Whale Watch 8/21/14

Went out on the 12 o’clock whale watch from the New England Aquarium, with the intention of just getting out to see some whales and see what they do, but with the hopes of even the smallest glimpse or sign of a North Atlantic Right Whale.

After boarding the Aurora and getting off the dock soon after 12, I kept my eyes on the horizon, but saw little aside from a few sea gulls. The people were distracting and moving at such high speed, the wind does try to get in the way.

Arriving at Stellwagen bank around 1:10 we dramatically reduced our speed. For weather we had a 7/8 cloudy sky, 0-2 kts of wind, 0-1′ seas and it was warm, about 75 degrees farenheit. Our first sighting was of a blue shark, which quickly went into the boats wake and submerged. My first sighting of a shark in the wild and I only barely even saw anything.

Underwater map from the USGS of Stellwagen bank.

Just as Cape Cod is the remnants of a glacier’s terminal moraine, Stellwagen Bank was glacially deposited as well, a very sandy sea floor that also receives a lot of nutrients that upwell from the deeper waters surrounding the bank. A very coarse sand on the floor of Stellwagen, it is a perfect home for Sand Lance (aka Sand Eel), a small fish that the whales that visit love to eat but that buries itself in the sea floor and can require a good bit of effort to get at.

Puerto Rico- San Germán and the MCERC

This is a reflection on my week long Humpback Whale intensive class in Puerto Rico that I did in March 2014.

Signing up for the MCERC (Marine and Coastal Ecology Research Center) class on such short notice led to a whirlwind of activity. I received and read the majority of the 100+ pages of research papers in the few short days leading up to my flight.

Most of the flights going into Ponce (closest to San Germán) arrive between 4-7 in the morning. Mine was one of those flights. I was picked up by a young lady from MCERC in their distinctive neon yellow baseball caps, went to the field station and got about an hours sleep before waking up to go snorkeling.

The water was amazing, beautiful and warm. We didn’t hop in right away but did an ecology class to start, taught by the interns it felt, after all of the natural history and ecology classes I’d taken at Sterling, very basic, introductory. This is forgivable I suppose because they deal with all sorts of people with little-no experience. I think it could have been avoided if the PHD candidate had participated or if the intern had been able to deviate from the script a little bit. Regardless, getting the flippers on and snorkeling about the beach (named ‘the stairs’) made up, for me, any perceived lack in the general ecology aspect.

I had a great time swimming around with all the fish, I did not have my 3 by 5 with me that day, nor could I have brought it in the water, but most of the species names elude me. Though Atlantic or Caribbean Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) looks awful familiar.

Atlantic or Caribbean Blue Tang (courtesy of the internet)

I also saw some squid who inked at me, super cute. Though I’m not sure they’d share the same opinion. I did not notice any outwardly apparent behaviors in the animals I observed, though I’m sure if I could spend a few days in the water with them I’d be able to pick out some variations. Most just appeared to be hanging out and staying generally out of the way of humans. (The second ((and last day)) of snorkeling we did I did get up close and personal ((probably 15′ away- it wouldn’t let me get any closer.. it’s okay I understand)) with a sea turtle about 3 feet in length which was probably a Loggerhead Sea Turtle ((Caretta careta)) though the shell appeared more greenish-yellow than the description would allow. But the turtle I saw had a bit of an over bite just like a Loggerhead.)

Loggerhead Turtle (from wikipedia)