It seems that we are not the only ones interested in our mass balance site. A curious bear appears to have inspected our site in mid March. Scott Oyagak from BASC went out to change over the batteries and found prints all around and some damage to our masts. Reports this year are of higher bear activity out on the ice in this general area (site map). This may be related to the whalebone dump being closer this year. This is where previous seasons whalebones are left so that the congregating bears are safely out of town.
Thankfully none of the cables were cut, and transmission resumed as usual once the batteries were replaced. The snow pinger was dangling about though so it was fortunate also that Chris Petrich was heading up this week for other work and was able to repair things.
Last year it was a fox eating through Malcolm Inghams electrode strings. Joe Trodahl once had a thermistor string in McMurdo Sound catastrophically bent by either a seal or big Arctic cod. What next?