Radio Script
1998

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Bird Cam
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STORY: Gull Island rises from the choppy waters of Kachemak Bay, eight miles from downtown Homer, Alaska. Appropriately named, the island's steep cliffs are the nesting site for gulls, murres, puffins and kittiwakes. Hundreds of seabirds are already here, with more arriving every day.

For people, though, getting to the island isn't always easy. It's often raining, and the water is sometimes rough. But thanks to cameras remotely controlled at Homer's Pratt Museum, visitors can enjoy the island's seabirds without getting wet or seasick. Betsy Webb is the museum's curator.

WEBB: "There are two cameras up on top of Gull Island. Camera one is just a regular lens that pans and tilts and zooms. The second one is a wide-angle lens and it also pans, but it doesn't zoom."

The cameras are part of a new project called Kachemak Bay Discovery. The highly interactive exhibit is intended to teach people about seabirds and the region's marine ecosystem. At the base of the cliff is yet another camera, strategically positioned to watch the tide roll in and out. Occasionally, the camera even catches a curious sea otter.

WEBB: "The third camera is underwater at times. It is at tide-line, so you can see the water rushing in and covering over the camera. Then the camera gets really deep in the water and later on it's exposed way above water. That one is really interesting because when the tide comes in you can see the turbulence that affects all of the life that's growing on the rocks. I really think that one is fantastic."

A small transmitter set up on Gull Island beams the camera images directly to a receiving antenna eight miles away on the Pratt Museum's roof. Inside a specially equipped room, project manager Michael O'Meara moves the joystick that controls the cameras.

O'MEARA: "It's a great experience. First of all when you walk into the marine room, we have our video monitors mounted high. There's good light but it's subdued light, so the video images are striking. It's like you're really there. You're out on the island. We have good audio as well. So the sounds of the seabirds are there. They surround you. Most people are immediately drawn to that, of course. And when they realize they can actually move between the cameras and select between the cameras, they're utterly fascinated. I have to say it fascinates me too!"

Move the joystick side to side, the camera pans left or right. Push a button on the top of the joystick, and you zoom in for a closer look. Rain obstructing your view? Betsy Webb says that's no problem.

WEBB: "There's a wiper. If it's raining or snowing, you can push W on the computer for wiper and it wipes clean the camera, like a little windshield wiper. And it also has a little squirter too. The public can do the wiper but not the squirter."

Watching seabirds come and go from the island would probably be enough for most people. But when things seem dull on the surface, visitors can switch on a camera hidden deep inside a tufted puffin nest.

WEBB: "We have an infrared camera buried in a burrow. So we're hoping that burrow will be occupied this year as it has in the past."

The exhibit's grand opening is scheduled for May 30. Museum officials think visitors will themselves flock to the museum to use the cameras. Students from local schools also will use the cameras to conduct their own studies of Gull Island's seabirds.

OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Doug Schneider.