MBFE - Days 26-28 - Sneak peak at the Charleston Marine Life Center

I think it's safe to say that the MBFE crew spent most of Saturday working on their research presentations and their laboratory and field notebooks.  They were due today (Monday 5/18) at 5pm.

We did take a break during the afternoon though and were treated to a sneak peak at OIMB's Charleston Marine Life Center (CMLC).  This is a combination aquarium and educational facility scheduled to open to the public in August 2015.  Dr. Craig Young, Director of OIMB invited us to take a look at how it's coming along.

L-R: Rachel S, Skyler, Shannon, Jennifer, Arianne, Dr. Craig Young, Kelly, and Jessica just inside the front door of the CMLC.

Two of the main exhibits at the CMLC are mounted skeletons from a real gray whale (upper) and a killer whale (lower).  Both died near the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and have been in storage for years, now they have a place to be on display.  Impressive!

We had a chance to do many things that regular visitors will not be allowed to do - that's always fun.  for example, we got to handle the teeth from the killer whale skeleton.  The teeth in the mounted skeletons are models of the real teeth,  This was done for two reasons.  Dr. Young told us that first, killer whale teeth eventually crack, and second, that because killer whale teeth are ivory he did not want to run the risk of someone trying to climb up and remove teeth - dangerous to the skeleton and the potential thief. (L-R: Joseph, Rachel S, Orcinus orca, Dr. Young, Kelly and Skyler).

Look at the size of these teeth!

Rachel S., Rachel M, and Joseph take a closer look at those chompers. Luke and Courtney chat in the background and Devon and Jennifer look at a display in prep in the far right background.

Then Dr. Young help up a display cover so that students who wanted to could feel a real sea otter pelt - one of the most prized types of fur in the late 1800s.  Courtney gives it a try while Jennifer and Shannon look on.  I touched it, and that fur is dense and soft!  It's too bad that sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction.

Here Dr. Young introduces the MBFE to a display that when complete will cover dolphins and toothed whales (L-R: Rachel S, Dr. Young, Skyler, Kelly, Joseph), and Courtney and Luke look at a sperm whale skull to the right).

Shannon, Jennifer, and Isaac chat after looking at the sperm whale skull.

Dr. Young is a great host, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time at OIMB (Dr. Craig Young, left, Dr. Alan Holyoak - MBFE Director, right)

Time to go...

MBFE - Day 18 - Whales!!!

This day started out pretty like pretty much any other...breakfast at 7am, followed by student research teams going over their plans for the morning.  One team, Arianne, Kelly and Jessica, asked if I could go with them to Middle Cove, Cape Arago, so they could collect more hermit crabs for their project. No problem.

There was dense fog...so I didn't know what I'd be able to see aside from what's on the rocks...which is actually the cool stuff...so off we went.  After all, fog doesn't stop the intrepid hermit crab hunters Kelly, Jessica, and Arianne!

By the time we reached Cape Arago the fog had burned off and we had a beautiful day!

It takes some doing to get down to Middle Cove.  There is a steep unimproved trail, but down we went! (L-R: Arianne, Kelly, Jessica)

The team worked well and consistently in the field (L-R: Jesscia, stooped over, Arianne, Kelly)

While they worked I poked around this area...I'd never been down here before.  It's a pretty nice spot, mostly a boulder field with LOTS of mid to high intertidal zone species. I'd worked my way out to toward the water when I looked over to the south and thought I caught a glimpse of the vapor from whale spouts.  Sure enough!  That's when our morning adventure really began.  We worked our way around the south side of Middle Cove, negotiated several large boulders and surge channels and made our way out onto the point between Middle Cove and South Cove.  The whales were there!

We saw them spouting and pretty soon it became obvious that they were feeding.  These are gray whales and they migrate along the west coast of North America from their birthing grounds in Mexico in the south to their feeding grounds in Alaska.  We've been watching for them all trip and we finally spotted some.

As the photo below shows, there were two whales.  And as you can see in the photo below, they were quite close inshore...perhaps no more than 200 or 300 years away.

Sometimes they would extend a flipper above the water.  They were actually in pretty shallow water so it's possible that the flipped was above water when the whale rolled on its side to feed by taking a mouth full of sediment from the bottom of the seafloor.

All four of us had a chance to watch them for some time.  We texted the rest of the MBFE group and some of them came out, but sadly by the time they arrived the whales were gone. Interestingly, the fog started rolling back in when the whales disappeared. Maybe the whales will show up again on another day.  I sure hope so!  

We'll keep looking and you keep checking in.  

The MBFE adventure continues...

Day 14 - Two weeks in, halfway through...and "There be whales here!"

The BYU-Idaho Marine Biology Field Experience (MBFE) hit a landmark today - on 18 May we will be halfway through our time at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.

Students spent the morning doing research, followed by class at 11am.  After lunch Patrick and Ty went back to South Cove, Cape Arago, to check on their hermit crab experiments, and then at 3p we had a second session of class.

At 4pm the class attended the weekly OIMB seminar.  This week's seminar was given by a fisheries biologist from NOAA (The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) based at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA.  He talked about frontal boundaries between different masses of ocean water and their effects on larval and juvenile rock fishes.  It was pretty interesting.

The main excitement today was when the words "whales sighted" were uttered in the Dining Hall right after dinner.  A U of Ore student told me he'd seen whales just outside of South Cove, Cape Arago, about 30 mins earlier.  You've never seen a group of college students move faster.  Before you knew it, they emerged from one of the buildings toting spotting scopes, binoculars, and cameras.  And we were off to Cape Arago to see what we could see.

We were initially a bit disappointed when we didn't see anything at the Middle Cove observation point, but I spotted whales when we could look into South Cove. The students sprinted over.  Before long everyone was spotting whales blowing.  We counted seven gray whales, including at least two calves.  They are majestic creatures.  We watched them for 45 mins to an hour as they worked their way up the coast.

Gray whale blowing

Cape Arago, Oregon, May 17, 2013

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak

The students were so excited to see these whales...I mean, who wouldn't be?  It was extremely cool.

I know I took several photos of the group watching the whales, but for some reason not all photos transferred to my computer last night, and I deleted the photos from my camera without double checking - DOH!  You only learn when you lose, I guess.  Sigh...

At least a couple of the sunset shots I took just before we came back to OIMB transferred over.  Here's a particularly nice one over Simpsons Reef, north of Cape Arago, Oregon.

Sunset over Simpsons Reef, Oregon

May 17, 2013

(c) 2013 Alan Holyoak

PS - You will be happy to hear that Dallas' extra car key arrived today, and all is well.