Welcome

Hi there, its been a while. I've been told that the Swarthmore magazine
article is out, which had brief bio thing about the work I've been doing
and a link to this page. While I doubt many people will actually take the
time to take the magazine to their computer, type in the blog address-being
careful to spell my name right and what not, and they actually read this
(or maybe just click a link if the article is online too), I figured I
would give a brief synopsis of myself and my work and this site.

First off, let me just say I never intended to start a blog, and I largely
still do not view this as one. Yes it's a blogging site and I semi-
routinely make posts about most nothing, but still. It started because for
the last 2 years I have been working in remote field camps that have
extremely limited email (and no internet). Instead of writing 20 different
people the same stories, then responding to their 20 replies and infinite
more questions, I only told a select few my email address while I'm away
(hurray if you know it, if you don't, its nothing personal). This mostly is
stories, often played up to seem more dramatic or humorous than they really
were, about these places I've been, the work I've participated in, and the
animals that really are the reason for all of it.

So now that that is out of the way- My name is Wiley. I graduated
Swarthmore in 2010 with a BA in Biology. After Swat I worked in the SF bay
area on invasive plant mapping and eradication. Plants are not my typical
subject of choice, but it got me outside in the mud and it paid. In 2011 I
moved to Arcata, CA to start a Masters degree at Humboldt State University,
where I studied harbor seals, as well as Grey, humpback, and blue whales.
Along the way I've also worked with captive animals in both zoo and
research settings.

After (mostly) finishing my Masters in 2014, I finagled my way into a job
monitoring Steller's sea lion on Marmot Island, Alaska with the National
Marine Mammal Lab, a small branch of NOAA (the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration) based in Seattle. This work took me to a small
island near Kodiak, AK where I spent the summer in a small cabin on the
cliffs looking for marked sea lions and observing reproductive success and
behaviors. There were 4 people on the island- me and one other guy in our
camp, and two other people on the other side of the island, who we would
see about once a week.

Next up, while sitting in a parking lot of a camp ground in Denali National
Park, I was offered a position working at the NOAA field camp at Cape
Shirreff in Antarctica studying Antarctic fur seals. I obviously was not
about to say no to that, though it has required being away for 5 months at
a time on a remote island for the last two winters (Antaractic summers).
Its here in Antarctica that most of these stories come from and its here
that I've really grown the most as a researcher (and we will just say as a
person too because it sounds poetic).

I invite you to check out the stories (old ones are funnier) and some of
the links that are either to the right or at the bottom of the page. Maybe?
I've only actually seen this page a handful of times. Unfortunately because
of the aforementioned email restrictions I cannot post my email address
here, but if you leave a comment (or email wiley.archibald@gmail.com)
saying you want to get in touch I will happily reply in April or May when I
am back in the US. If its more urgent, there are a few people that read
this who do have my email here, so they can probably pass the word along
and I will do what I can to make contact. I'm happy to reply to questions
about the work we do here, remote living, job offers…

Anyway I hope this at least peaks some people's interests in some of the
work that goes on in places most people never even think about. There is a
whole "behind the scenes" level of research about fisheries and climate
change and just how the world is changing. These little projects in the
most remote reaches of the world, are often the first one to tell you that
generally something is wrong. It happens before the massive storms, before
the cities are flooded by a rising ocean, and before thousands of animals
right in front of everyone's faces begin to die. I know I don't need to
preach to anyone who would find their way to this site to begin with, but
the more who know, the better.