Monday 8 October 2018

MICS-Blue Whale study trip-Money, Methods and Musculus

So what do these MICS Blue Whale researchers actually do?

Well, first they need to raise funds. It's a reality. It sucks. It's not their most fun way to spend their time but without some cash, they can't do their important work.

Aside from that, when they make it out into the field and their quarry is in sight, the first order of the day is documenting the location and identifying the individuals. If conditions are right, they will also attempt to collect samples of skin and blubber, whale snot and even poop!

The methods and tools are surprisingly simple and rudimentary.

A pencil, a piece of plastified cardboard called a slate, a number of cameras, the boat's GPS, a wristwatch and a net. If they need to get fancy, they have a special crossbow which shoots skin-sampling darts attached to floatie things that they can collect from the water and store in a thermos chilled by an ice-pak.

They then prepare the samples for analysis to get basic DNA genetic information as well as data concerning the animal's health, toxin levels and other sciency business.

I'm learning about the actual methodology in a very hands-on way. They begin by recording the condition of the sea using the Beaufort scale and the cloud coverage by percent. They begin the time count as of the first sighting and begin taking photos and recording the species of each animal observed using the pencil and slate. As soon as the whale dives, we position the boat into the whale's "footprint" and take a GPS reading.

The waypoint from the onboard GPS is noted and the timestamp is matched with the digital photograph sequences for later conciliation with the waypoint.

If conditions permit, an attempt to tag the animal or collect samples will be made but this is not always possible.

This process continues all the while noting any particular markings or behaviour and the result is a whole bunch of data which gets transcribed by hand into a log book and then later entered into an electronic database with the uploaded photos.

Then begins the tedious task of matching the photos with known whales or making the call that a brand new individual needs to be added to the catalogue.

It's a big job. A big important job. I'm glad to do whatever I can to help, but so far, until I'm handed the poop net, I guess I can help by donating.

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