FeedStitch

Turtles after the Storm.

#15 Seven Days At Sea - Roseway Basin

Just after midnight last Wednesday August 25th, the fishing vessel Rominic, fully stocked with food, water, ice and all of our research gear, left the wharf in Wilson's Beach on Campobello Island. The first couple of days were pretty rough due to high seas, moderate wind and no right whales. All of the crew, except our captain Papier, were feeling pretty miserable at the start but by day 2 and 3 everyone had fully adjusted to our new rockin' n rollin' home. Our days started early, between 6 -7 am, and ended around sunset. Click here to see our daily routine.

Surface active group (SAG) in Roseway Basin

We had planned to survey from east to west, but on Friday morning we woke up to thick fog. We motored west and broke through into clear skies near the middle of the Basin. We started our survey for whales heading west from the middle of the Basin but only a few right whales were spotted over the first two survey days. After the west side was completed, we motored back during the night to our starting point and were rewarded with an aggregation of right whales on the eastern side. In total, we photographed approximately 30 individual right whales (pending photo analyses) on Roseway Basin.


We left on Tuesday morning (August 31), by 9 am the waves were building and the wind increasing, and with the news of an approaching hurricane by the end of the week it was time to steam home. Our trip home proved to be an unexpected surprise as we came across a very active group of whales SW of Lurcher Shoal. In this group we had our only mom/calf pair(Aphrodite/2010Calfof1701) plus a close encounter by the calf, the largest SAG of the trip AND we observed several of the whales subsurface feeding. We were even able to collect a copepod (right whale food) sample to confirm the whales were feeding in this area.

Right whale skim feeding at the surface.

Other species highlights were bow-riding Common Dolphins, breaching Humpbacks, curious approaches by a Minke Whale and a Blue Shark, several Leatherback turtles, Ocean Sunfish, a Merlin that flew right in the wheelhouse as we were preparing dinner and a Warbler.

Two bow-riding Common Dolphins - Photo by Moe Brown

Although our survey efforts were not rewarded with as many right whale sightings as in past years on Roseway Basin, we did document that the whales are in the area, and that there is a small aggregation at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. The survey provides another piece to the puzzle of right whale distribution this year, that there seem to be small groups aggregating in several areas around the Gulf of Maine.

Zach

Coming Home

Dave Allen, Delaware Expedition

The big day! Chris got up around 2 am to partially drain the holding tank. The rest of us got to sleep in until 4. The first step was to fill up the truck's tank with water at a nearby boat launch. Since the truck is equipped with a generator and heavy duty water pump, this only took a few minutes.


Jackie running the hose to the water. Notice the sand filter, generator and most importantly, the caffeinated beverage!


With the water level of the tank lower, I got my first good look at the rays!


The rays were collected from the tank with a large hoop net...


... and slightly less effectively with plastic collecting bags ...


... and then hand delivered to Jackie who was waiting in the back of the truck.

Now that all the rays were in the truck, all that was left was to drain and clean the holding tank. Watching Chris and Brian scoop out sediment and uneaten ray food (quahogs) I started thinking about all of the hard work that our aquarists put in to make sure we have amazing exhibits and healthy animals. They are at once marine biologists, explorers, plumbers, truck drivers and educators. Above all, they don't seem to mind getting their hands (or feet) dirty.


Notice all of the sediment (among other things) that was left in the bottom of the holding tank.


Since the rays would be in the truck for up to ten hours, whoever was riding in back had to monitor water quality. The Star Trek tricorder-like thingy that Jackie is holding is used to measure dissolved oxygen and tell us to add or reduce the O2 coming from the cylinders. Temperature, ammonia from the rays' waste and pH were also monitored. When the acidity increased, pre-portioned bags of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) were added.


Here the water comes very close to the edge. Notice the design for the transport tank doesn't include a watertight cover. My experience in the back of the truck reminded me of being on a log flume ride: At some point, no matter what you do, you are going to get wet. So you might as well just enjoy the ride.


Fast forward about ten hours; we arrived at the Duxbury holding facility where the other rays were being held. Before they could join the others, the cownose rays were treated with anti-parasite medication and given a five minute freshwater dip.

Despite the stresses of being collected and driven in a noisy truck for most of the day, the rays began schooling as soon as then joined the other rays. I feel really fortunate to have experienced this leg of the collection trip and now I'm really excited for our new shark and ray exhibit to open next year.

Here is an underwater video of our cownose rays is Duxbury. If you look closely you may spot an Atlantic stingray and a southern stingray.



- Dave

#14 Right whale numbers still low

St. Paul: Log #7 - Resights and Female Tags

Well, I have seen the last of my shearing days. Today the shearing team I am on is going to finish up at the last of our shearing sights and instead, I am going to learn how to do re-sights. Although the work has been exhausting, I am a little disappointed to miss out on the last day of our team's efforts. I think by day five I was actually able to hold my own and almost keep pace with the more experienced crew members (almost).

The one thing that I never mastered was picking up the pups in a way that prevented them from latching onto my gauntlets. Remember the picture of me in my lovely shearing outfit? Well the leather wrap that went from my wrist to my shoulder is called a gauntlet and it is meant to protect my arm should the pups bite. And they do. A LOT! This is what my arms looked like at the end of five days of shearing...painful! Crew members with more experience usually come away bruise free but that was definitely not the case for me. I'll have to work on that.



And now I head off with Lou and Greg to learn about re-sighting. This is a very important study that has been going on for many years where female pups and adults have tags put on their flippers so that we can track their site fidelity (or likelihood to come back to their place of birth), mothering skills / successful birth rate and age survival.



It's amazing how much information you can get by knowing simply who the individual is based on when and where the tag was first attached. All of this research is done on St. Paul at a location called Polovina Cliffs. The cliffs allow us to observe the animals with minimal disturbance since we are so high above them. There are also blinds built on the cliffs to offer us protection in tough weather. It also gives us a great view of the activity below.

This project has been going on all summer, rain or shine. I had the opportunity to participate for three days and the weather can be daunting but you get caught up in the task at hand and start to forget that your fingers are no longer as mobile as they should be. For 6 to 8 hours the goal is to sight as many flipper tags as you can, note whether or not the female has a pup with her and what the female is or is not doing with that pup. It's kind of like playing a really intense version of Where's Waldo?.

Here, you give it a try. The picture below is a bull male with his harem. In it there is at least one female with a flipper tag. See if you can find any more. For re-sights we have binoculars and a scope but sometimes just using your eyes is the best way to catch a tag. Try it out and see how you do. I'll show you what I found in the next blog. Happy searching!


~Patty

#13 Weathering the Storm

-Monica

The MERR Institute's bone yard

Dave Allen, Delaware Expedition

Since we had gotten to Lewes too late to see the rays the night before, we were anxious to check them and their holding tank out. I volunteered to ride in the back of the transport vehicle to prepare myself for the long trip home.


Rays holding tank

Unfortunately, I would have to wait to see the rays. The water in the holding tank and the nearby Delaware Bay was dark brown. Much of this color comes from sediment running from nearly 350 square miles of salt marshes into the bay.


Next door to the holding tank was the MERR Institute, a non-profit stranding response and rehabilitation organization that works with marine mammals and sea turtles.


The MERR Institute's bone yard. Like the New England Aquarium, they use biofacts—preserved animal parts—to help educate the public.


Biofacts don't magically appear white and clean. First they have to be prepared. Here MERR executive director Suzanne Thurman shows off her compost area where she uses manure to strip the bones clean of soft tissue.


Here two of our teen interns Libna (left) and Sheena (right) show off our impressive collection of biofacts. Biofacts like this sawfish rostrum and bull shark jaw allow visitors to physically interact with animals that are otherwise kept behind several inches of glass or acrylic.

Tomorrow we pack up our rays and head back to Boston. Better get to bed early because it's going to be an early morning.

-Dave

Happy Anniversary Goose!

Dela-Where?

Dave Allen, Delaware Expedition

When asked if I wanted to go to Delaware to assist with the Aquarium's cownose ray collecting trip on short notice I immediately said yes. I had never been to Delaware nor had it ever crossed my mind to go there (sorry Delawareans) so this would likely be my only opportunity to see The First State.


My view for the next ten hours. Little did I know that getting to Delaware would take nearly ten hours and take me through six states!

On Monday morning I met up with aquarists Brian Nelson and Jackie Anderson on the Aquarium plaza. Our mission was to drive to Lewes, Delaware and transport fifteen cownose rays back to Boston. The rays had been caught earlier in the week (read Megan's blog about ray collecting here) but there had been too many to take back in one trip. Our secondary mission was to also bring back aquarist Chris Payne who had stayed in Lewes to tend to the rays.


Chris made a lot of friends during his time in Lewes, like this diamondback terrapin.

I had heard that it was going to be easier to transport fifteen venomous fishes across six states and safely back to the Aquarium than to get Chris back to Boston. After spending the better part of the week in a sunny beach town, he had likely "gone native."


Though empty in this picture, the back of the Aquarium's transport truck would be filled with fifteen cownose rays and two humans for the long ride back to Boston the next day.

The holding tank can hold as much as 660 gallons of water and the back of the truck has all the life support systems needed to transport marine animals over long distances, including a sand filter and tanks of oxygen. This truck has even transported goliath groupers for our Blue Hole exhibit all the way from Marathon, Florida back to Boston.

We got into Lewes, Delaware late tonight. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll get to see some more of the area and a peek at our new cownose rays.

-Dave

Transporting cownose rays

Guénäelle Rubin, Delaware Expedition

Transporting 30 cownose rays is as easy as it sounds.

The first step was to haul a holding tank onto a fishing boat in Cambridge, Maryland, then catch the rays and place them into the tank. Lucky for us, the fishermen whose boat we were on have generations of experience catching and hauling fish, so we had plenty of help and good company for this first step. When the fishermen pulled up the weir net, about 40 rays splashed the water with their wings. As we had only expected to see maybe 9 or 10 in the net, it was an amazing site to see.


Here, a cownose ray is being placed into the tank. The lid, which looks like a slice of swiss cheese, is there to prevent the rays from jumping out of the tank and hurting themselves.


Chris D. checks the oxygen level of the tank.

Once the fishermen checked all their nets and collected buckets of menhaden and blue crabs, it was time to return to shore. The rays were carefully transported 2 by 2 into a larger holding tank in NEAq’s box truck.



I sat in the back of the truck for a portion of the 2 hour drive and learned how challenging it can be to continually monitor the oxygen levels of the tank all while convincing myself that motion sickness does not exist.



The inside of the truck has no windows and therefore no way to hold my gaze on a green calming landscape. Just a loud rattling noise and the splish-splashing of tank water can confirm that we must, in fact, be on some kind of road. Luckily, aquarist Chris was there to manage the care of the tank!


We finally arrived in Lewes, Delaware to transport the rays into a large holding tank.


This is where the rays will stay until we are ready to make the long haul back home to Boston.

The duration of this drive is expected to be about 10 hours, if all goes smoothly. During this time, aquarists take turns riding inside the box truck and monitoring the holding tank for pH, ammonia and oxygen levels. These tests are done constantly throughout the drive so there is no time for "punch buggy" or Mad Libs.



Megan and I need to return to the Aquarium before the cownose ray transportation mission is complete. However, Dave Allen, another fellow educator at the New England Aquarium, will be coming down to Maryland to help with the transport of the rays. Stay tuned for Dave’s cownose ray blogging adventures!

Until next time…


-Guénäelle (excited about notebooks and hotels)


- Megan (enjoying a yummy hometown Maryland meal with Dave W. and Chris P.)

Clear Water & Mighty Makos

My very first encounters with sharks happened right here in the waters off New England. It was about twenty-five years ago that I met a shark scientist named Wes Pratt, who worked for the National Marine Fisheries laboratory, Apex Predator division in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Wes had built his own shark cage and was diving offshore with some of his colleagues, like Greg Skomal, who continues to work with sharks today and has recently done some cutting-edge research with several species. After pestering Wes for some time, I was invited to join the group and was absolutely thrilled. The sharks we most often saw were blue sharks. These were exhilarating days filled with anticipation as I steamed offshore and spent hours drifting in the chilly water, watching stunning indigo blue animals nosing through the slick. Occasionally we saw a basking shark and once saw a couple of dusky sharks, but mostly it was the beautiful blues.


A female mako shark, about 4 feet in length, swims near the surface offshore of Rhode Island/New York. (Photo: Brian Skerry)

We always dreamed of seeing makos, as these animals had almost legendary status as one of the fastest and most powerful species of shark in the sea. Wes had a vanity license plate on his old Volvo that said “ISURUS” which is the scientific name for makos and even used to sign his hand-written letters to me "Clear Water & Mighty Makos, Wes." As we sailed offshore on every trip we inevitably would talk about how maybe this was the day. And each day Greg Skomal religiously predicted a four o'clock mako but as 4 p.m. rolled around, the elusive fish rarely materialized. In all the years I made these shark dives, I think I saw two makos and both stayed near the boat for only a few seconds.

In the years since then my work has taken me around the globe photographing sharks in countries worldwide. I have longed to get back to my home waters, but being in the field on assignment nearly eight months each year left little time for shark diving in New England. A couple of years ago, I was contacted by an underwater videographer named Joe Romeiro from Rhode Island. I had seen Joe's shark films and they were beautiful. He had a true artist's eye and his films were respectful of animals and brought viewers into their world for an intimate view. Joe was doing a fair bit of shark diving locally and invited me to join him, but as usual, my schedule simply never permitted me to do so. But finally last week, the day after I made my last blog post ("Thinking About Sharks"), I went diving again for sharks in New England.

Joe had told me he was having great luck with not only blue sharks but with makos. I was amazed to hear this given the few sightings I had all those years. But Joe had been doing his homework and was especially tuned in to these animals. And he was also putting in the time it takes to learn. So off I went to spend two days off the coast of Rhode Island ... and low and behold ... I saw three mako sharks. Incredible! The first one showed up on day one about 45-minutes after we stopped the boat. I was blown away!



Two of the Makos stayed with us for a little while, one sticking around for several minutes. I got in the water and was able to have some wonderful close encounters. The shark was a small female and was stunningly beautiful. Her coloring was bold and vivid and she didn't appear to have a scratch on her. She moved with speed and with power, exuding the supremacy she clearly knew she had in the sea. I fired a few frames on my camera trying desperately to make sure exposure was correct and composition was good. Before my heart could stop racing, she was gone and I was climbing back on board the boat.

Like those diving days decades ago I was exhilarated and so happy to be back in these wonderfully cool waters with awe-inspiring animals. I am certain that much of our success had everything to do with Joe's expertise, but I would also like to think that perhaps mako sharks are doing a little better, that their numbers might be slightly increasing. I'll have to talk with some of my researcher friends like Greg to see if data exists. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to my next shark dive. And for now, I'll borrow a little from Wes and just sign off ...

Clear Waters & Mighty Makos,
Brian

#12: Whales have arrived!

St. Paul: Log #6 - Running with Scissors

Do you remember when you were little and your parents would tell you to never run with a sharp object in your hand? Well, that rule definitely does not apply during pup shearing on St. Paul! Out here you have a pair of sharp sheep shears strapped to your hip and when a group of pups are gathered together and the signal (it usually looks like that hand gesture from Neo in the Matrix... got the visual?) is given you move as fast as you can over wet, slippery rocks to get to them. The picture below gives you an idea of the topography that we deal with out on the rookeries.

The goal each day is to shear the selected number of pups as quickly and accurately as possible so that we can remove ourselves from the rookery and allow the bull males and their harems to come back up to their territory. So in this situation, running with scissors is recommended (safely, of course). Let me tell you, never before have I felt so uncoordinated! As I try to keep up with everyone else heading to the group of pups there is a constant thought on repeat in my head... stand up, don't fall, stand up, don't fall. I was so grateful to have knee pads on! :)



~Patty

Eureka, a horseshoe crab!

Guénaëlle Rubin, Delaware Expedition

Eureka, a horseshoe crab! Dave is carefully holding the one single horseshoe crab found in the weir net. (Learn more about weir nets and why we're in Delaware observing the haul back in this previous blog entry!) Although horseshoe crabs have a menacing appearance, they are quite harmless. Horseshoe crabs do not sting, pinch or bite.



This was the biggest horseshoe crab that I had ever seen! It was definitely a female, since female horseshoe crabs are significantly larger than males. This is about the time of year when horseshoe crabs finish laying their eggs ashore, so the fishermen were not surprised to see one in their nets. Horseshoe crabs can lay as many as 120,000 eggs in one season! Although that sounds like an awful lot, many of the eggs are eaten by migratory shore birds that pass over the Delaware Bay. Red knot birds, for example, rely on horseshoe crab eggs for food to survive their long and arduous migration of 9,000+ miles.

Horseshoe crabs are life-savers for humans too. Almost all medical injections such as vaccines are tested using horseshoe crab blood since their blood contains a compound called Limulus amoebocyte lysate (LAL) that detects the presence of endotoxins.

You can see horseshoe crabs at the Aquarium at the Edge of the Sea exhibit. Come by sometime to see these amazing animals in person!

Diamondback terrapins

Megan Moore, Delaware Expedition

One of the species of animals that found their way into the weir nets were diamondback terrapins. Diamondback terrapins are a "near threatened" species of turtle that can live in a mix of fresh and salt (brackish) water. We have two diamondback terrapins in our thinking gallery on the second floor of the Aquarium’s main building. Prior to the turtles being listed as near threatened, the fisherman Chris would catch them to be sold to Asian markets for turtle soup.

The diamondback terrapins that we saw were all comfortably hanging out in the weir nets - possibly even snacking on some of the fish in the nets. In fact, before they pull up the nets the turtles can come and go as they please. But as they pulled up the nets the turtles then realize they’d rather be on the outside of the nets. They began to climb up the sides of the nets. It was rather comical to watch! This one turtle almost made it out before the net shook enough that it rolled back down. Here's some video of its valiant effort!




Diamondback terrapin swimming free from the nets

All their worry is for nothing because as soon as the fisherman can reach them they are picked up and released. Just like this guy.


Dave Wedge about to release diamondback terrapin back into the water

Because of their conservation status is was a good sign to see so many of them!

- Megan

How some Maryland fishers fish, sustainable!

Megan Moore, Delaware Expedition

Wow! I have a new respect for fishermen.


Fishermen in boat

We had the pleasure of working with Chris, who gave us a small sample of his typical day. They rise early, about 3 am, to beat the heat and make sure they have enough time to get everything done. The early morning usually consists of checking all the weir nets for their catch of fish (usually menhaden) and then the late-morning/early afternoon is spent using the fish as bait to catch the beautiful and delicious blue crab.


Blue crabs

Occasionally Chris catches cownose rays in his weir nets and that's why we had the pleasure of waking up at 3:30 to join him.


Lucky us! Megan and Guenaelle on the boat

Chris had 5 weir nets that he set up this season. Weir nets consist of a strange formation of nets that give every fish that encounters the net a choice: Either turn one way and enter into the funnel of the nets or turn the other way and swim free. Here's a picture of what the setup looked like, though it might be a little tough to see since the sun wasn't up yet!


Weir net formation

Here's a closer look at the net. You can see diamondback terrapins poking their heads above the water. All of these turtles were returned to sea.



The best part about these nets is that all the fish that are caught in the net stay in water until they are pulled up. So if there were any fish or animals caught that weren't part of the targeted catch, they could easily be released unharmed. No bycatch mortality! That makes for a much more sustainable fishing practice. I bet the Conservation Department at the Aquarium would give Chris two thumbs up for that one!

Here's a video of Chris and Joe pulling up the catch in the early morning light.





Pulling up the weir net


Menhaden catch in buckets

Check back later to find out what else turned up in their nets!

Our NEW turtle!

Sailing and Science... at SEA!

SEA, the Sea Education Association, was kind enough to host me onboard the SSV Robert C. Seamans last week for a Colleague Cruise from LA to San Diego. Why? Glad you asked. :-) SEA and PIPA are thinking about a potential collaboration, so I spent a week onboard to basically see what SEA is all about, get the basics on the types of physical and chemical oceanography science they can do, and get a much-needed crash course in sailing.

For the lucky students who may be aboard to do some physical and chemical oceanography, here's a glimpse of life onboard a tallship! :-)

We deployed a compact oceanography carousel to collect water samples at different depths:

SEA and WHOI just recently collaborated on a great project regarding plastic in the Atlantic Ocean, published in the journal Science.

And used a secchi disk to estimate water clarity:


Along the way, we saw some marine mammals and beautiful islands:


We learned how to set and strike the sails of this beautiful vessel in all sorts of configurations:


And handled the lines, too!


It was hard work, exhausting, and a ton of fun (thank goodness for calm seas). SEA already sails to the remote Pacific, including areas near Tahiti and the Line Islands, so a visit to PIPA is not an impossibility. Back at the dock, it's sad to be home, but I'll be thinking of SEA at sea for a while to come. Stay tuned for future details! :-)



-Randi-

#10 Heading To Sea: Roseway Basin

A few of us at the Whale House (Moe, Yan, Candace, Kara and Zach) are preparing to leave for Roseway Basin this week. This is NEAq's second consecutive year surveying for right whales in Roseway (see last year's entry #18). This project was undertaken with the support of the Government of Canada provided through the Department of the Environment through the Canadian Whale Institute.

Our original departure date has been delayed due to high winds in the Gulf of Maine. We're planning to push away from the dock early Thursday morning to make the steam across the Bay of Fundy to Roseway Basin, approximately 30 miles south of Nova Scotia. Ideally, we will spend two weeks at sea however it is unlikely the weather will cooperate and we will be forced to come in for a couple days.


Slideshow of 2009 Roseway Project

We will be in contact with the Whale House via satellite phone and look forward to giving updates on our surveys.

Zach

Links:
Roseway Basin
Safer Havens For Right Whales in Canadian Waters

St. Paul: Log #5 - Shearing Part 2

Once suited up for pup shearing (see Andrew in his awesome attire below) we go out on the rookery and Rolf (our other fearless leader) shows us how to properly hold the pup during the shearing process.
~Patty