Episode 47 – Fish Tales

EPISODE 47

Fish Tales

Transcript  

00:00:13 Ally Kristan  

Hello listeners. I’m Ally Kristan, a staff member here at Duke University Marine Lab, and I’m pleased to be your host for today’s special episode “Fish Tales: a live storytelling event.” A lot of us here at the lab work in ocean conservation, trying to protect the ocean, planet ,and wildlife we love so much. Sometimes it can be a real bummer. What helps us through the dark times is community. So we hosted an event here in Atlantic Beach to bring together members from the greater community for a live story telling event called Spooky Fish Tales. Spooky because we hosted it the night before Halloween. Fish Tales is inspired by NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour podcast, and it began in Santa Cruz in 2018, thanks to the amazing Dr. Melissa Cronin. Today we’re sharing with you a recording from our live event. So sit back, relax, and let the salty stories take you away.   

00:01:05 Ally Kristan  

But without further ado, we’ll go ahead and get started. Our first storyteller tonight is going to be doctor Barbara Garrity-Blake. She’s a cultural anthropologist and author who specializes in fisheries. You’ve probably heard her band around town, the Unknown Tongues, and she’s going to be sharing a story about getting called out in church while doing field work in a fishing community.  

00:01:32 Barbara Garrity-Blake  

Thank you everybody. I’m Barbara Garrity- Blake and I am a cultural anthropologist. So therefore my story is going to pertain to the people side of a fisheries environment. So it takes place in Reedville, VA, on the Chesapeake Bay, in the late 1980s, when I was there, doing my graduate work. I was with the University of Virginia, and I was studying the menhaden fish meal and oil industry. One of the many things that interested me about  this industry was that they long employed African American men on the crew to pull in extremely heavy nets of fish. So, Reedville was an interesting place. Very remote. If you’ve ever been to Reedville, the community itself is basically stately mansions that were built by sea captains and industrialists in the 19th century, and then, of course, there’s a big giant fish factory there that processes the fish, menhaden, into oil and meal. And then there’s lots of sort of outlying neighborhoods and communities, including several black communities with sweet names like Sunny Bank, Black Berry and Taylor’s Beach. So when I first got there, I was riding my bike down along Taylor’s beach, trying to find somebody to talk. It’s a very sparsely populated area and a man came out of his house and he kind of flagged me down. “Like who are you? What are you doing back here?” And I told him my story.  

And it turns out that he was a retired menhaden crewman. His name was Tolar Basker, and from that day on he took me under his wing. He helped me identify people to interview. He opened doors for me. He gave me all sorts of insights. So I was doing pretty well getting getting a lot of interviews. I was there for a full year and about towards the end of my whole field work stint, my friend Tolar Basker said, “I can’t believe I haven’t told, haven’t thought to tell you this, but you should go talk to the preacher at my church. His name is Reverend Morris. He’s at the Shiloh Baptist Church. He’s just like you. He’s got his PhD in sociology, William and Mary, and I Think he studied this fishery?”  

And so I was very excited, I made an appointment with the preacher. And this was the largest black church in the whole area. And so I showed up and sat at the preacher’s desk. And I was, you know, just very enthusiastically telling him about my research and that, you know, “a member of his congregation, Mr. Tolar Basker had suggested I talk to you and I’d love to hear about what your work was.”  

Well, he looked at me and he said, “do you know how many white people have come into black communities like this? And stolen our stories. And then we never see them again.”  

Well, I didn’t expect that. And so I told him “I am not trying to steal stories. Believe me, I’m studying a fishery  industry. All the facets of it, all the different people, I’m talking to white people and black people and men and women. I spent a year doing research in Beaufort, NC. I’m not trying to steal stories.” 

And he said, “uh-huh, You’re going to go back to Charlottesville at UVA? Going to write your dissertation. And it’s going to benefit your career, but it’s not going to benefit any of these communities out here, people who have helped you.”  

Well, I really didn’t know what to say to that because there was truth in what he said. And so I just thanked him for his time and got out of there. Realizing that I had met the proverbial gatekeeper of the community. There’s always people who open doors for you. But then there are people whose job it is to protect the community, from people like me. So a few months later I was back at at UVA in Charlottesville. And I was organizing my notes for the daunting task of writing a dissertation when my phone rang, and it was my friend, Tolar Basker.  

And he says “Barbara. Our church is having a homecoming in a couple weeks. I want you to come.”  

And I said “at Shiloh Baptist Church. Thank you Tolar, but I cannot, no. I’m not going because you know, the reverend does not support what I’m doing, and I don’t think I should show my face there.”  

“Don’t be. There’s people coming from all over. Won’t you? It’s a homecoming and we miss you and, come on, you can bring your boyfriend too,” which at that point, Brian there, my husband was in my life. So he experienced this. So he and I, on the day of drive 3 hours to Reedville and we get to the church. And I was amazed that the parking lot was full of these greyhound buses and they were from Baltimore and New York City and Philadelphia. And so I found Mr. Basker.  

And I said, “wow, what is going on here?”  

He said, “That’s what I was trying to tell you. People here from all over, he. These are the people who used to live in this community, but they had to move away for economic opportunity and now they’ve come back.” And I was like, oh, that is so interesting. He goes well. “You better get in there and get a seat because it’s crowded.”  

And I said, “I’m not going in there without you.” 

“No, my job is to park. Y’all get in there,” and at that point a woman walked by and I’ll call her sister Helen, and he said “Sister Helen, would you please bring my friends inside the church and help them find a place to sit?” Of course. On she’s very nice and we walked in. And we were ushered upstairs onto the balcony. And indeed, the church was. It was packed and so people are turning around the pews in there, you know, where are you from and meeting us and, you know, we were literally the only white faces in this whole church. And so for the next hour and a half or so, the most amazing Church service unfolded before us that involved guest choirs and guest preachers, and you know, it was just quite an amazing fanfare. And at that point, I hadn’t seen the gatekeeper, yet… you can’t see me up here anyway, I’m up in the balcony. And the whole thing ended with a procession of all the different church clubs from these larger cities, and each one got into line to walk down the center of the church and each handed – there was Reverend Morris, the gatekeeper, the host preacher – handed him a check. And I thought, wow, this is really interesting.  

And so he got up at the pulpit and he announced to everybody, “we have raised over $30,000.  And before I offer the closing prayer, I would like everybody to look up there in that balcony.” And I was like. And he said “Barbara Garrity stand up please.” So I stood up and he let everybody in that church know that I was not there to be their friend, I was there is an anthropologist. “She’s here to study you. And so you keep that in mind if she tries to talk to you later.”  

And I went into some a little bit of shock, I think because my ears started ringing. My teeth were chattering, my knees turn to Jello, and I just. Sat down. I don’t think I remember too much after that, but when it was time to leave, I did notice that people were not making eye contact. They were not reaching out. So the mood had shifted. Regarding us being there and so you know, I I think back at that time and realize that in in many ways Reverend Morris was correct that everything I have written and everything and nothing I’ve written or nothing I’ve done, has done anything to improve the well-being of those communities. But how could it? How could it? But by the same token, I feel like I have paid it forward in the bigger context by advocating for socially responsible policy, advocating for that specific industry, actually, when I saw proposals coming down that were unjust. Advocating for working waterfront. And so I like to instill in students the importance of reciprocity, the importance of giving back, and no matter what you go into, no matter what you do in life, go forth with grace and gratitude in your heart for the people who have helped you along the way. And for the people who have challenged you and have perhaps compelled you to reflect harder than you otherwise would have on the complexity of what you’re doing. The complexity of relationships and the complexity of life. Thank you. 

 

00:11:49 Ally Kristan 

Thank you, Barbara, for that insightful story and for opening us up for the night. Up next, we’re going to have Dana Greico. Dana is a PhD candidate at Duke, and she studies the interactions between people and the sea, specifically the impacts of climate change on fish and human populations. She’s going to be sharing a story about an encounter out at sea.  

 

00:12:13 Dana Greico 

Barbara is a hard, hard one to follow, so I’m going to switch things up a little bit and take us up north. So we’re going to move from North Carolina to Cape Cod, MA and just to set the scene for you all a little bit here I am, 23 years old in this story. I was kind of fresh out of undergrad and so excited to be back in my favorite place. Starting to work in marine ecology, and so all I wanted to do was to work in fisheries on Cape Cod and and really get to connect and be a part of the research that was happening there. And I was just trying to kind of impress people and have them think that I was worth something.  

And so I was doing these recreational fisher surveys, and I met this fisher in the fall. And he said, “you know, do you have any jobs lined up coming up? I really need someone. I just got an oyster grant in Provincetown Harbor and I really need some help.” And so I was so excited because I didn’t have any jobs coming up and because, you know, I really wanted to get into more boat work and I had to tell him.  

I said, “you know, I’ve never driven a boat before. Is that going to be a problem?” 

“No, you know you’re fine. And I’ll teach you and help you.” 

 And so I remember the first time we drove up in his truck. And we’re driving and we go right through the center of Provincetown. Really amazing area and then we pull right up to Macmillan Pier. And for those of you who don’t know, it’s kind of one of the most iconic fishing Piers on Cape Cod. And so we park in his truck and I kind of look out and I see all these fishing boats coming back. And I was like. “Is this where we’re going?” 

And he said “Yeah, the boat’s right down there.” So we’re kind of walking out on the pier around all of these kind of amazing lobster fishers that are coming back and these are people that are fishing, all these different species that I really want to impress. Because I want to work here and and I want to make a good impression and this is one of my first days driving a boat. 

So we get out and he kind of takes the reins and he takes me out on the boat and he shows me where to hook up the boat to the to the oyster gear and we pull up the oyster cages with the bags and we sort them all and we take it back and we get it to the cellar. And I’m I’m thinking, wow, you know, this is a lot and this is going to be a lot to learn, but, with time, I think you know I could be able to do this, right, but it might take a bit of time.  

So at the end of the day, he checks in and he says, you know, “hey, Dana, how was that and how’d that go?” 

And I was like, “yeah, I think it was pretty good.” 

And and he said “Great because in two weeks I’m going on a family trip to Italy. And I’d like you to take the boat out by yourself, and you’re going to be alone for a bit”. So I felt the panic welling up inside of me, but he believed in me and so I was kind of like, OK, great. This is what I wanted. So, 2 weeks later I I drive his truck to the pier. I park. I grab all my gear. You know I’m in my big pants and I walk on out and I wave hi to the fishers, who clearly know that I am out of place and alone. And I go to reverse the boat. I can feel my hand shaking and I don’t bump into anything on my way out. I’m kind of taking a big sigh of relief and I’m like, OK. Doing all right, this is good. No one saw me do anything terrible. And so I get out to these floating oyster bags that are in the middle of Provincetown Harbour, and I latch onto the anchor line and I turn off the motor and I kind of examine which cage I want to pull up, which one might have some good oysters. 

And so I reach Over the side of the boat to pull up the oyster cage. And I realized, wow, like, this is a lot different with just me. You know,  when I was doing it with my boss It was a lot easier, so I kind of get my stance. And I’m ready. And I’m pulling up the cage. And as I’m pulling it up, I look and out of the corner of my right eye, I see a fin pop up in the water. I freak out a little bit. I drop the cage. It makes a giant splash in the water. I look around to make sure no one noticed and no one’s around to see me. There wasn’t, and by the time I look back, the fin is gone.  And so as any white shark fearing person from Cape Cod, I’m going through kind of the steps in my head, like, OK, this isn’t jaws. The shark’s not going to attack my boat, right? There aren’t really that many seals nearby, they’re by the inlet. Maybe it’s lost and confused like OK. I just need to take a second. They are not trying to eat me. I have a couple cuts in my hand. They’re not enough. It’s fine.  

So I gained my composure and I go back to the oyster. The big kind of oyster cage, and I pull it up again and I get it attached to the boat and by that time, I’m opening up the cage and then out of the corner of my left eye I see a fin again. And that wasn’t in the plan, right? The fin wasn’t supposed to show back up, so I stop what I’m doing. Freeze and I kind of look at it and I notice that it’s making some erratic behaviours for a shark. So the fin is kind of moving in circles and staying right around itself. Not moving anywhere and. So I’m like, OK, this is pretty strange and I’m on a boat alone. No one’s around. So I decided to go to the bow and I go out to the bow and I look over and I look at the shark and I notice that it’s actually not a shark at all. It’s a mola mola. An ocean sun fish and it’s just flopping around in the water, having no care at all. It doesn’t know the trauma that it just caused me. And so I waved to the Mola Mola and it flops around, and I go back to what I’m doing with the oysters. And when people ask me, my favorite fish, I say A Mola Mola quite often. Thank you.  

00:18:17 Ally Kristan 

Thank you, Dana, for that. I’m very happy to hear the happy ending of the story. Up next, we’re going to have another Sharky tail, and this will be by Brandon Letchworth. Brandon is an engineer with the Navy at Cherry Point and he’ll be sharing another tale about sharks out at sea.  

00:18:37 Brandon Letchworth 

Hey, how’s it going? I’m Brandon Letchworth, an engineer for the FST down in Cherry Point. They sent us a little bit all over the world, but this particular one had me in Hawaii for a couple weeks. So just want to start off, I am not a great swimmer. I can swim to a dock. I can swim back. Can’t really tread water all that well. That’s kind of important for this.  

So the first weekend that I’m there, I sign up for a open ocean shark diving excursion, and we show up really early in the morning 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning. We’re getting ready. The boat’s packing everything up. I can feel a little bit of my nerves starting to come up just because again, I can’t swim that well. And as we’re climbing on the boat, she, the three people who are chartering us are actually marine biologists who monitor and check up on all the sharks in the area and kind of study and help conserve sharks in that area and teach people about them that they’re really not there to hurt you. They help the ocean.  So as we’re packing up, she kind of states out, like, “if any of you guys don’t feel comfortable by the way, you’re not a great swimmer, Kind of let us know.”
 

So I just kind of pop on over real quietly and I’m like “I’m not real great. You don’t have to worry about me, but maybe just kind of keep an eye if I start going out too far.” 

So we pack up the boat and we’re driving about three to four miles offshore. And as we’re driving out there, we essentially have 3 rules for the for the trip. Do not jump off the boat. You need to use the ladder and calmly get into the water so you don’t splash. If you do throw up, throw up in the trash can or on the opposite side of the boat of which we are going out of. And at that point was to not, the third rule was to not dive underneath other sharks. You want to stay above sharks because it’s a whole hierarchy. The higher up you are, the better you are. And that’s that’s just kind of how the rules go. Or so I was told.  

So we’re on our way out and on our way out, we kind of noticed it starts getting real dark and a little bit windy. And the sky starts turning up a little bit. And the water starts getting real rough. And as we’re going out a couple people start getting seasick. Already not a great start to this trip. But we finally get about 3 or 4 miles. They throw the anchors down and you can feel the boat tossing and turning left to right. Again, not a great swimmer, so I’m like this is this is fantastic, but I’ve already paid for it. Going to do it. We’re going to go. We’re going to have a good time. I finally get off the boat as other people have jumped off before me. Mind you, the first rule was broken. The first three people. Just [slapping sound] step right off the boat. Splashing everywhere, and you can hear the biologist being like, “Please don’t do that. We have warned you the commotion causes the sharks to kind of know where that we’re here. Kind of like starting to pique their interest.”  

So rule #1 immediately broken. As I started getting off, they put a line across the boat so you can hold it, stay in the water and kind of because it is a little rough. And as I climb in, I’m kind of waiting for my turn ’cause we have to take turns to go out to the biologists who are telling us where to go. And as I look down in the water, we were told guaranteed one shark, that we would see at least one shark. We were told if we were lucky, we would get three to six sharks. And as I look down I see about 12.  And at this point, they’re kind of pointing out what they are. They were sandbar, black tip and Galapagos sharks, mind you they range anywhere from like, I can’t really remember too much, but like 8 feet to like 12 feet, they’re pretty big sharks, much bigger than I am anyways. And I look down and I see like 12 sharks. Immediately, just in in the vicinity, circling and not too far down. But they’re not really close. So we’re waiting for this and waiting for my turn to swim out for them to point which direction I need to go. And then I just hear (vomit noise). And I look back upon the boat and they miss the trash can completely. It stayed on the boat, but then because of the rocking, the vomit naturally comes into the water on the side we are at. So rule #2 broken and I’m like this is again not a great start, but we’re in the water. We’re having fun.  

I’m probably like the 7th or 8th person to go out and try to dive. Just kind of circulated. You could dive as much as you wanted. Couple people actually stayed up on the boat. The water was so rough that couple people just stayed there the entire time. It was a little sea sickness for them. As per the vomit.  As I’m getting ready to go, the two guys ahead of me, someone dove too deep and started causing more commotion with the sharks. And as I’m getting ready to go, I noticed that they’re coming up a little bit closer to the surface. And didn’t really think anything of it at the time.  So then I get ready to. I let go of the boat and I swim out. We’re probably about 20 feet from the boat and she’s like “there. Dive down that way.”  

And I dive down and I go as deep as I possibly can, all of like 8 feet. And the sharks are so went around you can see very clearly about 12 sharks. But if you look a little bit deeper, there was approximately 15 is what they counted I think. It’s about 15 sharks and you dive down. I get within probably like, 10 feet of one. Like this is really cool. Ready to go back up. I swim back up to the surface. Go back to the boat and wait my turn again. At this point you can kind of tell some of the biologists are not feeling real great between the splashing, the vomit and the one guy diving way too deep. The sharks are starting to get closer to the surface. The behavior is starting to become a Little more erratic. They’re tilting up towards us and I have no idea any of this is going on. I don’t know the behavior of sharks. So we circle back through. I come out again and she says “dive this way.”  

And as I dive down again, this time I’m holding a GoPro so I can swim even less so at this point, it’s probably still 8 feet, but I’m really struggling. Out of nowhere, one of the biologist dives down right next to me, and as I look to see where she’s going, a shark is tilted up, swimming in our general group’s direction upwards, and apparently that is not a good sign, so as she, much quicker, much more quick than I just swims right past me and goes face to face with the shark and it just kind of veers off and goes another direction. I was like, that was cool. I don’t know what that was, but that’s cool. So circled back up. Do probably two or three more times, and as we’re doing this, people again are coming in and out of the water. As however comfortable they feel again splashing, all three rules are out the window. You can hear some of them saying “please stop. Please stop.”  

They’ve asked a couple times. No one’s really listening. And at this point this is probably like my 4th dive. I’m pretty tired and right as I’m about to go dive, she’s like “actually, will you just go back to the boat.”  

And I was like, yeah, I’m. I’m in. I’m kind of tired. Doesn’t Really matter. Swim back to the boat and as we get there, I noticed that everyone is now in the boat or at the boat. We still have approximately 10 minutes left and as I’m kind of bobbing in the water, waiting, we see all of the sharks are much closer now. All of them are probably within 15 feet of us, or at least the top level was about 15 feet of the surface, and at this point, they’re just like, “the waters are really rough. I think we should just get in the boat and go back.” 

 And we’re all just like. All right, cool. Little bit cold, little bit. It’s kind of, you know, if we’re bobbing next to the boat, you kind of feel like you’re getting slapped into the boat. So we climb up in there, vomit still on the side of the boat, and at this point we all jump in. And drive back.  And me, I’m kind of talkative in case you haven’t noticed, I lean over to them and was like, “hey, we still have like 10 minutes like, Is it just because of the water?” 

And they were like, “yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. You’re good. Just kind of rough water”.  

As we pull into the dock and everyone starts loading off, I stop for a second and say, “hey you know thank you for your time. It was really appreciative that you guys took us out. How did this trip go? Out of curiosity, I noticed people weren’t listening.”  

And one of them, all of them looked at each other first, but then one of them looked at me and was like, “that was probably the most intense dive we’ve had in about a year and a half.” 

And I had no idea. And I was just like well, “why I mean, I know there was way more than you thought there was going to be.” 

And she simply said “no one listened. And all of the Sharks started becoming aggressive. When I dove next to you, that was a deterrence.” 

I had no idea. I thought she was just studying them because that was her job. When you dive face to face to a shark, that’s supposed to be kind of like a deterrent to them. And that’s why it turned away and she had to do that at least three times. Once for me, two other times for someone else. And as we’re finishing climbing off the boat, she was just like, “that was the most intense trip we’ve had in a year and a half and probably the most aggressive they’ve been since I’ve been working here.”  

And all I had to say at that point was “thank you for protecting me. Thank you for making sure we all get back. Don’t ever let me do this again. “ 

And I just want to throw out that that was One Ocean Diving down in Hawaii, they do shark conservation and that’s how I knew some of the facts about it today. And sharks are friends, but they were not friendly that day. So, thank you.  

 

00:29:17 Ally Kristan 

Thank you Brandon. I’m also very happy that that story had a happy ending too, and now it’s my turn to share a story with you guys. So I’m going to tell you about a time in Antarctica where something happened that I can’t quite explain. So this was two years ago, and at that point, I’d been actively trying to get to Antarctica as a scientist for seven years. Which turns out is really really hard to do. And I started in college studying marine biology, and so I’m a marine biologist by training, but I just really love animals, and I wanted to be a part of conservation, so I thought maybe marine biology Is the way to do that. And while I was in college, I got the opportunity to do this awesome study looking at mummified Antarctic Penguins, and that was awesome, and I automatically became really enthralled with Antarctica for all of the obvious reasons, but also because, you know, conservation is a lot of doom and gloom and bad news, and sometimes it feels like it’s a lot of losses. But it felt like Antarctica was different. Like here was this place where the wildlife were existing as they should and everything was out of the touch of human reach.  

So I really latched onto it and I loved doing that research for two years. And of course I hoped the whole time maybe something will happen and my professor will need extra help and he’ll take me down to the ice.  Of course, that didn’t happen because I was a lowly undergraduate. That’s, okay. Keep your eyes on the prize. So I graduate, published the paper. There’s not really a lot of jobs doing Antarctic science. So I wound up in Hawaii working on a whale watch boat. That sounds really fun. And it is in a lot of ways, but it just kind of felt like we were harassing the whales and the boats had this really dark exhaust that would come out of it a lot of the time. And every day there was always somebody who would lean over the Rail with a cup full of Mai Tai and just drop the plastic cup into the ocean. And so I thought, you know, I don’t really feel like I’m part of the fight here. Not really making much of a difference, so I’m thinking more about Antarctica. Maybe there’s something I can do there, the framework is in place.  

So I started shopping around for funded master’s programs where I could keep studying Antarctica. And again, not a lot of options, but I got in touch with this really wonderful professor and he said, you know, if you do your master’s with me, I’m prepared to take you down to the ice at least once, if not twice in the two years. So I was like, sold, and I moved from Hawaii to Louisiana, which is a really stark contrast. But again, eyes on the prize. I started my project. I was studying Penguins and seals and climate change and I loved the research and we were all geared up and ready to go to the ice for the austral summer of 2020. But you know what happened. And that’s OK. We’re going to try again in 2021. But you know what happened.  

I finished my masters and I was desperate to get outside and again, not a lot of jobs doing Antarctic stuff, but I found this really great job in Florida, where they gave me this boat and I would just drive it around to these little barrier islands and check on the shore birds there and I loved my job. Some days, I felt like I was making a difference. But also, we had this really gnarly Red Tide from too much pollution in the water, and like entire Tarpon and sea turtles and dolphins were washing up dead and it was killing my birds too. And there was awful storm surge all the time that would just wipe away these nests on the ground, and every weekend there were people who would come out to the islands to party and they just didn’t care at all about these teeny, tiny little birds that I was spending 50 hours a week trying to protect. And so I’m enjoying it. But I’m thinking there’s really got to be something else I can do. Maybe I can get to the source of the problem. And I start thinking about Antarctica again and I apply to this federal fellowship program because I’m thinking maybe in the government I can make a difference. Which you know, we all think at one point, but I applied to this federal fellowship program and there are 72 different offices available, but a single one of them is with the US Antarctic Program. I couldn’t pass it up, so I went for that office and I start working in Antarctic Environmental Protection.  

Which was awesome and I loved it and I become even more enamored with Antarctica because I’m learning about the Antarctic Treaty and how we have this whole framework in place that was signed during the height of the Cold War and it reserves Antarctica as a place for peace and science only. And there’s no mining and no industry and no militial weapons down there. And every time I have an idea about something we can do to help protect it even more, everyone in my office agrees with it, which didn’t always happen when I was in Louisiana or Florida. So I was really feeling like I was in the right place and finally they said there’s room for you to do a month-long deployment at one of our research bases this season.  

And so it’s a whole lot of work to get there, and it’s all these medical exams and trainings and paperwork and you have to buy a bunch of gear and you fly all the way to New Zealand and you get more gear and you do more trainings and you wait until the weather is right and you have to put all of your stuff in these weird little bags and only take 50 lbs of equipment. But finally I get on the US Air Force plane, and you fly down and you land on the ice. And I’ve tried to find the words to describe what it’s like when that big cargo door opens and you get out and you’re all of a sudden in deep Antarctica. But there really aren’t words for. It’s just like, blinding white brightness and wind that feels like it’s ripping holes in your ears and it’s so alien, but at the same time, in a strange way, it kind of feels like you’re finally back home.  

But that was kind of the problem though, is that it was a little too much like home. I’d go walking around the base and there was trash everywhere. And it’s not because people were littering, but it’s just because trash has a way of winding up everywhere. And so I would try to pick it up from the dirt, but that meant I had to take off my huge, extreme cold weather mittens to do that. And it was like negative 30 degree wind chill, so it’s really painful and no matter how much trash I picked up there was Always more. And it was really loud. Like they have huge tractors and there are helicopters and trucks and heating units and sometimes people smoke cigarettes and leave the butts on the ground and there’s black exhaust on some parts of this otherwise pristine ice.  

And I was really concerned about it and I was trying to tell people, but I was realizing, you know, most of the people, they’re not people who were obsessed with Antarctica and wanted to keep it pristine, like me. It’s just that it takes a lot of work to keep a research base running and there was a job to do, so people had to be there to do the job. And not everyone had the time to help me try and protect the environment. And so realising that not even Antarctica was out of reach of human destruction, just really, really broke my heart.  

And so after a while I was like, I need to be alone to get away from all these people. And Antarctica is very communal living. So it’s really hard to be alone, especially indoors. If you want to be alone, you have to go outside and get off base. And it was October 2022, so exactly 2 years ago and it was a really cold and windy day even by those standards. But I wanted to be alone and I’m really bullheaded. So I was going to go even if it killed me and I put on the 40 lbs of extreme cold weather gear and it’s really clunky and I don’t really know how to walk, but I do this hike all the way around to a ridge trail, and it’s like lava rock and a really narrow trail. Once you get up on top and you can see everything all around you. And so I hike all the way up here, and finally I’m away from other people. And there’s just these, like, huge walls of ice in front of me that look like they’ll never change. And the wind is just like ripping so hard that you’re cold and you’re angry that it’s so cold. And I’m totally alone, except for far off in the distance, beneath me, I can hear Weddell seals, who are these 1000 LB mammals that can gnaw holes in the ice with their teeth and then catapult themselves out of those holes fully pregnant and give birth on the ice in negative 30 degree wind chill. And somehow I’m in the presence of these animals. And I get up to this point where there’s a little wooden cross, and it’s a memoriam to early Antarctic explorers who died in this exact spot. So I get up here and I’m taking it all in and I sit down on the ground and I just start sobbing and I’m letting it all out.  

And it’s for a lot of reasons. I’m mourning the Antarctica that I thought existed and realizing that everywhere humans are inherently there’s going to be some sort of impact. And I’m crying because I’m concerned about Antarctica and what will continue to happen. It looks like it can’t be changed to me, but I know that the ice is melting and more people are coming in, geopolitical tensions are getting higher. And I’m crying because I feel bad for these Weddell seals and that I’m even here in their presence, and they have to be test subjects and that they can’t just be there basking in the frigid Antarctic sun for only themselves. Like, I don’t feel like I’m great enough to witness them. But most of all, I was crying because it was the first time in my life that I ever really realized that no matter how much I care, I’m just one small person and most people really don’t care that much. And I’m really feeling sorry for myself and letting it all out and having this realization when behind me, I distinctly heard three footsteps, and it was as if someone was coming up behind me and then stopped. And it was the very clear sound of hiking boots on lava rock.  

But I turned around and there was nobody there. And I don’t mean like I couldn’t see. I mean, like you know, it’s a Ridge in Antarctica, like there aren’t any trees, nobody’s hiding or something, I can see 360° around me and there just isn’t anybody there, but I don’t really feel alone anymore. And I’m a scientist too, and I know there are a lot of skeptics in this room. So all I can say is in that moment it just felt like somebody else was there like. Maybe somebody who’d been to Antarctica before or liked to come visit and just wanted to let me know that they were there and they cared, too. So after a moment of that, I picked myself back up and I walked back to the base and on the way I took my gloves off and picked up every single piece of trash that I could because, even if you can’t fix the entire problem, you can make it just a little bit better. And even in the times when, as conservationists, we feel really lonely, we are never truly alone. So that’s my story.  

00:40:03 Ally Kristan 

We have one last speaker for this evening. Last but certainly not least, we’ll be hearing a tale from Alexis Longmire. She is a PhD candidate at UNC studying reefs and living shorelines. And she’s bringing us a story about a suspicious fellow at a boat ramp in South Dakota. 

00:40:25 Alexis Longmire  

Oh, let’s get out of here, huh? Thanks Ally. Like she said, My name is Alexis and I work at the Institute of Marine Sciences over on Arendell in Morehead. Big building. Ocean mural  on the side, can’t miss it and obviously there I do Marine work. Now I grew up in East Tennessee, in southern Appalachia. And kind of part of part of the stick of living in an area like that, or maybe just living with the family like mine is you grow up hearing weird, spooky, supernatural, tue stories. Now my family claims that they’re true. My parents even did some ghost hunting when I was little. But. I’d like to think that they’re mostly just told by the grandparents, so we’d stop messing with them when we’re a little, but I’d like to think that these stories have kind of made me more resilient to hearing spooky, weird stories. A bit of a skeptic now. So the story I’m telling today. It should mean something that it stuck with me this long, and I truly can’t explain what I saw. 

1. So I left Tennessee for my Bachelors of Science at the University of Alabama, and I did all freshwater research. I really was a freshwater scientist before I even came here to North Carolina, and the summer that I turned 19, I got an internship in South Dakota. I Don’t know. I needed a job, OK. And so I got hired on as a summer fisheries intern. Some of you all may have visited South Dakota. That’s where Mount Rushmore is. But I was located in the capital, Pierre. That’s what the locals call it up here. And South Dakota is very rural. It’s not a very densely populated state and so majority of its economy is based off of outdoor recreation. From locals and out of state visitors alike. So there’s a lot of hunting and fishing in South Dakota, a lot of really beautiful natural resources. 

So a really big part of our job as these fisheries interns, was to go out, go out with biologists to just state waters and survey the game fish- the walleye, the bass, the salmon- things you want to catch. Take a picture with them. Eat. That’s what we are surveying. But another really big part of our job is going to boat ramps and sitting for hours and hours at a time, and interviewing fishermen. OK. Now these boat ramps were 98% of the time, very secluded areas and often times you had to go by yourself,OK. And so I’m not saying weird things happen more often in these sorts of areas. But they definitely go unnoticed for a Longer time, for example, 2 interns actually found a body at a boat ramp that summer, and the police thought that that person had been there for months before that body of water had froze over in the winter, and that was in the capital. So you can get an idea of some of the things you stumble upon in these more secluded boat ramps. OK?  

And so the day that my story takes place in true cliche, spooky story fashion started like any other day, OK? Me and luckily another guy, OK? Another intern. We were tasked with going to a boat ramp 2 hours east of the CAP. So luckily I had a buddy, thank goodness. And we  get to the office early. We load up the truck with our tablets because that’s where our surveys were, right, and we start our two hour trek to this boat ramp. OK, Central and eastern South Dakota. Not really known for its evelation, doesn’t really have a lot of trees, but we’re talking about miles and miles of rolling hills, farmland, pristine waterways. Perfectly great drive 2 hour drive. There we finally get to where we’re going, OK? And it’s at a park that’s really well maintained. Just kind of like outdoor recreation area. We pull into the boat ramp. Unfortunately for us, there’s like 3 trucks with attached boat trailers in there so That means at best we get to talk to three people today. OK. But we have to stay there at this boat ramp for the entire day and then do the two hour drive back to the office. We go ahead and prep ourselves for a boring, uneventful day, OK.  

And so we’re sitting there. We’re just chatting when to the right of us is the water with the ramp, in front of us and the parking lot, and to the left side Is this hill. The bathroom is a small building up on top and there’s a yellow Jeep parked next to it that’s been there since we got there. Whatever. OK, there’s not much to look at. There’s no one else around, so me and this intern were just chatting, OK, for a better part of an hour. Two hours. Until finally, some movement catches our eye. On the top of this hill to our left. And pretty quickly we can, can see, just a just a guy just walking. He’s probably the owner of the Jeep. OK. He’s walking in that bathroom. Whatever, it takes oura attention, doesn’t necessarily keep it.  

But. That’s until the man walks out into full view. On top of this hill. And we freeze. And it’s not until I say, “Oh my God, Is he naked?” Now I don’t know about y’all, but when you are confronted with unexpected nudity in a public place, there’s one question that comes to your mind first. Am I crazy? Is that guy really naked? OK. Unfortunately for me, he wasbutt naked because I had an intern to corroborate my story. Thank goodness, I wasn’t by myself. Actually, it’s a little unfair to say he was completely naked. He was naked from the eyes down. So you’re thinking he’s got a hat on? Oh, I wish, that would make too much sense in an already senseless story. This man has nothing on except a headlamp. It’s the middle of the day. Albeit a bit overcast, but no need for a headlamp, especially when that’s the only thing you’ve got on, OK?  

So then the second thing you ask when you’re confronted with unexpected nudity in a public place is you finally point the finger to the naked person. “Are they crazy? OK. Are they on something? Why are they naked and in this specific case, why a headlamp?” OK. And so I’m so first first hypothesis. As a scientist, maybe he had an explosive blow out in the bathroom and just had to strip. OK. We’ve All been there. Now, that still doesn’t explain the headlamp. And this guy has been there before we even got there. So we’re talking the better part of two or so hours. OK now. Surely he’s on something. He seemed perfectly happy, very in control of himself on this hilltop by this obnoxious yellow Jeep ’cause he was walking around very casually. Struttin’ his stuff. Thank goodness it wasn’t too sunny out because he was pasty and he would have been burnt fast, OK.  

And so we are just basking in this nude spectacle of a man with no other witnesses. If I was by myself, I’d have been terrified. Been like OK, but luckily I had another intern with me and we are cracking up. We’re texting the other interns y’all are never going to believe this, OK, and we watch this man for what feels like an eternity. Because naked man minutes go by like hours, OK. OK. And finally, just as casually as he’s been going on this entire time, he very slowly moves to his yellow Jeep, opens the driver side door, buns on the seat, and slowly drives out of there. OK. What are you supposed to do after seeing that when we’re only on hour 3 of an 8 hour day at this boat ramp? And like, how? How do you get over something like that? How Do you talk about anything but the naked man with a headlamp. OK.  

And so we unfortunately we had to sit there For hours afterwards. OK, we interview maybe one person after that entire day. So we’re like we got a 2 hour drive back. Let’s go. So we’re leaving this boat ramp. We’re driving through this recreational area and to our right, there is a sheltered picnic area and there’s a yellow Jeep parked by. Now, like I said, I would have kept going. But I was with a guy, no offense. And he was itching to see what this man was up to. And so we pull up behind this yellow Jeep. The guy gets out. I lock the doors and he goes and he peers down this other hillside to this man. And he comes back and he is cracking up. He says he’s still naked. He’s still got the headlamp, but now he’s wading around in calf deep water, peering around the rocks on shaore. OK. And so we never saw this man again at a boat ramp, fortunately for us, and so for the rest of the summer, even to today, we can only speculate what he was doing. Why he was naked and really more importantly, why the headlamp, OK. And so I’m not sure what he was searching for, but hopefully he found a pair of britches. OK, and before I leave y’all tonight, I do have something that maybe not all the storytellers tonight can say: I have concrete evidence that this event occurred. So if there are any particularly brave souls on this All Hallows Eve, you can come see me for video evidence of the infamous South Dakota naked man. Thank you.  

00:50:39 Ally Kristan 

Thanks for listening to this special Fish Tales episode of the Seas the Day Podcast. This episode was conceived and executed by Ally Kristan, and Lisa Campbell and Matt Godfrey edited. Thanks to Jeff Priddy, Emily Melvin and Rafa Lobo for your assistance. Thank you to our volunteer storytellers for agreeing to be recorded, and thank you to Crystal Coast Brewing Company for hosting the event. You can hear more of our shows and sign up for e-mail updates on https://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/seastheday/, contact us at duml-podcast@duke.edu, and follow us on Instagram @seasthedaypod. See you next time!