Monday, August 6
We are staying in a small town called Scituate in Massachusetts. But today we spent most of the day in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We went to Plymouth Rock, the
Mayflower 2, and the Statue of our Forefathers. Although, I was expecting Plymouth Rock to be something spectacular... it was a rock; really! The Statue of our Forefathers was really neat and it was large in size. The
Mayflower 2 was also really interesting. We had to pass immigration in order to leave the
Mayflower and there we many people working aboard the ship.
Later that day, we made our way over to Stellwagen Banks headquarters. We had to try on survival suits so we could make sure they fit in case of emergency on the boat. Although, we called them Gumby suits because they made us look like Gumbys and red Teletubbies. But as soon as I had my suit on I suddenly felt something running down my arm… it was water. My suit had water in it before I had gotten in. Everyone began laughing, but at the same time everyone looked hilarious in the suits.
We then went over to the Stellwagen Banks annex where we met Dr. Leila Hatch (the whale whisperer) and Mike Thompson. We also started filming today, and we had the cameras in our faces at all times once again! We saw the film crew and they still remembered us from last time, and then the jokes between the crew and the Argos began again. Once we started filming Mike Thompson taught us all about autonomous recording units, better known as Pop-Ups, which contain a hydrophone which is used to record underwater noises, mainly whale's songs. The Pop-Ups look like a big yellow plastic balloon on the outside, but have a computer hard drive and other fragile equipment sealed inside a glass ball on the inside. We will end up helping to deploy this Pop-Up on the boat tomorrow.
Dr. Hatch then gave a presentation to us about what she studies and works on. She studies the acoustics (sounds) that whales make. She does a lot of research on the whales in Stellwagen Sanctuary in the Atlantic Ocean. Her job is so awesome, and it's really cool what she gets to do. She actually discovered a way to link a whale's song with their genes. Both Dr. Leila Hatch and Mike Thompson taught us so many interesting things today about whales and acoustics. Both Dr. Hatch and Mike were fun to be around and both had a great sense of humor and always had us laughing!
Tuesday, August 7
We had an earlier start today so we could be prepared to "Set Sail" on the Auk, the NOAA research vessel. We began to make our way out to Stellwagen Banks, which are about nine Nautical miles (about ten "regular" miles) off the coast of Scituate Harbor. Both Dr. Hatch and Mike Thompson came with us. We saw 15 whales, even though it was extremely foggy. It was so amazing and they were huge. The humpbacks average about 45 feet long and the fin whales could be over 70 feet long! We saw three different types of whales: humpback, fin, and minke. We also were able to see a young harbor seal, and it came right up to the boat! It was curious about the banging noises we were making during the calibration of the Pop-Up. It looked like a little puppy dog.
We then deployed the Pop-Up, which we would pick up in about 3 hours. We set out in search of some more whales. We saw a lot of fin and humpback. I had never seen a whale before, other than Shamu, and it was so exciting to see them in their natural habitat!
We also used laser range finding binoculars that were worth $15,000; luckily I didn't drop one! The range finders were able to measure the bearing (the compass direction) and range (distance). We would practice with these range finders with a decoy. Then we actually used them to collect data on the locations of whales.
Once we were finished checking out all the different whales we went back to go and retrieve the Pop-Up and then head back in to the harbor. The research vessel ride was lots of fun and it was a really smooth compared to our bumpy ride on Lake Michigan, and no one got sea sick either!
After the research we went and ate with the captain, Dr. Hatch, and Mike Thompson. Lewis managed to eat one and a half desserts of brownie alamode!
Wednesday, August 8
That morning Dr. Hatch explained to us a lot about what we did on the boat and about acoustics, which is what she studies for a living. Her job is really interesting. I might want to study something similar to what she does. Acoustics are the different sounds that whales make. She also told us about the link between a whale's song and their genes. It was all really interesting.
In the afternoon Mike Thompson and Dr. Leila Hatch demonstrated how they analyze the data that we had collected yesterday on the boat. Although, we could not get the data from the Pop-Ups because it would've taken one week to retrieve the data from only three hours of recording! So, we made a spreadsheet of the data on the whale's location. We had collected this data with the range finders.
Mike Thompson then showed us some of the sounds of a right whale that they collected with a Pop-Up a few months earlier. It sounded like very faint pulses. They had to speed up the sound eight times in order for us to hear the actual sound, because the sounds the whales make are so far below the human range of hearing. We could see their sounds displayed on the software, but not hear them.
We said our goodbyes to Leila and Mike, and then to the film crew. We all had a memorable experience!
We went over to the harbor and took in the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. The water was extremely cold, but that didn't stop Lewis and Derek from swimming. I tried to stand on a rock, but that didn't work out too well! It was beautiful and so different from Texas.
This experience is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to work alongside some of the best researchers and being able to bring back to our community all of the things we learned. I've always loved marine mammals especially dolphins and whales, and this opportunity helped me to understand them even more. I think this experience has also pushed me into studying whales and dolphins along with their acoustics. I would really want to do something along the lines of what Dr. Leila Hatch studies. I would hope there can be even more chances to come back to study the whales and other marine mammals.