Jim Nichols

One of my more interesting experiences occurred while working on a project on a big lake in central Florida that required collecting alligator eggs. I worked with a group of scientists with several airboats (two scientists per airboat) and a helicopter. The operation worked like this: The helicopter would fly over the marshland and swampland surrounding the lake. Whenever the people in the helicopter spotted an alligator nest, they would hover over the nest. One of the airboats would speed over to the nearest shoreline (riding on an airboat is a lot of fun!). After arriving on the shore, the people from the boat would look around for an alligator “run” (a small ditch leading from the lake to the alligator nest, used by the female alligator to go to and from the lake). The people from the boat would then walk up the run to the nest. (This method was a lot easier than trying to walk through all the dense marsh vegetation.)

While working on a two-person airboat team, I began walking behind my partner up an alligator run to the nest. Suddenly, my partner began moving through the water without moving his legs—he looked exactly like he was surfing! He yelled something and jumped off to the side of the ditch. It turns out that he had accidentally stepped right on the female alligator in the run, and she moved very quickly, taking him with her for a short ride! It was an experience that I will never forget because it was exciting and no one was hurt. We completed our mission, which was to collect a nest full of eggs for the purpose of studying alligator hatching and growth.

Science experiences can sometimes be scary. One time, I was working with other scientists who were studying Weddell seals in Antarctica. To do our study, we had to place plastic identification tags on the seals’ flippers. The tags enable scientists to track the activities of individual seals.

I was out on the sea ice tagging seals with another scientist. We came upon a large female without a tag. She probably weighed about 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms). I was given the task of “catching” her, which involved throwing a cloth bag with rope handles over her head and jumping on her back. Then, holding on to the rope handles, I rode on her back until she got tired. She was tired in less than 2 minutes. When she stopped moving, I remained on her back and held the bag in place.

The other scientist moved behind her to apply the tags to her rear flippers. Suddenly, the seal began to roll to one side. I tried to pull my leg up so it would not be crushed by her rolling motion. I discovered that my crampons (metal spikes on the bottoms of my boots) were stuck in the ice. My leg was so far under the seal that I could not pull it loose.

I yelled to my partner, who quickly moved to the front of the seal. He distracted her in the opposite direction of her roll, causing her to roll back to the other side. This movement gave me room to remove my leg. So thanks to the quick thinking of my partner, my leg was not crushed. I made sure in future captures that my leg did not get stuck again.