This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about our school’s namesake.  Students, parents, and staff are encouraged to attend.

Steller’s Curse–The Unfortunate Fate Of Alaska’s First Naturalist And The Marine Animals That Bear His Name will be presented Wednesday, February 16 at 7pm at the BLM Campbell Creek Science Center. Georg Steller was the physician and naturalist on Vitus Bering’s second expedition to search for the connection between Asia and North America. Along the way, Steller became the first Westerner to collect and scientifically describe numerous animals and plants, including the first scientific accounts of the Steller sea lion, the northern fur seal, the sea otter, and the Steller’s sea cow. A few of these species, like Steller himself, did not survive for long after that fateful voyage and others have recently been threatened with extinction.

Join us as RUSS ANDREWS of the Alaska Sealife Center and the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, UAF, shares more about Steller’s discoveries, discusses more recent scientific research conducted on many of these same species in far eastern Russia and Alaska, and describes the high-tech equipment that is enabling scientists to increase our understanding of the animals that have fallen under Steller’s curse. Please call 267-1241 for more information.