Day 9, October 26, 2007

This morning Cindy made a presentation about her work with North Atlantic Right Whales. They were named Right Whales because they were considered the "right" whale to hunt. This was due to the amount of blubber and oil they had which caused them to float after they were killed, making it more convenient for the whalers. Right Whales are identified through 3 processes: photo identifications of their callous growths on their noses and faces, dart biopsies, and fecal samples. They use a dog trained like those who sniff for drugs, but these are trained to locate Right Whale feces. In the afternoon we headed to the harbor. We were surveying sea otter prey on the mudflats...it was very muddy.

This is my last day with this Earthwatch expedition. It's been wonderful and I want to close by extending my appreciation and thanks to the cast of this awesome and inspiring expedition.
The stars, or course, are the marine mammals - the bottlenose dolphins, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals and humpback whales.










... the excellent supporting cast are the members of Team 7:
The Principle Investigators - Daniela & Thomas
The Field Coordinator - Cindy
The Research Assistant - Mark
The Earthwatch Staff Member - Stacey
The Local Volunteers - Ron, Robert & Tom
The Team Volunteers - Jeanette, Cathy, Shirley, & Alex









Last, but not least, I especially want to thank those who helped to make this experience possible...The National Geographic Education Foundation, The Parent Staff Organization (PSO) of Edmonds Woodway H.S. and The Child Hearing League.

Day 8, October 25, 2007

This video blog briefly describes bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales, their eating habits, birthing and the photo identification process.

Watch this cool video of sea otters....notice how they walk! This video was taken by Robert Scoles a local Team Ocean and Monterey Bay Aquarium volunteer extraordinaire.

Day 7, October 24, 2007

Today out on the bay we saw....
Risso's Dolphins - the largest dolphin after the killer whale; they have a sharp, long dorsal fin; adults have light gray or white markings on the undersides.



Humpback Whales - the large black thing that Tom is holding is whale baleen - whales have 700 plates of baleen in their mouth; it is straw-like on the inside. Humpbacks are dual feeders - they eat fish (sardines and anchovies in Monterey Bay) and krill. When humpbacks go under they leave a mark on the water that is called the footprint (in Hawaii it is called the Puka). One characteristic unique to humpbacks are the bumps or nodules on there face/nose. Each bump has a hair with nerves that stick out and it is believed they use this for sensing the vibration of nearby fish.

















Humpbacks can be tricky to catch on film. I often got a picture of the huge splash it made with its tail fluke.








We saw a large group of sea lions trying to herd sardines to catch them.

Day 6, October 23, 2007

Today I'll begin by answering the questions from Waterford School and Raina. You have great questions and I'll do my best (along with checking with the scientists here) to answer them. As far as we know, Valley fever does not affect the otters here. It is caused by inhaling spores of a soil fungus. The illnesses here are mainly from toxoplasmosis (parasites from cat feces) and demoic acid poisoning caused by the toxic red tides. Toxoplasmosis can cause encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain. The symptoms are fever, seizures and weakness. Our research scientists were not aware of the polymorphus kenti worm affecting the local population. We don't know the daily rate of births, but the peak season for otter births is springtime (April and May), but pups are born all year round.
Your question about how to get involved to help otters is a great one. Two ways we came up with are:
1) Get involved with an organization such as Defenders of Wildlife. You can get on their mailing list and support their campaigns to protect the otters. Use this link:
Defenders of Wildlife
2) Help educate others about sea otters in particular and endangered species as a whole.

Now for a summary of today's activities... we went out on the boats again. I was in the boat Nereis. We travelled up the shore going north all the way around the tip of Monterey Bay and into Santa Cruz harbor. Our goal was to survey the marine mammals in general, and specifically make photo identifications of the coastal bottlenose dolphins. We caught sight of a couple of dolphins on the way north along with otters and sea lions. Finding no dolphins in the harbor we turned and headed across the bay towards south Monterey. We lucked out as we crossed the Monterey canyon, which you may recall provides a lot of nutrients through upwelling. We caught sight of two pairs of humpback whales, a harbor porpoise and a bunch of jelly fish. Once we approached the shore we headed north and ran into a large group of bottlenose dolphins feeding and travelling. There were moms and calves. We stayed around watching them and trying for photo id's. The dolphins are identified by their dorsal fin, whereas the humpbacks are identified by their flukes (tails).

Day 5, October 22, 2007

Today, under crystal clear skies we headed out on the boat, Nereis, to conduct photo identification of the local pods of bottlenose dolphins and to do biopsies. The biopsy technique was created by Tom Jefferson from NOAA Fisheries in La Jolla. He came up with an noninvasive technique of gathering a blubber sample with a crossbow dart. Unfortunately, we saw no dolphins today. We searched from Moss Landing to the northern part of Monterey Bay with no luck.
Instead of seeing live dolphins we came back and did data entry of previous photos taken of the dolphins. There are over 150 identified dolphins with names such as Joker, Jigsaw and Xerces.
Thanks for the questions students from Madrona and Edmonds Woodway. I'll do my best to answer them.
Sea otter mothers stay with their babies for six months. The babies can swim, but the mother must find food for them and groom them. They can swim and play together. The otter’s stomach is not fat, but its chest is wide and flat so it can place food on it and to open the shells. I have not seen any dolphins yet. Remember these dolphins are in the wild. They are not tame or trained like those you see in a zoo or at Sea World. We don’t feed or touch them. We don’t know what caused the broken wing on the gull. Wish us luck that we see dolphins tomorrow.

Day 4, October 21, 2007

Hi Waterford School students and staff! I received your questions and have checked with the marine scientists here to help me answer them. First, in regards to the dolphins, our scientist, Tom Jefferson, who specializes in dolphins, said that the dolphins here on the West Coast do not actually ride the waves into shore to catch fish. However, in the Atlantic around North Carolina and Georgia they do that. The waves on our coast are too large and fish are not washed onto the shore. About the preference to feeding on one side, he didn't know if they actually do that or not. But, he said some research on fin whales has shown that their jaw on the right side is white and is dark on the left side. They suspect this is an adaptation to help the fin whales to corral the fish, because the white jaw reflects the light and causes the fish to move away.
Now as for the otters...there is some research showing that some otters have been affected by a parasite that comes from cat feces. It seems to weaken their immune system causing the otter to be more susceptible to other things. Around here they are trying to educate cat owners to bag their cat litter and send it to the landfill rather than putting it down the drain which sends it into the sea. Hope this information helps. Thanks for writing!
Hi EWHS students! I will try to answer your questions. We don't know for sure why the gulls are injured. Hunting season just opened...ummm. The sea otters we are studying live in Monterey Bay. There are also some otters that live in Alaskan waters. You can check research to see where other sea otters live. The local otters are at risk from contamination from pollution, from red tides and also a parasite that comes from cat feces. The female otters only have one baby and she will care for her pup for 6 months. Pups (babies) require constant care - grooming and feeding. Otters may be solitary or in groups. The young males make up most of the "raft" (the group) that we have been observing. Older males will take over a territory and keep others out. Another interesting thing about otters is they have retractable claws, like cats their claws go in and out.
Here some pictures of the Elkhorn Slough where lots of otters hang out. And also a picture of an otter jaw, it's very strong! More later....

Days 2 & 3, October 19-20, 2007

For 2 days we have focused our attention on the sea otters in the Elkhorn Slough. First we spent a day observing and collecting data on the foraging of the otters. We saw mostly young male otters...we knew they were young because they didn’t have the white “grizzling” on their faces...we knew they were males...well, we could see that body part as they layed on their backs to eat. Did you know that otters have to consume over 25% of their body weight everyday?


Check out the picture of the otter prey and see if you can identify all of the prey itens. Try to be specific as to which species of clams they are.








Our second day with the otters was spent in the harbor, near the slough. We were collecting data on the otter behaviors and the impact of boat traffic on them. We watched them for 24 hours. We had a couple of sad situations: 2 gulls walked by with broken wings and one large, older male otter hauled up on land. This is normal, however, as we watched we could see he was sick and dying. I’ve posted pictures.