3/7/09
I've been up since before 4 a.m, but Nutella and anticipation are keeping me alert as I scan the horizon for whales. I woke up this morning in a tent, surrounded by mangroves. With the sky still glittering with stars, my roommate and I climbed quietly into a boat to check out the nylon nets. In three shifts, from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., our research team caught three green sea turtles-less than half the number we caught on our last trip, but you can't control the turtles. We measured, weighed, tagged and took DNA samples from these juvenile turtles who spend their long adolescence in the mangrove-lined esteros of the coast of Baja California. These turtles, like all other sea turtle species in the world, are endangered, and studying their population dynamics and structure in this area will hopefully help create effective conservation plans for them. But we released them hours ago. Now I'm perched on the front seat of a small fiberglass panga, searching for gray whales in BahÃa Magdalena.
The water is smooth as our blue and white panga cuts through the bay, weaving between fishermen pulling up traps and setting nets, heading toward open water. We're on the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, studying the distribution and behavior of gray whales, which were once hunted almost to extinction along the eastern Pacific coast. They spend their summers feeding in the Arctic, and in the winter trek down the coast to Mexico to breed, give birth and now be patted by eager tourists. Their protection has been a major success story in species conservation, and the eastern Pacific population is once again considered stable. The more we know about these marine mammals, or any other species, the better we will be able to protect them.
Tourist pangas, distinguishable by their canopies set up for shade, crowd around a mother and calf. We think we've seen these whales before, but we take GPS coordinates again. I climb onto the bow of the boat with my camera just to make sure. My research for the semester involves the photo identification of whales, and though I have a 300mm zoom lens, I rarely need to use it. These whales come right up to the boat, apparently attracted by the noise of the two-stroke engine, and bask in the shallow water below us. The mother stays below the surface, coming up only to breathe, but the calf is more curious.
Boats surround the pair-my boat of eager students and then three or four tourist boats. All of us want to get closer, to pat a whale, and the excitement is palpable.
I've been up since before 4 a.m, but Nutella and anticipation are keeping me alert as I scan the horizon for whales. I woke up this morning in a tent, surrounded by mangroves. With the sky still glittering with stars, my roommate and I climbed quietly into a boat to check out the nylon nets. In three shifts, from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., our research team caught three green sea turtles-less than half the number we caught on our last trip, but you can't control the turtles. We measured, weighed, tagged and took DNA samples from these juvenile turtles who spend their long adolescence in the mangrove-lined esteros of the coast of Baja California. These turtles, like all other sea turtle species in the world, are endangered, and studying their population dynamics and structure in this area will hopefully help create effective conservation plans for them. But we released them hours ago. Now I'm perched on the front seat of a small fiberglass panga, searching for gray whales in BahÃa Magdalena.
The water is smooth as our blue and white panga cuts through the bay, weaving between fishermen pulling up traps and setting nets, heading toward open water. We're on the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, studying the distribution and behavior of gray whales, which were once hunted almost to extinction along the eastern Pacific coast. They spend their summers feeding in the Arctic, and in the winter trek down the coast to Mexico to breed, give birth and now be patted by eager tourists. Their protection has been a major success story in species conservation, and the eastern Pacific population is once again considered stable. The more we know about these marine mammals, or any other species, the better we will be able to protect them.
Tourist pangas, distinguishable by their canopies set up for shade, crowd around a mother and calf. We think we've seen these whales before, but we take GPS coordinates again. I climb onto the bow of the boat with my camera just to make sure. My research for the semester involves the photo identification of whales, and though I have a 300mm zoom lens, I rarely need to use it. These whales come right up to the boat, apparently attracted by the noise of the two-stroke engine, and bask in the shallow water below us. The mother stays below the surface, coming up only to breathe, but the calf is more curious.
Boats surround the pair-my boat of eager students and then three or four tourist boats. All of us want to get closer, to pat a whale, and the excitement is palpable.
This is hardly the first day my group has seen whales this semester; we're out here doing transects and photo IDs twice a week, but each time is thrilling. Not wanting to crowd the whales, we get just close enough for me to take as many pictures as possible, our boat bobbing in the swells with the motor off. The tourists have no such reservations, and the baby is patted, kissed and even bopped on the head. The mother surfaces a few times and is excitedly reached for and stroked. They don't seem to mind too much, but we wonder if the constant crowding by whale watchers has a larger impact on the gray whales in the bay. We try to figure out ways to incorporate that question into our research as the baby and mom surface just beyond our outstretched fingertips.
As we move on to the next group of whales, I think about the fact that all of this-watching the sunrise while measuring turtles, sitting on a boat taking pictures of whales-is class. I can't control a smile as I realize that of all the reasons my experiences in Mexico have been amazing, this is why I'm here. This is a completely different way of learning science. Some people go abroad on language immersion programs; though I'm learning many things here beyond the realm of ecology, days like this I feel immersed in the world of conservation research. It's a little window into the world I someday want to be a part of, and I'm loving every minute of it.
As we move on to the next group of whales, I think about the fact that all of this-watching the sunrise while measuring turtles, sitting on a boat taking pictures of whales-is class. I can't control a smile as I realize that of all the reasons my experiences in Mexico have been amazing, this is why I'm here. This is a completely different way of learning science. Some people go abroad on language immersion programs; though I'm learning many things here beyond the realm of ecology, days like this I feel immersed in the world of conservation research. It's a little window into the world I someday want to be a part of, and I'm loving every minute of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Post a comment on my blog! It makes me happy :-)