Private: News and Events

100 miles

We would do a lot for data, not the least of which is a 10 hour day and a roughly 100 mile round trip. When we launched the boat yesterday, we were going “blind” since the planes weren’t surveying the Bay. So we decided to go east where there were whales a few days prior because it was worth a shot and gave us a good look at the eastern side of the Bay. When that proved uneventful, we headed north to where the Callisto was currently working with a handful of whales. Once there, we found a single whale that we stopped to photograph and we were able to readily ID him as #3530 (Ruffian), an 11 year old male. This whale is very easily identifiable due to a pretty massive scar across his back. Whatever happened to Ruffian was pretty horrible, but he somehow, thankfully, managed to survive.

whale with scars on head and back
#3530 “Ruffian”, easily identified by the scarring across his head and back Photo: L. Conger

After getting good photos of that guy, we got a call from the CCS plane who was flying north of Cape Cod Bay that day. They had a mom/calf pair, #1604 and calf, but they were pretty far away from us – 20 miles away in fact. Not only that, they were on the backside of the Bay, well outside of our normal range for our CCB field season. It was still early in the day, the waters were smooth, and the forecast for the remainder of the day looked good so we made a decision. We were gonna go for it.

Map of cap cod with lines showing boat path
Our day. The orange marker is where we launched the boat, the red marker is where we found Ruffian, and the green marker was the location given by the plane of #1604 with her calf. Quite a day! Photo cred to Google on this one.

When we got to the coordinates given to us from the plane, we started our search to relocate the pair. After a good half hour of searching, we started to lose hope. I even started to doubt I wrote down the coordinates correctly…I’ve never done that before, but there’s a first time for everything, right? This would be an unfortunate first. Honestly not 5 seconds after I said, “I hate whales” out loud to Alex, they popped up and we both said “there”! For the record, I don’t really hate whales. I love them. They are just maddening sometimes…

Ya know what makes it all better though? This:

nose of whale calf above water
A spectacular look at #1604’s calf. Photo: D. Cusano

And this:

tagging stick above whale with tag on back of whale
Another successful tagging! Photo: A. Loer

The only bad part of the day was the 40 mile schlep home…but it was all worth it. Back at it tomorrow!

Patience and persistence pay off

I know I have mentioned it before, but I think I should stress the point again – putting a tag on a whale is HARD. I mean, let’s think about it. We are trying to put a small recording tag (in our case an Acousonde) which is about 9″ long on a living, breathing, has-a-mind-of-its-own animal that can be anywhere from about 15 ft in the case of calves to over 50 ft in the case of moms. On top of that, the tag is deployed from a carbon fiber pole that extends to about 26 ft. The tag is then attached to the whale with suction cups that must all sit nice and flat in order for it to stay for any extended period of time, and anytime something (ahem, a calf) bumps into it, the tag can and often does slide or pop right off. Now all this must be done from a boat in whatever sea state you might find yourself in while the animal is often moving. Yeah. That being said, when we finally do get a tag on it is obviously the result of quite a bit of skill, but also more than a fair share of patience and persistence. And luck. We had all of these things on Sunday, plus #1611 and calf up past Race Point.

right whale and calf just below surface of water
An amazing view of #1611 and her calf just subsurface. Photo: A. Loer

Under our permit we are allowed just 3 tagging attempts on a pair in order to minimize any stress to the animals, so each failed attempt isn’t just a blow to our pride, it is one major strike against us. Our first attempt was a good one, but not successful. Not a huge problem, we have dealt with that before, so we waited a bit and then slowly moved back in. Suddenly the perfect moment presented itself – the calf came up right next to the boat, slowly and calmly. But we must remember that tagging is HARD and life is cruel, so what happened next? Oh the tag fell out of the holder and plopped into the water next to the calf of course. Then what? The calf came right back up in the same spot, ready for tagging again, the tag still bobbing around nearby. Oh awesome, then what? The calf did a nice dive with a little turn of the fluke, effectively getting me wet just to rub some salt in the wound. Ouch.

Well that was not a good moment, no. And I have never felt more like just crawling under a blanket and taking a nap. But we are field biologists, huzzah, so we pick ourselves back up and we move on to attempt number three obviously! Patience and persistence rewarded.

whale calf being tagged
Moving in to tag the calf of #1611. Photo: D. Cusano
successfully tagged calf
Tag on! Photo: D. Cusano

That’ll do. Until next time, I will be doing what I love most – analyzing data.

One more time

I am back in Falmouth for our 5th Cape Cod Bay field season – and our last. Not only is this our final CCB field season though, it is our last scheduled field season for the North Atlantic Right Whale Mom/Calf Project. Crazy, right?

I got in last week and we have made it out on the water once so far. The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) plane was flying so we had aerial coverage of the Bay which is always a huge bonus. They also had a couple of their boats, the R/V’s Shearwater and Ibis, out on the water and the New England Aquarium‘s R/V Callisto was out too. With all that support, we had the Bay well covered. Even better news is that the right whales showed up to the party.

whale just above surface of water with boat in distance
A right whale in CCB, with the R/V Shearwater in the background. Photo: L. Conger

The lack of whales was a big concern for us coming in this year – the previous aerial surveys for the year have seen a handful of whales down near Rhode Island Sound, including #1611 (Clover) & calf, but few to no whales in CCB. So while only 17 right whales were spotted on Monday, that hopefully means the whales are starting to move in to their spring feeding ground. No one spotted Clover and calf, or any mom/calf pair for that matter, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on their way. Now we can’t wait to get back out and get some tags on!

That’s a wrap

The SEUS 2015 field season is over, and the Duke/Syracuse team officially disbanded last week. Although the season is finished for us, it is far from over for the other teams involved in right whale research in the southeast. The aerial teams will fly until March 31 and the FWC and Georgia DNR boats are still around as well. Even though we only managed to get a few tags on this year, one of those was a 23 hour tag – that is a long deployment! There are also officially 16 moms so far, up from 11 last year, and plenty of time for more calves to be had! Here are the newest editions to the mom list:

#1620 (Mantis): a female first seen in 1986, making her at least 29, although nothing else is known about her pedigree. This is her 6th calf.

#2223 (Calvin): a 23 year old female and one of the most famous North Atlantic right whales. Calvin’s mother was #1223 (Delilah) who was struck and killed by a large ship in the Bay of Fundy before Calvin was even weaned. Researchers feared that Calvin wouldn’t survive without the milk and guidance from her mother that she still needed. Clearly however, Calvin beat the odds and is now having calves of her own – this is her 3rd calf. How is that for a success story?! Fun fact: she is named after the character from the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes” for being so independent and resourceful. Read about all of the other things that make Calvin both unique and a huge benefit to right whale researchers in this blog post from the New England Aquarium. If her story touches your heart, be sure to consider sponsoring her!

#2790: a female first seen in 1997, making her at least 18 years old. Since she was first seen as an adult, we are not sure who her mother is and know nothing else about her family tree. This is her 4th calf.

#3292: a 13 year old female and the whale we got our 23 hour tag on! Her mother is #1310 (Amanda) and her father is #1320 (Mohawk). This is her 2nd calf.

whale before tagging
#3292 this year before tagging. Photo: S. Parks

#3420 (Platypus): an 11 year old female, this is her first calf! Her mother is #2460 (Monarch) and her father is #1037.

We are currently getting ready for the 2015 CCB field season which is only 2 weeks away. Hopefully by that time there will be more moms to report and all the snow will be gone…until then, good luck to all the teams still in the southeast! I already forget what it feels like to be warm.

 

Alumna Ashlei’s adventures in Africa

What do Parks Lab alumni do after graduation? Where do they go and what do they see? Our very own Ashlei Tinsley is a wonderful example of the exciting adventures that our students move on to after they walk the stage here at Syracuse University. Ashlei is working on spotted hyena research with the Holekamp Lab out of Michigan State University, but her work with them has taken her far from Michigan. She is currently living and working in Kenya, on the Masai Mara National Reserve.

map of kenya with marker at masai mara national reserve
Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Photo: Google Maps

The Holekamp blog, called Notes from Kenya, is filled with information about the long-term research they conduct on behavioral development, social interactions, and even endocrine mediation of behavior. Be sure to check it out not only for the stunning photos and research updates, but also for the posts from Ashlei herself.

sedated hyena and Ashlei
Ashlei working with a sedated hyena

Ashlei is a great example, but far from our only alumnus to go on to exciting opportunities. Check back often for more updates from past Parks Lab students!

How do you measure happiness?

For our little team of field biologists? By the number of right whales spotted. One big and one little is perfect.

whale calf just above water surface
The 2015 calf of #3292 Photo: S. Parks

By the successful attachment of a suction-cup tag.

tag being placed on back of whale
Successful deployment of a DTAG on #3292. Photo: H. Foley

By a beautiful sunset on the R/V Stellwagen while we track an overnight tag.

red sunset at water line
Photo: D. Cusano

By a home-made latte onboard…

coffee cup
The perfect start to any day. Thanks Sean Sullivan

By the relocation of right whale mother the following day close to the channel entrance with a tag still attached and recording successfully. Too specific?

tag on the back of a whale
Tag still on! Photo: Z. Swaim

By the amount of data collected: 23 hours of DTAG data, plus loads of images, videos, and GPS tracks.

lab member looking through data
Heather working hard.

Now let’s just hope we can get a few more days like this in before the season ends!

Something blue

The tides have turned here in Fernandina Beach and the Duke Marine Lab team has moved in to kick-off the next right whale project for the season. Just like last year, this project is aimed at more than just the behavior of mother-calf right whale pairs. The broader focus is to track the movement of any/all demographic and age groups of right whales here in the southeast. See Jess’ post from last year for some more info.

As Grace and Pete head out, the Duke team is trickling in, some of them fresh off of the boat from research in Antarctica. Check out their blog for a first-hand perspective of this exciting expedition. Today we got the R/V RT Barber in the water and are ready for our first good weather day to get out and tag some whales. More soon!

boat on trailer
I don’t think we will need a bigger boat

The “Who’s Who” update

Time for a SEUS 2015 mom update! Just as we all hoped, there are still more calves being born down here. Here is some info on the new moms:

#1611 (Clover): a 29 year old female, her mom is #1034. This is Clover’s 4th calf.

#1950: a female first seen in 1989 making her at least 26 years old, though nothing is known about her year of birth or family history. This is her 5th calf.

#2611 (Picasso): a 19 year old female, her mother is #2610. This is Picasso’s 3rd calf.

#3139 (Diablo): a 14 year old female, her mother is #1039 (Links). Links’ mom is #1316 (Whiskers). This is Diablo’s 2nd calf.

#3693: a female first seen in 2006, making her at least 9 years old, but this is another whale we know little about. This is her first calf.

No info on pedigrees for any of these moms, but another huge shout out to the New England Aquarium and the Right Whale Catalog for everything we do know. For info on the other moms down here this year, see our first Who’s Who blog post. More soon!

NEON Bird Blog #5

Hello blog readers!

After a brief holiday absence, I’m back with more unidentified bird sounds. So far the feedback has been great and we’re making a lot of progress with the dataset! Thanks so much for all the input!

If this is your first time visiting the NEON bird blog series, check out the intro in my previous post for a bit of background. And if you’re ready to help ID more birds, check out the clips below!

The clips in this blog post were recorded in late September in Petersham, Massachusetts. This area is forested, and we’ve come across both forest-edge and forest-interior species.

-Leanna

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visual sound waves of unknown bird

 

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visual sound waves of unknown bird

 

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visual sound waves of unknown bird

 

 

Something borrowed

With the weather forecast looking bleak, we thought it would be no problem that the R/V Selkie was in for maintenance. But when we awoke to Thursday being a relatively “workable” day, Grace wasted no time in trying to secure us another boat for the day. That boat came in the form of the R/V R3, borrowed for the day from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) along with Tony Martinez, Operations Analyst with the Protected Resources Division of SEFSC and our captain for the day. Based on the transect lines of the aerial survey team we were planning to track with, and in order to minimize potential transit times to any mother/calf pair they might see, we decided to launch out of Mayport. The seas were a bit chunky, but we considered it still workable. Of course after all our hard work to get out, there were no mother/calf pairs sighted at all that day…very disappointing. But at least we were able to be out on the water and at least we had a chance to get out on the R3 with Tony, which was a lot of fun. The R3, by the way, happens to be very SU orange.

three lab members on boat
Grace, Tony, and myself aboard the R/V R3 searching for mother calf pairs. Photo: Alex Loer

Sunday was yet another day that ended up being a lot nicer than forecast, and our friends from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee (FWC) stepped in to help. They were nice enough to let us borrow their boat for the day, the R/V Orion, along with Jen Jakush, a Biological Scientist with FWC. The waters were (mostly) smooth on our way out, and pretty soon the plane had a mom/calf pair for us ~17 nautical miles away. It took us a little while to get there, but we made it and we were able to locate the pair. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a tag on. We did however have the calf pop up unexpectedly right next to the boat for a couple of breaths before joining mom again. Too bad he didn’t stick around just a bit longer, as we were not quite fast enough to get the hydrophone over the side. Luckily, Alex had his GoPro camera on and Jen had the video camera ready, so at least we were able to capture this exciting moment on film.

Lab member video recording a whale
Jen was quick on her feet to capture this moment on video. Photo: Alex Loer
calf on the side of boat
A very curious calf. Photo: Alex Loer

Soon after our encounter, the wind began to pick up and we decided to start our long trek back before the seas picked up too. The weather won’t be nice enough to go out for a few days (theoretically), but by then we will have our Selkie back. In the meantime, we were certainly appreciative of the help we got from our friends down here!