close together during the day, hunting herring, capelin, other small fish, squid, octopus, and even jellyfish. The dogfish uses its teeth and not its spines when feeding. It uses its spines for protection. Scientists think dogfish eat less in the winter when they migrate to great depths. They are preyed upon by larger sharks, seals, orcas, and some larger fish.

Spiny dogfish can live 100 years, and females do not reach sexual maturity until they are approximately 35 years old. Males can reproduce at an average age of 19. Males internally fertilize females in October or November. Dogfish are ovoviviparous, meaning females give birth to live young, and they have a gestation of nearly 24 months, the longest of any vertebrate. They give birth to up to 22 pups, and the newborns range in length from 8 ½ to 12 inches (21.6 – 30.5 cm).

Pacific spiny dogfish stocks remain stable and are carefully managed. In some areas of the world, a commercial market exists for dogfish, and they are considered a good food fish, but they are not yet in demand as a food source in the United States.

We usually catch a few dogfish each year during our sportfishing trips, but this past summer, we landed as many as 20 per day while halibut fishing. Dogfish are tricky to release because while you try to get the hook out of its mouth, the shark attempts to whip its body into a position to stab you with one of its venomous spines. I was not pleased to encounter so many dogfish this past summer, but more importantly, I wondered why we were catching so many dogfish. I speculate that the dramatic decrease in the Pacific cod population led to an increase in small fish species typically eaten by cod. Dogfish probably are exploiting an opening in the food chain. Will their presence affect the abundance of other fish species in this region of the North Pacific? Only time will tell.

Happy holidays, and I wish us all a nicer, brighter 2021!

Mystery Newsletter

Sharks in Alaska

November 30, 2020Fish, Kodiak WildlifeDogfish Shark, Pacific Sleeper Shark, Robin Barefield, Salmon Sharks, Sharks in Alaskaadmin

Our guests are often surprised to learn sharks feed and swim in the frigid North Pacific. We catch spiny dogfish sharks when halibut fishing, and large salmon sharks terrorize commercial salmon gillnetters by ripping enormous holes in their nets when stealing fish from the mesh. Pacific sleeper sharks also live in Alaska’s waters, but sleeper sharks remain elusive, and biologists do not know much about their biology, diet, and habits. These three species fascinate me, and I think you will enjoy learning about their longevity, reproductive biology, and the mechanisms each species employs to stay warm in the frigid waters surrounding Alaska. I will cover each shark in detail in future posts, but for now, let me give you an overview of sharks in Alaska.

The three shark species I listed above are the most common but not the only sharks trolling the North Pacific. Over the past several years, ocean waters in the region have warmed, encouraging other shark species to venture into these nutrient-rich areas. Great white sharks began exploring Alaska in the 1970s, but recent, more frequent sightings suggest an increasing number of great whites have discovered the North Pacific’s fertile feeding grounds. Most of these visiting sharks only stay during the warm summer months, but researchers believe a small percentage find enough to eat to keep them in Alaska year-round.

Great whites are related to salmon sharks. Like salmon sharks, great whites have a highly developed countercurrent heat exchange mechanism that allows them to maintain a body temperature several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. Sharks in this family represent some of the few species of endothermic fish in the ocean. Unlike their cold-blooded cousins, great whites and salmon sharks can produce bursts of speed to chase down prey, even in frigid ocean temperatures.

In recent years, Alaskans living and working in the far north regions of the Bering Strait and the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas have reported sightings of marine mammals with unusual wounds. Researchers noted that several ice-associated seals and Steller sea lions in the area suffered injuries from an uncommon predator.

Reports of seals with amputated flippers alerted biologists because killer whales have pegged teeth and don’t cause a slicing-type laceration. In some instances, scientists noted penetrating stab wounds and circular bite marks. Flesh torn by sharp, triangular teeth convinced researchers they were looking at the bite marks of a very large shark. Are the warming water temperatures and melting sea ice inducing great white sharks to travel further north where they can find a bounty of sea mammals to eat?

When great white sharks reach adulthood and grow very large, they seem to prefer eating marine mammals over fish, probably because marine mammals have a high energy-rich fat content. Observers have watched great whiles kill beluga whales in Cook Inlet, and biologists suspect they may even take walruses in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Are great whites, at least in part, responsible for the diminishing numbers of Beluga whales? If the number of great whites increases in Alaska, will they affect other marine mammals’ population densities? Much more research is needed to answer these questions.

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I’ll take a closer look at my nemesis, the spiny dogfish shark, in my next post. We used to catch one or two of these nasty little critters a year during our summer fishing trips, but we caught as many as twenty per day this past summer. Is this increase in spiny dogfish a trend, or was this past year only an anomaly?

Finding Normal

October 17, 2020Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, WritingCovid 19, Kodiak Island, Normal, Robin Barefieldadmin

What is “normal” these days? To me, “normal” feels like a train wreck occurring in front of me. I stand helpless, my eyes glued to the track while I watch the two engines barrel toward each other, brakes screaming. Chaos abounds in our government, our healthcare, our citizenry, and everywhere in our daily lives.

I attempted to watch the first U.S. presidential debate, but I had to turn off the television after only a few minutes. These are the people who are supposed to lead us out of the darkness. They are the ones who should formulate a comprehensive response to this pandemic to lessen its impact both physically and economically. Instead, they fought like children for ninety minutes, leaving me, and I’m sure many others, bewildered, confused, and frightened. Will our country survive this dark time in our history?

I am lucky to live in the wilderness, and I haven’t been to town since early March, so I’ve missed day-to-day issues of masks and social distancing. Instead, I’ve watched from afar, moving from fascinated to concerned to alarmed.

My selfish new normal might mean no vacation this winter, and I don’t mind. This summer, my husband, Mike, finished building my office/workshop, and I love it. It is a great place to write and research new ideas for posts and newsletters. Mike even enclosed a small, closet-like space and sound-proofed it to make me a podcast studio. This is the video of my she-shed, as we laughingly call it. https://vimeo.co m/426004653.

Many of our guests canceled their reservations this summer, and most have rebooked for next year or the following year. Losing half of our season was tough, but I spent the extra time to work on my Kodiak wildlife book. I found an excellent editor, and we labored over every detail of formatting, sentence structure, and clarity. I knew editing this book would require a great deal of work, and it did, but I now have a clean manuscript. Next, I will work on photo placement, and then I will put the project on a thumb drive and mail it to my publisher. I hope to have the published book by early 2021. I am excited!

I’ve spent too much time watching the news this year, and of course, the pandemic and political climate have provided much fodder for future novel plots. Unfortunately, though, this new normal has distracted my creativity, and I’ve struggled to keep up with my writing schedule. In late November, once we close our lodge for the year, I hope to focus and increase my productivity.

I plan to write blog posts about a few more marine invertebrates, including sea cucumbers, urchins, clams, and mussels. Many of my posts originate from questions our guests ask me. When I can’t fully answer a question, I decide to research the organism and write about it. This summer, we caught several skates and way too many dogfish sharks. You will soon see a post about both skates and dogfish. I am especially curious about the dogfish and wonder what hole in the marine community they have rushed in to fill. Was this year an anomaly or the beginning of a worrisome trend? Unfortunately, the environment is also skewing toward a new normal.

A COVID vaccine might not return us to what we once considered normal, and I hope it doesn’t. I want to think we will emerge from this crisis wiser and kinder, but what I see now does not paint an optimistic portrait. If we do return to our old normal, I hope, at least, we will not take it for granted. If nothing else, we should learn that it only takes a tiny virus to destroy normal.

Mystery Newsletter

How Pandemics Changed History

September 20, 2020HistoricalFlu, Pandemic, Pandemics changed history, Plague, Smallpoxadmin

How will the COVID-19 pandemic end? Will it change the world? Will some countries emerge stronger, while others appear weak due to their inability to handle the virus? Will the pandemic force long-term impacts on economies and cultures?

Wars carve our history. They lead to the downfall of some civilizations and the rise of others. Pandemics have also changed history, and pandemics and wars often coincide. Disease can weaken a strong civilization, allowing its lesser foe to prevail in battle. Also, many times over the millennia, marauding warriors have returned home from war bringing with them a terrible disease. Sometimes, an infectious disease gains a foothold during battle, and soldiers confined together in close quarters provide the perfect breeding ground for the virus to spread.

Around 430 B.C., Athens and Sparta went to war, and soon after, a strange disease developed in Athens. According to the Greek historian Thucydides, people in good health suddenly became ill with red and inflamed eyes and a bloody throat and tongue. Experts do not know what caused this epidemic, but they have suggested everything from typhoid fever to Ebola. As the deadly infection spread, the war raged. As many as 100,000 people died from the disease, and Athens finally surrendered to Sparta.

In A.D. 165-180, Roman soldiers returned from a campaign, carrying home a pandemic, known as the Antonine Plague. The disease, which might have been smallpox, killed over 5 million people. The epidemic caused instability and war throughout the Roman Empire, leading to the beginning of its downfall.

The Plague of Justinian from A.D. 541-542 was the bubonic plague, and it ravaged Constantinople before spreading to Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Arabia. This plague marked the beginning of the decline of the Byzantine Empire.

The bubonic plague also caused the Black Death from 1346-1353. This devastating pandemic wiped out over half of Europe’s population, but it also changed the course of Europe’s history in a positive way. Large numbers of laborers died from the plague, and those who remained demanded higher wages. The surviving laborers had access to better food, and the loss of cheap labor led to technological innovation.

In the 16^th century, European explores brought smallpox and other Eurasian diseases to the Americas, wiping out as many as 90% of the indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere and causing the collapse of the Inca and Aztec civilizations. After disease weakened the Incas and Aztecs, the Europeans easily conquered them.

While the previous examples stem from far back in our history, the 1918-1919 flu presents a more recent case. This pandemic began during WWI. Experts disagree about where the flu originated, but most agree the lethal virus spread quickly due to the cramped conditions of soldiers in barracks and the poor nutrition during the war. President Woodrow Wilson was so intent on boosting morale and keeping the country focused on patriotism and winning the war that he refused to talk about the deadly influenza virus spreading like wildfire among the troops. By the end of WWI, more soldiers died from the flu than on the battlefield. The 1918-1919 flu killed 675,000 Americans and between 50 and 100 million people worldwide.

In April 1919, just as the war ended, President Wilson caught the flu. When it was time to sign the peace treaty in Paris, an extremely ill and weakened Wilson caved to demands of the French for a punishing peace agreement with Germany. In return for conceding to the French on the tone and content of the treaty, the French agreed to Wilson’s wishes to form the League of Nations. Many historians believe the harsh treatment toward Germany at the end of WWI lead the country down the path to hyperinflation, chaos, nationalism, militarization, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and WWII.

A major world event such as a pandemic is bound to leave lasting impacts. We can already predict some changes in our lives. Online virtual meetings, education, and doctor’s visits have become more frequent and likely will remain so, even once the pandemic ends. Will a move away from working at the office toward working at home decentralize our cities? Will our hypervigilance over avoiding infection continue once we have a vaccine for COVID-19, or will we again display indifference in the presence of pathogens? Will our economy recover, or will we suffer a damaging and possibly fatal blow from this virus? How will other countries fare?

Perhaps the final chapter on the COVID-19 virus will not be written for decades when scholars can look back from a distance and see the effect the virus had on our lives, our cultures, and our countries. Other pandemics have caused the fall of empires. Will this one cause significant harm in the long run?

Mystery Newsletter

Coronaviruses

September 6, 2020Historical, Living in the wilderness on Kodiak IslandCoronaviruses, Covid 19, Disease, Pandemicadmin

My series of posts on infectious diseases has, of course, been inspired by Covid-19, the coronavirus currently spreading to every corner of the world. What is a coronavirus, though, and what path will Covid-19 take? Will we tame it with a vaccine, will it mysteriously disappear, or is it here to stay for a while? We know Covid-19 is a novel virus, a pathogen never previously identified in humans. When Covid-19 began to spread around the world, no one was immune to it.

Coronaviruses represent a large family of viruses, including the common cold and other mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses. Over the past few years, three serious coronaviruses, causing severe illness and death, have emerged. In addition to Covid-19, these are Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). SARS appeared in 2002 and disappeared by 2004. MERS was transmitted by camels and first identified in humans in September 2012. MERS continues to cause localized outbreaks.

Covid-19 emerged from China in December 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world. Like the viruses that produce SARS and MERS, Covid-19 can cause serious illness and death, but its extreme virulence makes Covid-19 even more dangerous than its viral cousins. Covid-19 spreads easily between people who are in close contact when one person inhales small, infected droplets produced by the infected person. The droplets can be spread by talking, yelling, coughing, sneezing, or singing. Scientists still aren’t certain how long small aerosol droplets containing Covid-19 remain suspended in air or how far they can travel. Covid-19 can also spread when infected droplets fall onto a surface, and a person then touches the contaminated surface and subsequently spreads the infection to their eyes, nose, or mouth.

No vaccine for Covid-19 currently exists, but we all remain hopeful that scientists will soon develop one. Until then, we can only protect ourselves by following basic public health protocols. These might not seem like cutting-edge science, but they have been the best weapons used to fight infectious diseases through the centuries. By now, we all know them well: Wash your hands, maintain a physical distance from others, and wear a mask to cover your nose and mouth.

Infectious disease experts wait and watch this virus. We would like these experts to tell us what will happen next, but how can they possibly know? The Spanish flu virus mutated partway through its run and became much more deadly in the fall of 1918. Could this happen with Covid-19? Most experts believe it will again peak in the fall, but it shows no sign of slowing now as summer progresses and draws to a close.

We cannot yet write the story about Covid-19. How many people will get sick, and how many will die? How did it start spreading, and could national leaders have stopped it if they ignored politics and acted sooner? Most importantly, how can we better prepare for the next pandemic when it occurs? Will we take a moment and remember to turn around and study the past, or are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes with each pandemic we encounter?

I decided to write one more post about pandemics, and then I promise to move back to covering Kodiak wildlife and life in the wilderness. In my next post, I’ll discuss how plagues have changed history. While researching pandemics, I was fascinated to learn the many ways, both good and bad, that pandemics have shaped our history, and I began to wonder what lasting impacts Covid-19 will leave on the world.

Mystery Newsletter

Influenza: The Flu

August 23, 2020HistoricalDeadly Flu Viruses, Flu, Influenz, Influenza Pandemic, Virusadmin

While the flu is something we would rather avoid, most of us don’t fear the flu virus. But maybe we should. Influenza viruses are complex, containing strands of RNA twisted together. When the strands untwist to replicate, they break and sometimes recombine with fragments of other viruses, resulting in new viral forms. Virologists cannot predict these mutations. Flu viruses reside in a variety of host species, and the virus can pick up nasty tricks as it moves from animal to animal, recombining with other flu viruses before moving on to infect a host of another species. By the time the virus reaches man, it might be highly contagious, extremely lethal, and nothing humans have ever seen before. The novel virus could quickly race around the planet, leaving destruction in its wake.

For those infected with the influenza virus, symptoms range from mild to severe. The most common symptoms include high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle and joint pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. The influenza virus occasionally causes severe illness, including primary viral pneumonia and secondary bacterial pneumonia.

Three types of influenza viruses affect humans. These are known as types A,B, and C. A fourth type (D) has not been known to affect humans, but virologists believe it could. Influenzavirus A is the most worrisome of the four types, because wild aquatic birds are the natural hosts for influenza A, and the virus sometimes jumps to other species, causing massive outbreaks of infection in domestic poultry and creating pandemics of influenza in humans. Recent human pandemics caused by the influenza A virus include the 1918/1919 flu, the 1957 Asian Flu, and the 2004 bird flu.

Most experts consider the 1918/1919 flu (Spanish flu) pandemic one of the most baffling and terrifying pandemics of all time. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide die from the flu each year. The 1918/1919 (Spanish) flu, though, killed an estimated 20-50 million humans over the course of a year. Some estimates range as high as 100 million deaths. More terrifying yet, though, was who the virus killed. The very old, very young, or those with underlying health conditions usually succumb to the common flu, but the Spanish flu killed young, otherwise healthy adults.

Experts today still argue over why the Spanish flu killed the young and healthy, but many believe the virus triggered a cytokine storm, which is an overreaction of the body’s immune system. This storm proved particularly deadly for young adults with robust immune systems.

Historians and virologists also argue over where the Spanish flu originated, but everyone agrees it did not come from Spain. Since Spain remained a neutral nation during WWI, it did not censor its press, and reporters freely documented early accounts of the disease, causing many people to think the flu originated in Spain. Some experts believe the 1918 flu pandemic began in Haskell County, Kansas, and quickly spread from there to Fort Riley when an enlisted man went home to Haskell for a few days, became infected, and returned to the army base. In the overcrowded barracks on base, the flu quickly spread.

The Spanish flu suddenly burned out in the Spring of 1919. While this H1N1 influenza A virus has not returned since, epidemiologist fear it will reappear. This pandemic occurred over one-hundred years ago, so few people alive now have immunity to this strain, and it could again exact a nasty toll.

Flu experts study the world and watch carefully for the next possible flu epidemic. Infectious disease experts say it is not a matter of if but when the next flu pandemic will occur.

Mystery Newsletter

Pandemics

August 2, 2020HistoricalAids, Cholera, Pandemics, Robin Barefield, Smallpox, Worst Pandemicsadmin

While Covid-19 is a novel virus, pandemics are nothing new in human history. In my last post, I wrote about the plague, and in this post, I’ll cover some of the other major pathogens that have not only inflicted disease upon humans but have caused pandemics affecting much of the globe.

Smallpox

For centuries, smallpox threatened Europe, Asia, and Arabia, killing three out of every ten people it infected. While smallpox menaced the old world for millennia, humans did not experience its full fury until European explorers introduced it to the New World. The indigenous inhabitants of Mexico and the United States had no immunity to smallpox, and tens of millions died. Anthropologists estimate smallpox decimated 90 to 95 percent of the indigenous population of the Americas.

The variola virus causes smallpox, and it is the only infectious disease humans have eradicated. Once they had a vaccine for smallpox, World Health Organization workers searched the most remote areas of the world, tracking down and vaccinating infected individuals and their contacts. The last natural case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. Unlike most viruses, smallpox only infects humans. No other species play host to the virus. Once all humans were vaccinated against smallpox, the virus had no place to go. Most human viruses can also infect other animals or insects, making these viruses impossible to find and demolish.

Cholera

Cholera is an infection caused by strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which attack the small intestine, causing watery diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps. Cholera has wreaked havoc over the centuries and is the scourge of developing countries. Cholera is often spread through dirty drinking water, and it still kills nearly 30,000 people a year worldwide.

In the 19^th century, cholera ravaged England and killed tens of thousands of people. No one understood how the disease spread until a doctor named John Snow linked the illness to a Broad Street pump in London, where many of the citizens obtained their drinking water. While cholera is no longer a problem in stable nations, it still lurks in developing countries that lack adequate sewage treatment and access to clean water.

AIDS

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes AIDS. Experts believe the virus originated in chimpanzees and began infecting humans in West Africa in the 1920s. AIDS became a pandemic in the late 20^th century, killing an estimated 35 million individuals. Sixty-four percent of the estimated forty million people worldwide infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. Medication can now control HIV, and most HIV-infected individuals with access to the medication can live an average lifespan.

In my next post, I’ll cover the flu, an illness we all know well and carelessly dismiss as a minor inconvenience. Influenza has caused terrible pandemics in our past, and the flu virus keeps epidemiologists awake at night. These experts will tell you, “It’s not a question of ‘if’ we will have another flu pandemic but of ‘when’ the next flu pandemic will occur.