Day 10

Sad day! We are all running around and packing up our things and saying our goodbyes. One by one everyone left, myself and one other teacher were the last to go to the airport. While we waited, I went and sat on the beach for a bit and (of course) did some bird watching. I also ran around and took some final pictures of the beach and our house. Finally, I got some pictures of myself with the staff of the project (Katie Kent and Sean Van Sommeran). I feel so fortunate to have worked with them, and that I was able to assist in such important research. This was definately a wonderful, memorable experience! I wish I could do it again!

Day 9

Today was one of the best days, although I was sad that today was our last day. We went out into the slough again, this time in search of leopard sharks and guitar fish. We had a very successful day! We caught several fairly large leopard sharks (4.5 - 5 ft) and a large guitarfish! We also took some good video of the process of setting up the nets and measuring and tagging the fish. We were all able to take pictures with the guitarfish and leopard sharks today also. The large leopard sharks were pretty difficult to hold, they are very strong! Reminded me of restraint of similarly sized alligators, except with alligators there typically isn't the problem of getting them out of the water, and rushing to get them back in!
We all really had a fun day today, it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone tomorrow!

Day 8

Today was open water day, where we got to go out over the marine canyon in Monterey Bay to bait for larger sharks. Unfortunately, we did not get any big sharks but I was excited because I got to see wild albatross!
We set out early today, around 6:30 am. We headed out to the marina and launched the boat, then we were on our way! We passed a lighthouse on our was out, and I got to see so many birds! There were sooty shearwaters everywhere, as well as gulls (my teammates have now given me the nickname "tweety bird") Once we got far enough away (shoreline was no longer visible, it was awesome!), the motor to the boat was turned off, no anchor was set so we would drift. Bait was placed in a burlap sac and the sac was hung over the side of the boat to create a scent trail that may potentially attract sharks. The bait definately attracted gulls and albatross! Sean even flung a couple of pieces of bait closer to the boat so I could get a closer look at them. One of the albatross was tagged - had a blue tag on its right ankle, I was wishing I could get a closer look at it so I could get the numbers on the tag and be able to notify Fish and Wildlife that the animal was seen and where. We also spotted a mola mola (sunfish) that was floating up close to the surface to warm up. Since the fish was cold, it was very slow so we were able to pull up next to it and capture it with a net. We all got to see him up close, then he was released. After a few hours out a sea without any success with sharks, we called it a day and headed home.
I am proud to say that I was one of the few people to not get seasick! We all took medicine to prevent seasickness, which apparantly does not work very well! It did, however, make me VERY sleepy, I fell asleep right on the deck and only woke up to people talking about all the albatross around the boat (even in a drug induced haze, I still needed to see my birds!). I did not feel sick at all untill we got back to shore and off the boat - I could still feel the "waves" until the next morning!

Day 7

Today I volunteered to take my turn at a very important job - data collecting! I was in charge of keeping track of all animals collected, what tag numbers they were given, and what their measurements were. Animals that we were not collecting data on but where caught in our net were recorded as a "bounced" animal - mostly we had bat rays bounce but also had one halibut! The most important part of this job was to keep the paper work dry and mud free - not as easy as it sounds! We encountered some kayakers today and had the opportunity to use our teaching skills with them - they were very excited to be able to hold the animals and hear about the work we were doing. Many had not realized that there were such animals in the water they were in!
One of the biggest things I have learned about field work is the patience it requires - we do spend a great deal of time waiting for animals to get entangled in the net each day. Some days are good days and we get a great deal of animals - like our first day in the slough with the large number of leopard sharks we caught - some days are slow and we only get a few. Today was one of the days where we only got a few - it must be frustrating for the researchers to go and get all of the equipment out, launch the boats, and set up the nets only to get a couple of animals. Each one counts though - any animals measured, tagged, and released provide data for the research.

Day 6

I still can't believe how lucky I am to be helping out with this research! I feel privledged to be working with someone with Sean Van Sommerans experience. I've learned more about his work as the days go by - he spends his summers in Monterey doing the shark and ray research, and in the winter he goes out into the deep waters of the Pacific to work on larger sharks, mainly great whites. I showed him a pic I found of him online of him hanging over the side of a boat touching the nose of a great white and asked him about it. He was trying to dispell the notion of the sharks nose being a weak spot - rumor has it if you are being attacked by one you should punch it in the nose since it is so sensitive. Not so - the shark could have cared less that Sean was touching it! His most important findings are that sharks are not shoreline animals, as was previously accepted by most scientists. His successful satellite tagging of great whites revealed that they are deep sea creatures, they not only travel great distances over the ocean but also make deeper dives than previously believed. He was worked tirelessly in the slough to protect the sharks and rays that live and breed there. There used to be an archery club that would come out and have contests to see who could kill the most sharks, Sean stopped this practice and instead had the men capture the sharks and give them to him for tagging. This area is an important breeding ground for these animals, so protecting them here is especially important. He has faced many challanges along the way, apparantly the world of marine science is very competitive. Obtaining funding and support for his research has also been difficult. The funding and volunteer assistance he receives from Earthwatch Institute is instrumental in allowing him to continue his work.
Today we headed out to the slough again and set up entanglement nets in an area frequented by thornbacks and guitarfish. I was lucky enough again to be able to tag some more animals - this is my favorite part of the process (although I do feel bad for the animals at the time)! We are all working together well as a team now and get through the process of capturing, measuring, and tagging pretty quickly. It must be frustrating for Sean to have everyone trained only to have them leave and have to start all over again with a new group!
The worst part of all of the work is the COLD!!! I wish I had got the 5mm wetsuit instead of the 3mm! I'm starting to get used to it though! I also can't believe how sunburt I am getting - I'm using 70 SPF and still getting burnt - even with a hat the reflection of light off the water is strong. AHHHH- field research! I am still enjoying being outside all day, reminds me of my days at the zoo! :)

Day 5

Today was our day off, so of course I needed to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium! It was so great to see sea otters up close, and the Kelp forest exhibit was beautiful! I also got to see my first Albatross! He was amazing! One of my favorite animals there were actually these little fish called Leaping Blarnies - they jump out of the water like mudskippers. And of course the penguin and bird exhibits were great! We also saw some bluefin tuna, hammerhead sharks, ad sardines. I was happy to get a penguin mobile for my classroom! I bought a copy of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row ON Cannery Row too! I'm excited to read it! We had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp (ewww! Good thing they have hamburgers too!), and on the roof of the building there were seagull chicks walking around, which of course kept me entertained for lunch! We then took a bus trip up to Carmel to look at the scenery, it was beautiful. We came back and joined the rest of our group (who had gone sky diving instead of the aquarium! Crazy! Jumping out of a perfectly good plane!). We had dinner at a Hawaiian restaurant, which was difficult for me! I actually tried seaweed salad and, more surprisingly, liked it!

Day 4

Went out into the slough again today - this time we set off from Kirby Park to get some tagging done on thornback rays and guitarfish. We caught 9 thornbacks and 10 guitarfish total. Process was a bit different than with the leopard sharks. Using one of the boats, we dragged an entanglement net across a finger of the slough. We then set up floating pens near the shore to put any animals we caught into. Once an animal was entangled, Sean Van Sommeran would get it out of the net and we would swim out to get them then swim back with the animal and put it into a pen to be processed. There were about 30 bat rays that were caught in the net also, those were let go (none tagged or measured). Once the pens were full, each animals total body length, disk length, and clasper length (if it were male) were recorded and then the animal was tagged. I made an attempt at tagging but it took a bit to get the hang of it, their skin is very thick and it was difficult to get the needle in. I will definately want to do it some more now that I got a feel for it. We had a couple of animals that we caught that had tags from previous years, so that was great because now they will be able to compare this previous data with the data from this year. It is also important because it proves that these animals are returning to the same place year after year. Once all animals were processed they were released and we packed up the equipment and headed home. Our group is getting pretty good at caring for the equipment and loading the boats now!

Day 3

Wow, where to begin? We started the day with a walk along the beach and I finally got to see a live common murre, so I was very excited about that! We also say Dowitchers, By the Wind Sailors, Sand dollars (including one wild one), and sand crabs. We also saw a dead seal on the beach - it was decapitated and the seagulls were having a feast! I learned later that when a marine mammal washes up on shore, Fish and Wildlife comes out and takes the head for research purposes. There were some bones that were picked clean that I would have loved to have taken for my classroom (Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits this). We then packed up and headed out the the slough to capture some leopard sharks. The process of this was a bit tricky because of the knee deep muck we had to walk through. We basically used seine nets to create a pen between the net and the shoreline so we would be able to capture them more easily. Once we had the seine nets in place, the leopard sharks were grabbed and placed into smaller floating pens. One by one, sharks were grabbed out of the pens and quickly went through the following process:
Shark was placed on small floating raft
Identification tag was placed between the muscles of the dorsal fin and the lateral line system using a tag gun
Measured from tip to tail (in cm)
Sexed (check for the presence of claspers)
Photographed from the top and from the side for spot and dorsal fin identification purposes
released
If any part of this process was taking too long, the animal was held under water so it could breathe. We tagged and released 9 sharks total, all leopard sharks today. We then put all nets away and seperated into 3 groups to walk around the other fingers to look for evidence of other rays and sharks. None of the groups saw much, just one spotting of a thornback ray. My group had a rather close encounter with a seal that appeared to be sick - very skinny, rib and back bones were visible, and it was in an area uncommon for seals to be in.
We then went through the process of returning and cleaning all boats and equipment, and headed back to the house for dinner and rest!

Day 2

Today I got to start my day with coffee on the beach doing some bird watching! It only got better! We started our orientation by learning about the small boats we would be working on. We cleaned them and learned how to properly load them up on the trucks. We then headed right to Elkhorn Slough (pronouned "slew"), unloaded the boats off the trucks and toured the slough on the boats. There were more shorebirds than I could count! We also got to see some sea otters! I was so excited because I had never seen sea otters before. There were some that were playing together, and some that were floating on their backs eating. We also saw a ton of sea lions and harbor seals. The slough is huge - we went through it up to where it went to open ocean. There were comorants nesting, and you could see holes in the mud where crabs live. We ate lunch at a marina and then headed back to take the boats up out of the water. After cleaning the boats out and properly putting them away, we took a quick drive around the Elkhorn Slough Reserve to check out where we will be working tomorrow. There are 5 different "fingers" of the slough where we will be capturing and collecting data on the animals - each finger has different species (sharks tend to hang out in one, rays in another) - they need more data to find out if this is just random or not. We then headed back to load our gear back into the trucks and take off our wetsuits (it felt SO good to take it off after wearing it all day!). On the drive back to the house we saw a Stellar's Jay, which I had never seen before so I was very excited! I can't get over all of the wildlife here, it is so beautiful with the ocean, mountains, all the farm land....there is a great variety of habitats with so many different animals! I am so happy to have the opportunity to assist in work that is contributing to the conservation of the land and animals.

Finally here!

Finally here! Some forest fires in the area - we flew over them on the way here, flying through the smoke was a bit scary!
The house is beautiful, we are right on the beach! We went for a walk after dinner, and we have already seen so many animals! You could actually see humpback whales breaching from the shore, and we also saw harbor seals. I've started my list of "species seen" and it is already up to 9! One of the bird species I found was unfortunately washed up dead on shore - 2 Common Murres. We also saw THOUSANDS of sooty shearwaters from the house - they were a giant mass of birds! They fly by the beach like that every night! The area is so beautiful, lost of farm land off shore (artichokes, strawberries). I can't wait to begin work tomorrow!