Not everything here aboard the Ewing focuses on our research. One of our science party, Steffen Saustrup, seismic data processor, is also a biologist at heart. Several mornings ago, during our transit leg from Panama, he was on deck during a windy, rainy day with Astrid Markowitz, a graduate student watchstander, when he suddenly observed a small bird cowering and shivering at Astrid’s feet. Steffen realized that the bird was either sick or injured, for it looked really forlorn to him and lay perfectly still in the same spot. After observing it throughout the day and noticing that it could barely crawl, Steffen decided to take action and came to its rescue.

First Steffen tried to provide the bird with some crackers for a meal and a towel to warm its temporary home on the Ewing’s deck, but it didn’t seem interested in food. Becoming more concerned after night approached, Steffen moved it into new luxurious quarters in his cabin, a nest made of a cardboard box lid and the towel. He observed that the bird immediately began nodding its head and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

Next morning, Steffen’s new cabin-mate seemed perkier, so he decided it was time to give it some water using a homemade eyedropper improvised from a Bic pen. After getting some canned tuna from the galley, Steffen and Mari S., one of the marine mammal observers on board, gently force fed the bird, which appeared to be a type of petrel. By Thursday morning Peter the Petrel, now named and identified as a Sejneger’s petrel which breeds on islands off the coast of Chile, was still enjoying his new home and getting perkier by the hour. He would sit on Steffen’s shoulder or even his hat, and was seemingly relaxed about his unusual adventure, even to the point of beating his wings a few times.

Steffen’s next concern was when and how to try to successfully release Peter back into its natural habitat of oceanic waters. Late Thursday evening Steffen held the petrel in his hand for the last time, raised his arm into the air, and proudly sent Peter flying back into the Pacific winds.