Atlantic to Pacific

A few weeks ago I got a phone call.  On the other end was the lab coordinator for UCSC's Pinniped Cognition and Sensory Systems Lab, and she was officially offering me a position at the lab for the summer.  Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled.  This lab is doing some pretty fantastic research (definitely check out their website) and this internship is the perfect way for me to get some experience caring for and doing research with captive pinnipeds.

Yes, yes, I know what you're thinking.  "Leanna, I thought you were studying monkeys in Bolivia and then decided to study whales in the Atlantic but now you're studying seals?  WHY DON'T YOU JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND."  Well I am happy to inform you that I have, in fact, made up my mind (at least for now).  I finally landed on a dissertation topic this past semester.  For the next few years, I will be investigating the effects of anthropogenic (human-generated) noise on pinnipeds.  Given the recent increase in shipping and urbanization, coastal anthropogenic noise has become an issue of heightened concern, and questions surrounding the effects on pinnipeds still remain unanswered.  Ideally, my research questions will address both captive individuals and free-ranging populations.  Hence my excitement about this summer position working with captive pinnipeds...gotta know how to do things with them before I can actually do the things.  Science.  It's a process.

Precious little harbor seal. (Photo: Sean Crane)

So I got this phone call mid-April, and I was scheduled to start my internship on May 7th.  That's not a lot of time and there was still so much to do!  Finish spring classes, reschedule a statistics final, take said final, wrap up TA duties, drive all the way from Syracuse to Santa Cruz, oh yeah, and find a place to live.  Somehow everything fell into place, and on May 1st, I packed the car and headed west (with a slight detour south to take my dog, Rosie, to summer camp at my parents' house).  Four days later, with the Pacific Ocean to my left and redwoods to my right, I arrived at my temporary home.

View of Monterey Bay from Santa Cruz

I've only been working at the lab for two weeks, but I've already met some amazing people and learned a lot about a lot of things.  This internship is definitely work-intensive (facilities management, animal husbandry, and research), but at the rate I'm going, I'll be able to nail down a few more specific captive-animal-related research questions for my project and become a little bit of an animal trainer, all while enjoying the California sunshine and the over-abundance of Mexican food (sorry, Syracuse, but your genuine attempts at tacos just don't quite do it for this displaced Texan).


FUN SCIENCE FACT #34:  Male bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) produce stereotyped vocalizations that consist of long spiraling trills, shorter sweeps, tonal grunts, and low frequency moans.  As they sing, the males dive slowly in a loose spiral, release bubbles, and then surface in the center of their bubble circle.  This vocalization/behavior combo is only observed in the breeding season, and is therefore thought to be an advertisement to females.  This vocalization is kind of crazy and you should all listen to it.  It does not even sound like an animal.

The bearded seal...aptly named for its whisker "beard"
(Photo: AK Dept. of Fish & Game)

Kinder Waters

It was the day after my Sea Legs adventure.  The weather was decent, so we headed back to the water to find more whales.  Armed with motion sickness meds and a sleeve of saltine crackers, I prepared myself physically and emotionally for another potential oceanic disaster.  The winds and the waves had died down quite a bit overnight, so I was already feeling more confident in my abilities to maintain composure aboard our research vessel.  As we headed offshore, we got a call about a reported right whale that was sighted by a local beach-goer.  We were skeptical (did this person actually see a right whale?), but we decided to check it out just in case.

After a few minutes of searching near the reported location, we spotted something shiny and black off the starboard bow.  Further investigation proved our efforts were not in vain...our beach-goer was right!  We had found the mommy whale and her calf.  Our photo-ID confirmed that this was #2912.  Hydrophones were deployed, video was recorded, and behavioral data was collected.  There were a few bumps along the procedural road, but it was a great day to figure out things that worked well and things that may need to be tweaked in the protocol.  After a few hours with this pair, we deployed the CTD (a device that measures conductivity, temperature, and water depth) and packed up shop.  It was already time to head back for the night.

Overall, I was pleased with our day.  It wasn't perfect, but we have to have days like that to figure out the best way to collect the data that we want.  AND I doubled the number of whales on my "whales I've seen" list, and that, at least to me, is very very exciting.

But now, alas, it is my last night in Fernandina Beach.  I feel like I just got here!  I'm sad to be leaving so soon, but I'm so glad I was able to help out for the past ten days.  Until next time, right whales!


FUN SCIENCE FACT #33: The speed of sound in water is about five times faster than the speed of sound in air (1497 m/s in fresh water, compared to 343 m/s in air).  That's pretty fast.  With all these hydrophones hooked up, it's not uncommon to hear a boat coming before we actually see the boat coming.  Turns out oceans are noisy places.

Sea Legs

To "get one's sea legs" - a maritime catchphrase I have recently added to my ever expanding list of boat-related vocabulary.  Commonly used in association with one's inability to remain poised onboard a moving vessel, this phrase also refers to the issue of motion sickness.  As in, Leanna hadn't found her sea legs before yesterday, so she threw up six times off the back of the boat.  Too much information?  Apologies to any readers with weak stomachs.

The morning of January 11th was very exciting.  It was my first real day on the water!  My first real chance to see some whales!  We topped off the boat's tank at a local gas station, grabbed a quick slice of pizza for lunch, and we were on our way.  After loading all the gear onto the R/V Selkie (R/V for research vessel), we launched the boat out of Fernandina Beach.  Soon after, we got a call from an aerial survey plane that there was a North Atlantic Right Whale mother and calf about 25 miles offshore.  The seas were rough.  Very lumpy.  We charged ahead.  I already knew pizza was a bad idea.

While en route to that pair, we came across a different female with her new calf and decided to stick around to collect some acoustic and behavioral data.  My stomach was unquestionably queasy and my dizziness was rising at a steady pace.  I asked right then about boat-vomit protocol.  "So if I need to throw up, I just do it off the side of the boat?"  There was a unanimous "yes" from my fellow researchers, followed by a couple versions of "make sure you're downwind."  I made sure I was downwind.

We hadn't even started collecting data yet.

As I held on to the boat and waited for the sea sickness to pass, the three others, fully equipped with their sea legs, manned the camera, identified the whale (#2753 if you feel like looking her up in the NARW catalog), and started setting up the hydrophones (underwater microphones).  It was all a blur as I hurled that pre-boat pizza off the port side stern.  Next thing I knew, I was assigned to operate the digital recorder.  There was no way on God's green earth (or I guess, more appropriately, God's blue ocean) that I was going to be able to look at and read that tiny little screen, so I just put on some headphones and crossed my fingers that everything was set properly.  Yay data collection!

We stayed with that mom/calf pair for about an hour, and then it was time to head back to shore.  Once the boat got moving, I started to feel less ill.  The wind on my face, the knowing that solid land was in my near future.  As we arrived back at the dock and I stepped off the boat, I immediately felt better.  Granted, all the pizza and any trace of breakfast was long gone from my system.  But now I know - no pizza before boats.  And maybe next time I'll take a little dramamine (or some non-drowsy equivalent).

Back on land, it finally hit me.  I saw a whale.  I actually saw two whales - one mom and one calf.  Wow.  Those guys are HUGE.  I saw my first whale and it was a North Atlantic Right Whale.  There's only 500 of them in the entire population, and I saw two of them.  It was an awesome experience.  Minus the vomit.

FUN SCIENCE FACT #32:  Some research suggests that individuals require different amounts of time to adjust to "new sensory environments."  In other words, the genes needed to cope with motion sickness turn on faster in some people than in others.  I think I have slow genes.

Right Whales, Wrong Weather

I will be the first to admit that I’ve never really been on a boat.  And that I’ve never been to the Atlantic Ocean.  And that I’ve never actually seen a whale in real life.  But when I had the opportunity to help out my advisor (Susan Parks) with her ongoing North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) mother/calf study, there was no way I could turn it down…ten days in Florida to play with whales and hydrophones?  Yes, please!  

When I left a very snowy Syracuse a few days ago, I had no idea what to expect with this type of fieldwork.  Whales are pretty big, right?  So how hard could they be to find?  Well, turns out that you don’t actually get to see any whales (or even go out on the boat) when the weather is terrible.  We’ve been unlucky with the weather here so far.  Wind, rain, fog…we just can’t catch a break.  We did go out on the boat this past Saturday though.  We tested some equipment and played with cameras and laser rangefinders.  No whales on Saturday, but we did spot some dolphins near the boat and some ponies on the beach.

The past couple days have been spent getting the rest of our equipment prepped and at least for me, learning how to use all of this equipment.  I also got a crash course in North Atlantic Right Whale identification.  Because there aren’t really that many of these guys left (only about 500), researchers are able to keep up with basically the entire population.  There’s an online catalog of all of the known individuals with photos and drawings of their distinctive markings, and there’s even a matching game if you want to try your hand at matching some whales.  It’s pretty fun once you get into it, but it can also be a terribly time consuming and exhausting process.  My first day of whale matching was full of ups and downs, but we ended up correctly matching about five or so whales….which counts as a success in my book!

It looks like the weather is going to clear up and be lovely this weekend, so hopefully we can get a few good days in on the boat!  I can’t wait to see a whale IN REAL LIFE!  And hopefully see a precious little baby whale.  Little is a relative term…these babies are still like 13-17 ft. long. 

You can find more updates from the field on the Parks Lab Field Blog.

If we can't go out on the boat, might as well enjoy a walk on the beach

FUN SCIENCE FACT #31: Male right whales have the largest testicles of any animal, weighing in at one metric ton (2204.62 pounds).  You never know when facts like these might come in handy on trivia night.

Merry Christmas from Rosie & Leanna!

This year has been full of transitions.  Rosie and I started the year at home in San Antonio, TX, but are ending the year at a much higher latitude.  Working on grad school applications in January was stressful and time consuming, but soon after they were finished, I encountered and overwhelming amount of free time.  Free time is something I've lacked since....oh, let's say....the late 1990s?  I decided my energies would be best spent volunteering, so I took a position as a wildlife caretaker and rescuer for Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, an organizations based out of Kendalia, TX.  I took care of deer, squirrels, songbirds, goats, opossums, lemurs, and paraplegic pigs, and I rescued tadpoles, birds, and lots of precious little baby opossums.

Saving lives...one opossum at a time.

The spring brought grad school interviews and quite a few fun runs.  Rosie ran her first 5K, with an impressive time of 41 minutes...and that's pretty good, given her basset stature.  But I'll be honest, Rosie's training mostly consisted on taking naps in the afternoon sunbeams on the back porch.  She's got her priorities straight.  I ran my first half marathon this spring, with a not-so impressive time that I'm strategically choosing to not share with you.  That first half marathon got me hooked, and I've run two more since then.  Most recently, at the Empire State Half Marathon, I ran a personal best time of 2:07:42.  Next year I'm thinking I'll run all 26.2 miles of the marathon...time for a new challenge!

Towards the end of June, before Rosie and I packed up for school, I decided to take a solo trip to Big Bend National Park.  Big Bend is the perfect place to escape to if you're looking for a little time away from the big city (or the small city...it's pretty empty out there).  I backpacked through the Chisos Mountains for about four days and returned home with a clear head, a few blisters, and some crazy stories involving unpredictable summer weather patterns and close encounters with a few black bears.

Then in July, we loaded a truck (with the help of my very generous parents), and drove from San Antonio all the way to Syracuse, NY!  It was a long drive - 1890.5 miles and 7 states in 5 days - but we enjoyed lots of good food and visits with friends and family along the way.  I started grad school at Syracuse University in August, and I'm working towards my PhD in biology.  This semester I've been busy with reading and writing and applying for graduate fellowships, but soon I'll be starting on my own research.  So exciting!  I've already gotten a great start on some small projects and publications.  And in January, I'll be assisting my advisor on some behavioral data collection with North Atlantic Right Whale mother/calf pairs off the coast of Florida.


So far, Syracuse has treated us well.  I love my apartment and my new friends and my school.  And Rosie spends one or two days a week in doggie daycare making lots of new two- and four-legged friends.  I do miss Texas (there's not much decent Mexican food up here), and I'm a little terrified of the lake effect snow that will be headed my way soon, but Rosie and I are always up for new adventures.  Hopefully 2013 will be just as exciting!

Wishing all of our friends and family a very merry Christmas!

Love,
Leanna & Rosie



FUN SCIENCE CHRISTMAS FACT #30:  Mistletoe (genera Viscum & Phoradendron) comes from the Anglo-Saxon word misteltan, which means "little dung twig" because the plant spreads through bird droppings.  And nothing says "kiss me" quite like dung twigs.

You'll photo-shoot your eye out

Rosie and I wrote our own Christmas letter this year, so of course we needed to take a Christmas picture to send to our friends and family as well.  Now, I've often bragged about my photogenic canine, but things soon turned from difficult to impossible as I was equipped only with an iphone, a camera timer app, and a limited supply of milkbones.  Dozens of outtakes.  Endless laughs.  And  really frustrated basset hound.  It all made for a pretty interesting Saturday night.  

We eventually got one decent picture.  Maybe two if I lower my standards just a little bit.  

Christmas letter to come.

FUN SCIENCE CHRISTMAS FACT #29:  Most of Santa's reindeer have boyish names, but according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer of each year, male reindeer lose their antlers at the beginning of winter (usually late November to mid-December).  Female reindeer however, keep their antlers until after they give birth in the spring.  Turns out all of Santa's reindeer are ladies....probably how he manages to not get lost every Christmas.  

A New Adventure in New York

Dear Blog,

I've missed you these past few months; I've missed our chats about titi monkeys and adventures and far away places.  Maybe you're wondering, "Why have you ignored me so??"  Well, blog, I will tell you.  It turns out life in south Texas with your parents, three dogs, and a slightly-nomadic newlywedded older sister is much less exciting than all those Bolivian primate shenanigans.  So what have I been doing to pass the time? Rescuing opossums, running half marathons, hanging out with a paraplegic pig.  You know, typical stuff.

But there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon...and that glimmer is grad school.  Brand new adventures in a brand new place (with a brand new, and much colder, climate). Come June/July, Rosie and I are packing up and heading north and east to the great state of New York!  Once there, I will be pursuing my PhD in biology at Syracuse University. Can't wait!!

Rosie is very excited about our upcoming move.

Syracuse University, here I come!  Go Orange!!

Yay pretty campus!

That is A LOT of orange.

FUN SCIENCE FACT #28: The giant anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, walks on its knuckles to protect the long, curved claws on its forefeet.