Field helper other committments
Apart form helping in the research work, field helpers have various committments related to every day life, practical management of the research team and projects, environmental sustainability and management of the natural resources of the island.
Field helpers live in a portacabin, and it is their own duty to keep their portacabin clean, do the laudry, manage food and stores, prepare meals, and properly dispose rubbish. We are strongly committed to reduce our environmental footprint, and field helpers can play a great role in this. We ask field helpers to help us reduce water, power and gas usage, and food waste. Moreover, it is field helpers responsability to properly collect and dispose rubbish such as to limit waste and increase recycling. For example, we use food leftovers to make compost.
Field helpers may be required to help with tasks like downloading the supply boat and handling cargo. This is can be a rather demanding job from a purely physical point of view, because at Sea Lion Island we lack a proper jetty, and, therefore, cargo and stores is amanged by hand, case by case. Sometimes we have to download big cargo items and we always help with Sea Lion Lodge cargo that arrives together with our cargo.
Field helpers can be asked to carry out maintenance jobs like painting their portacabin, or fixing field shelters used for elephant seal observation.