Month: June 2015

Gray Whales of the Oregon Coast; Preliminary field season!

Hello all, Florence here with an update from the field!  Its high time that I tell you a little bit about the rather exciting project getting started here at the GEMM lab.  Concerning the foraging ecology of the Pacific Coast feeding aggregation of gray whales, and conveniently having a high potential to improve local conservation practices, my team and I are hoping to (1) document and describe fine-scale foraging behavior of gray whales, (2) assess the impact of vessel disturbance on foraging behavior, and (3) work with local communities, stakeholders, and whale watch operators to create sustainable, scientifically informed guidelines for vessel operations in the presence of gray whales.

As with many things, collaboration is the key to success, and for the past month, I have teamed up with Miche Fournet of the ORCAA lab to run a theodolite-for-marine-mammals training camp.  What is a theodolite you may ask?  A theodolite is a precision surveying instrument used to measure angles in the horizontal and vertical planes.  You may have seen one in use by a road crew or property surveyor. The instrument has also been adapted to marine mammal work because by knowing your own altitude and position, that of a secondary point, and using the telescopic sight to focus on a whale, one is able to calculate the exact location of that whale.   Do this every time the whale comes up to breathe, and pretty soon, you have a fine scale track-line of exactly where that whale has been, for how long, and what it was doing.  It was quite fun to learn the tricks of the trade with Miche and her Acoustic Spyglass crew, and we wish them a successful field season with the Humpbacks up in Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Justin spots a whale while Cricket waits her turn at an early practice session
Justin spots a whale while Cricket waits her turn at an early practice session
Justin and David practice with the Theodolite

Now we all know that a battle plan never survives the first engagement with the enemy, and a new scientific protocol is much the same.  Spring Quarter is finished, and two of my interns, Cricket and Justin arrived here at the GEMM lab on Monday. Together, we have been field testing our new equipment, getting used to working as a team day in and day out and most of all, finding all the little kinks in the survey plans and computer program we are using to log our data.  So far, we’ve seen 8 whales over the course of 4 days, improved our reflexes in scanning the horizon and “fixing” on our targets, managed to misplace a day’s worth of data in the confusion of computer programming, gotten faster at setting up all our equipment, talked with curious passer-bys and spent a lot of time staring at the blue horizon.  And you know what? It’s been brilliant.  This week was specifically set aside to figure out everything that could possible go wrong while there aren’t too many whales around yet.  Now, we’ll be ready to hit the ground running when the real fun starts in July!

Until next time, Fair Winds!

Testing the set up at the Depoe Bay Whale Watch Center with Cricket and Justin interns extraordinaire!
Testing the set up at the Depoe Bay Whale Watch Center with Cricket and Justin: interns extraordinaire!
Gray Whale in Depoe Bay
Gray Whale in Depoe Bay
Thar she blows!
Thar she blows!

Seabirds eat weird things

Chicken wings, toy dinosaurs, Easter eggs, driver’s licenses, ham, broccoli, and toy cars, to name a few things. I’ve even seen a gull try to eat a live, 2 ton elephant seal (and have got the pictures to prove it!).

Recently researchers from the GEMM lab, and the Seabird Oceanography lab (SOL) at Hatfield Marine Science Center, have been collaborating with Dr. Scott Shaffer’s Avian Physiology and Ecology laboratory at San Jose State University to investigate the causes and implications of these strange eating habits.

When they aren’t scavenging off of your plate of French fries, Western gulls (Larus occidentalis) are either foraging for fish and invertebrates out at sea, or visiting the local dump to pick up dinner for the little ones. Unfortunately, during the breeding season dinner at the dump comes with the risk of bringing harmful contaminants and pathogenic microbes back to the colony. In addition to littering colonies with refuse, gulls can serve as potential vectors of disease that may affect other nearby wildlife. Seabird ecologists at OSU and SJSU are using GPS tags in order to better understand how different colonies of Western gulls along the West coast are affected by access to landfills. Over the past month, a handful of gulls at colonies in California and Oregon have been outfitted with these light weight tracking devices. The data gained from these tags will allow researchers to study the foraging ecology and habitat use patterns of these individuals. When the tags are recovered, biological samples such as blood and feathers will be collected to determine how these habitat-use patterns (and potentially, trips to the local landfill) are affecting these birds in terms of microflora and contaminant loads.

Last week I (Erin Pickett) assisted the GEMM and SOL labs in capturing a few of these birds in order to outfit them with tags. The local field site is just south of Yachats on a guano-covered rock that a small colony of Western gulls call home. Like all great fieldwork and adventures, our day began at 4:00 am (and it was raining!). About an hour later we arrived at our field site, where we assessed the ocean conditions and determined that the treacherous crossing from the mainland to the colony was passable (it was low tide). There is some great GoPro footage of a crossing the week before that consisted mostly of a current rushing over rocks and the occasional flash of a wetsuit or a yellow dry bag while two hands reached out for something stable to hold onto. When I heard about this I became even more excited about the opportunity to join in on the fun.

Ian Throckmorton (SOL lab) carefully places a noose mat near a nest
Leigh Torres catches Rob Suryan in action
Rob Suryan preparing to release a newly tagged bird
Leigh Torres waits patiently for an opportunity to catch a flighty bird
We use waterproof tape to attach the GPS tags so that they are removed easily without disrupting the gulls feathers

We spent our morning focused on two tasks. The first was to recapture the two birds who we had put tags on the previous week. Since the tags have to be small and light-weight, they can only collect data for as long as their battery lasts. However, this is long enough to log a few foraging trips and get a good idea of where the gulls are concentrating their foraging effort. Our second goal was to put tags on eight more birds. We used a combination of capture techniques, including a very long pole with a small noose on the end of it, to recapture one of our birds from last week, along with seven new birds who we deployed new tags on. By the end of the second morning the weather was nice enough to enjoy changing into a wetsuit and jumping into the water for the crossing back to shore. Now we just need to get the rest of our tags back. Wish us luck!

P.S. It’s not often that you purposely put photos of gulls in photo galleries, so I’ve taken this opportunity to find my best shots. These are a couple more of the field sites where our collaborators are working- on Southeast Farallon Island, and Ano Nuevo Island, California

A juvenile gull on Southeast Farallon Island enjoys a fresh placenta after an elephant seal birth
A juvenile gull striking a pose on Southeast Farallon Island, CA
Gulls fight over a fresh placenta after an elephant seal birth on Southeast Farallon Island
Photo of “gull juju” found on Southeast Farallon Island. Researchers keep a box of memorabilia, or objects that gulls on the island regurgitated (photo from http://losfarallones.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-do-gulls-eat-0-false-18-pt-18-pt-0.html)
Ano Nuevo, CA
A rainbow over a third field site on Ano Nuevo Island, California
A gull seizing an opportunity for a meal on Southeast Farallon Island, CA
A western gull at a different field site on Southeast Farallon Island, CA