Tag: NOAA

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Rough Waters and Great Distances

Black-Footed Albatross. Image Credit: Sophie Webb/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

The sun is shining, but strong winds and high seas keep conversation to a minimum on the flying bridge of the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. Perched three decks above, the bow of the boat seems at times to bounce on the water below as she comes up over the crest of the whitecaps. Waves regularly explode over the bow, some freckling the glass windshield with droplets of icy cold water.

The wind roars.

Wildlife surveys such as this one are dependent on visibility, sea state, wind, and light. Yesterday afternoon’s transect from east to west pointed the observers into the sun, so glare and high seas made sightings challenging. Their goal is to sample as much wildlife as possible, but it isn’t realistic to count everything, so they collect subsamples.

It’s Sunday on day seven of a cruise monitoring seabirds and marine mammals off the coast of North-Central California National Marine Sanctuaries (Cordell Bank, Greater Farallons, and Monterey Bay). These Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) cruises take place three to five times each year.

There are two methods used for surveying wildlife on this cruise: line-transect and strip-transect. Jan Roletto, chief scientist and research coordinator for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, explains that the marine mammal observers use a line-transect method.

Wildlife observers Taylor Nairn(right) and Dru Devlin (left). Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Chief Scientist Jan Roletto on the flying bridge of the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada with Kirsten Lindquist. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

The location of the wildlife in the ocean is determined with relative precision using: height, which is based on eye-level from atop the flying bridge; distance, which is measured using the reticle markings on the binoculars; and, the seabird or mammal’s bearing relative to the bow of the ship.

“It’s all just basic geometry,” Roletto said.

The ship maintains a consistent speed during transect lines, and the computer logs GPS coordinates frequently. Wildlife are logged by Taylor Nairn, data manager for Greater Farallones Association (GFA) and data logger on this cruise. Then, the calculations are automated using software developed by NOAA Fisheries.

Roletto monitors the 90-degree quadrant from the bow to the port side of the vessel and Dru Devlin, research associate for GFA, observes from the bow 90 degrees to the starboard side.

While Roletto and Devlin count the mammals, Kirsten Lindquist uses a strip-transect method and counts 100 percent of the seabirds in a 200-meter strip in front of her. “We use strip-transect lines for things that are numerous and line-transects for things that are more scarce,” said Roletto.

By monitoring population densities, prey availability, and their locations, the team can help identify trends over time and look for locations where human activities might be harmful to the wildlife.

Albatross
Black-Footed Albatross. Image Credit: Sophie Webb/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Earlier in the week, Lindquist has counted thousands of seabirds during one transect line. Several of the species observed, such as Common Murres and Sooty Shearwaters, tend to float out in the open water together in very large numbers.

Today and yesterday, the weather is keeping sighting numbers low. They’ve spotted a few Northern Fulmars and Rhinoceros Auklets alongside a small number of unidentified whales, Risso’s dolphins, Dall’s and harbor porpoises.

Albatross in Flight
Black-Footed Albatross. Image Credit: Sophie Webb/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Black-Footed Albatross are more abundant than previous days. They are built for this weather. It is mesmerizing to watch them float and soar on winds that make it challenging for humans (at least for this human) to walk the distance from the top of the stairs to the shelter of the windshield on the upper observation deck.

Albatross are very large, with wingspans up to 85 inches. They are classified as tubenoses, because they have very large tubes above their beak; these tubes are connected to salt glands over their eyes which enables them (and all other seabirds) to drink saltwater. These seabirds have an incredible sense of smell, aiding in the detection of prey at great distances.

Wildlife Map
Wildlife often travel great distances to feast in nutrient-rich waters along the California Coast. Image Credit: Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

The albatross we are seeing here off the coast of California have traveled from their nesting colony in the atolls of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The almost 6000-mile roundtrip journey will take up to two weeks by the time that they fly here, gorge, and then return home to feed their chicks.

Albatross ride these powerful winds in a process called dynamic soaring, flying up to 80 miles an hour without flapping their wings, therefore conserving energy for their long journeys. Engineers have studied these birds in order to design better aircrafts.

These constantly changing waters—smooth and glassy one day, powerful and fierce the next—seem to offer something for all who come here.

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follower her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Read more

Through the Eyes of the Albatross by Carl Safina

What Happens When Seabirds Drink Saltwater? By BirdNote for Audubon

Winged Ambassadors by Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

 

 

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Understanding Wild Things

Pigeon Guillemots are a coastal species that are locally common, meaning they are common in areas suited to their needs. You won’t spot them on sandy beaches, but in places with rocky outcrops and where they like to nest in inaccessible rocky crevices. To Lindquist, this speaks to the different survival strategies adopted out here: Common Murres nest in large colonies, seeking protection as group; Cassin’s Auklet's are nocturnal and nest in burrows; and, Pigeon Guillemots use the rocky crevices for protection while breeding. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Pigeon Guillemots are a coastal species that are locally common, meaning they are common in areas suited to their needs. You won’t spot them on sandy beaches, but in places with rocky outcrops and where they like to nest in inaccessible rocky crevices. To Lindquist, this speaks to the different survival strategies adopted out here: Common Murres nest in large colonies, seeking protection as group; Cassin’s Auklet’s are nocturnal and nest in burrows; and, Pigeon Guillemots use the rocky crevices for protection while breeding. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
The Western Gulls are residents of Farallon Islands and they’re quite abundant. Unlike the other birds out here, they forage in the wild, but they also come very close to human activities and interact with people. Western Gulls are much less isolated than the other species studied on the islands. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Kirsten Lindquist is the ecosystem monitoring manager for the Greater Farallones Association (GFA); she is also the birder for this ACCESS cruise. She’s awestruck by ocean creatures that live in such extreme environments. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Common Murre are ubiquitous here, nesting by the thousands. While cruising through the area, we’ve encountered large rafts of them floating out in the open and the cry of a father Common Murre searching for his baby chick can be heard frequently. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
The Cassin’s Auklet live offshore, you won’t see them as they are not a coastal or near-shore species. They come on land at night to breed and nest in burrows underground. The rest of the year they live out in the open ocean. They are fans of krill, the small shrimp-like crustacean that lures so many critters to the region. “Since Auklets are a lot more abundant than Blue Whales, we can use Cassin’s as indicators,” says Kirsten Lindquist, birder on this ACCESS cruise. They are underwater flyers; some birds swim with their feet and keep their wings retracted underwater. Using their wings, Cassin’s and Common Murres fly underwater. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science
Rhinoceros Auklet are similar to Cassin’s Auklet in foraging and nesting, but they are less abundant in the area. They eat fish, not krill, primarily what’s available. Juvenile rockfish are the preferred food choice, but they will eat larger anchovies, which can be problematic because they may be too large for chicks to consume. Image Credit: Farallon Islands Foundation

Click on the captions to expand and read more.

The sound is deafening — a symphony composed of 350,000 seabirds screeching and calling to each other. Ask a table full of scientists in the mess hall what it sounds like when you first set foot on the Farallon Islands and they answer in unison: cacophony.

The islands are home to the largest nesting colonies of seabirds south of Alaska.

Competition for real estate on the Farallons is minimal because each species has different needs. Pigeon Guillemots nest in rocky crevices and talus slopes, while the Common Murres find safety in numbers, perched atop steep cliffs and outcrops by the thousands. Rhinoceros and Cassin’s Auklets come on land at night and burrow underground to lay their eggs.

After decades of observations, scientists have learned a great deal about these creatures, but much of the research only occurs when the birds come ashore to breed in the summer. How do we know about birds that spend the vast majority of their lives out in the open ocean where few humans visit?

Some information is gleaned by sending teams on scientific expeditions like this ACCESS cruise, undertaken via a partnership between North-Central National Marine Sanctuaries and Point Blue Conservation Science. Wildlife observers spend most of each day conducting visual surveys, counting seabirds and marine mammals with a level of precision that is impressive to a non-scientist watching from the sidelines.

At various points each day, the ship stops to collect water and biological samples to understand food distribution in the region. By comparing the visual counts of animals with the samples collected, scientists can help determine predictable locations where food in the ocean lead to birds and mammals aggregating. Identifying where these hotspots overlap with human activity may help reduce negative impacts such as ship strikes and entanglements.

Adding tagging technology to these data sets enriches the picture even more.

Screen Shot 2018-07-07 at 8.37.56 AM
A short sample of a time-depth recorder (TDR) dive profile of a single Cassin’s auklet. The different depths and durations of dives can tell scientists about prey availability and dive success. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science

Researchers can combine tracking and dive patterns to show when birds are going to forage and where they’re finding food. The types of dives and how deep they’re going can tell you how deep the prey is, according to Kirsten Lindquist.

Lindquist is the ecosystem monitoring manager for the Greater Farallones Association (GFA); she is also the birder for this cruise and has conducted field work on the islands. “We only know food conditions when they are breeding,” she said.

According to Lindquist, data gathered over the years has revealed details such as clutch size, diet, nesting timing and success, but this information only reflects what is happening during the summer.

In Far from Land: The Mysterious Lives of Seabirds, Michael Brooke writes, “It can be quite rare for observers to see the birds actually feeding. Is this because the birds manage to catch enough food to last, say, a couple of days during infrequent bouts of gorging, or is it because much feeding happens at night when they cannot be seen?”

“How do you tell the story of fledging on into the next spring? Where are these birds going?” Lindquist asks. Breeding season is one window – it’s just a snapshot in time, she explains.

In other words, the lives of seabirds remain a bit of a mystery.

Screen Shot 2018-07-07 at 8.48.11 AM
Geolocator (GLS) position estimates of a single Cassin’s auklet over an 8-month period, which made a movement south to Southern California in the winter of 2017-18. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science

Jaime Jahncke, California Current Group director for Point Blue Conservation Science, points out that data from GLS tags on Cassin’s Auklets during the non-breeding season has shown that birds from the Farallon Islands disperse much farther than the scientists on the Point Blue team originally thought.

“A single bird can go as far south as Baja, California and others have gone as far north as Oregon,” said Jahncke. “This makes conservation efforts a real challenge.”

While breeding on the islands the birds are protected by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Refuge. When foraging, they’re protected within the Sanctuaries. Discovering the birds range is extended after the breeding season puts these conservation scientists in uncharted territories, because they don’t know what threats these birds face beyond the protected boundaries previously studied, said Jahncke.

Elsewhere, observations are also captured in the field by scientists like George Divoky. Each summer, he lives alone on a barrier island in the Arctic with a small colony of breeding Mandt’s Black Guillemots. He visits all the nests daily, weighing chicks and collecting data. In spite of the longevity of his 44-year study, each season seems to bring new insights, especially as the technology aiding this work gets smaller, faster, and smarter.

When unexpected snow and cold in Alaska delayed the arrival of Divoky’s Black Guillemots in June, he looked at previous year’s data from geolocators and determined that they were most likely waiting in nearby Nuvuk and would arrive as soon as their nesting boxes were clear of snow, which they eventually did.

Every spring when the guillemots return, he removes the geolocators to download data about where the birds have been spending time over the winter. In addition to aiding his own research, this data is being used by several graduate students and organizations such as SENSEI (a French research group funded by BNP Paribas) seeking to better understand the impacts of climate change in the Arctic.

Screen Shot 2018-07-07 at 8.48.55 AM
GPS track of a single Rhinoceros Auklet over a 4-day period, part of a collaborative project with Scott Shaffer from San Jose State. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science

Using GPS or Geolocator (GLS) tags reveal different information. The GPS used on a Rhinoceros Auklet from the Farallon Islands offered a very detailed map of where the seabird traveled during one four-day period, whereas a GLS tag helped researchers map the places seabirds traveled from month to month during the non-breeding season. “One is more fine scale movements in a foraging area and one is less fine scale trying to get data over winter,” said Lindquist.

To scientists like Divoky, Jahncke, and Lindquist, technology may hold the key to a deeper understanding of the lives of seabirds where they spend most of their time — at sea.

Lindquist said, “I’m drawn to deep, untouched wilderness and the wild things that make their home there. The ocean has a lot of that close to shore.” She explained that they can leverage the number of years of seabird data and new information from technology to tell the story of the species and the pressures they are facing in a rapidly changing world.

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follower her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Read More

Eggs, eggs everywhere: The Cassin’s by Point Blue at Los Farallones

Seeking Seabirds by Rich Stallcup

Explore the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge by Maps for Good

Los Farallones Blog by Point Blue Conservation Science

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Being On Station

Chase-CTD
The deck crew works to return the CTD rosette to the side deck. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
We’re on the fourth day of an Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies, or ACCESS, cruise — a long-term effort, now in its 15th year, to monitor and understand the oceanographic conditions, prey availability, and abundance and distribution of seabirds and whales in the region. The data collected on these cruises, which take place three to five times per year, are used to help inform decision-making and research priorities in North-Central California National Marine Sanctuaries. ACCESS is a partnership between NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries and Point Blue Conservation Science.

On the flying bridge, the observers and data logger are bundled for what is shaping up to be the coldest and windiest day of the expedition so far. The radios many of us wear, click and buzz in unison, “Bridge to flying bridge, 15 minutes to the end of the line.”

“Copy that, thank you,” Data Logger Taylor Nairn replies.

Yesterday, the ocean merged into the sky at the horizon point with rich shades of blue, but today grey blends into grey. The quiet is peaceful.

Once we reach the end of this transect line, we will be “on station.” At set points along each transect line, there are five to six stations where the ship stops so a team can collect samples using a variety of equipment and techniques. As the wildlife observers’ work for the morning concludes, the wet lab team and deck crew spring into action.

Jamie Jahncke is the director of the California Current Group for Point Blue Conservation Science. He selected these points along the transect for sample collection. To Jahncke, the greater number of sampling locations allow his team to paint a more accurate portrait of what is happening where the warm, surface layer of water rests on top of the cold nutrient-rich layer.

He explains, when people look at water, everyone thinks it all looks the same, but it’s not. There are all these points where tiny differences in temperature will impact the distribution of food and prey. “We’re looking for places where critters tend to aggregate, attracting seabirds and whales,” says Jahncke.

Down on the side deck, the Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) rosette is deployed. The CTD carries 12 Niskin bottles with levers that allow the team to open them strategically, collecting water samples at various depths up to 500 meters. (A detailed explanation of this can be found here and here.)

According to Jahncke, measuring how well a water sample conducts electricity, also known as conductivity, is directly related to salinity. Salinity is the concentration of salt and other inorganic compounds in seawater. Salty seawater is heavier than freshwater, as is cold water. Combined with temperature data, scientists are able to better understand how water properties and nutrients are distributed throughout the water column.

While crew and wet lab team are out on the side deck, Grace Kumaishi is inside prepping labels and materials for the samples that will come in. There’s a great deal of labeling and packaging to do, so it is clear when and where the materials were gathered. Additionally, the findings will be shared with least 10 different federal, state, and non-government research institutions.

Kumaishi was really nervous for this, her first big cruise. She’s a research assistant at Point Blue. Having just completed her bachelor’s in ecology, behavior, and evolution at University of California Los Angeles, she’s in that nebulous period between undergraduate work and grad school. She’s debating the pros and cons of masters and Ph.D. programs. This internship with Point Blue offers her the opportunity to build relationships with mentors, watch graduate students conduct their research, and see firsthand what a career in ocean science might look like.

Most days for Kumaishi are spent in the lab processing samples collected on cruises such as this one. “It’s really nice to get out of the lab and do some field work,” she says.

Chase-carinactd
Carina Fish collects water samples for her research on the ways climate change is altering ocean chemistry. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Outside, the CTD is back on the deck and Carina Fish collects her samples first. Fish is doctoral candidate in marine biogeochemistry at University of California Davis’s Bodega Marine Laboratory. Using a small tube from the bottom of the bottle on the rosette, she rinses out a small brown glass bottle with seawater to make sure there are no contaminants. Then, she gives it a good shake, dumps the contents, and collects her sample. When Fish finishes she calls out, “Ryan, you ready?” He is there in a flash, using same process as Fish.

Ryan Anderson is working on a master’s in marine science with an emphasis on physical and chemical oceanography at San Francisco State University. The samples he gathers will be sent to a San Francisco State University lab to determine the amount of nutrients in the water.

Once Fish fills all her bottles, she adds mercuric chloride to each one; the chemical halts growth of any biological materials in the water without interacting with the carbonate chemistry that interests her.

Yesterday, Fish and I were up on the bow looking at a massive bloom of Chrysaora, or sea nettles. I asked her about the jellies; laughing loudly, she joked that she doesn’t know anything about “the living stuff.” Fish studies aragonite saturation states, which are used to track ocean acidification, a condition caused by climate change.

There’s a constant hum from the winch overhead and the deck vibrates beneath our feet. Everyone is wearing brightly colored foul weather gear, life jackets, and hard hats. On the side deck, we’re only about 12 feet above the water with heavy machinery and the ever-present threat of rough seas — safety is key.

Chase-GraceMeredith
Grace Kumaishi and Meredith Elliott retrieve zooplankton collected in a hoop net from the side deck of the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

After the CTD is pulled in, the hoop net is carefully lowered over the side. Ship speed and the amount of cable released impact the success of this process, so there’s a great deal of coordination between the bridge, the winch operator, the deck crew, and the wet lab team. If the cable is not at the correct angle, the net will drag at a depth that doesn’t pull in the zooplankton.

Once retrieved, Point Blue Senior Scientist and Program Biologist for ACCESS Meredith Elliott and Kumaishi rinse the hoop net to direct everything captured down into a container at the bottom of the net called a cod end. The contents are dumped into a sieve and filtered. Elliott carefully rinses everything several times to make sure she gets all the biological samples.

The nets are used to measure the quantity and variety of food sources available for the wildlife being observed and counted on the flying bridge. This process will be repeated at each station on the transects completed every day.

People mill; everyone has to wait for the moment when it’s time to perform their individual part in the production. Since timing is of the essence, no one leaves until the deck ops are complete, in spite of the aroma of pulled pork and warm spices wafting from mess.

It is time for lunch, but not until the work is done.

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follower her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Read more

Climate Change and Ocean Acidification by Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Searching for Answers at Sea: 2016 West Coast Ocean Acidification Cruise by Jenny Woodman

 

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

The Uncommon Common Murre

Common Murres on Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science

 

 

Common Murres in flight, some with fish. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Common Murre are abundant here; many can be seen carrying fish on a return flight to the Farallon Islands, where hungry babies eagerly wait for their next meal. The islands — uninhabited by humans except for a small group of scientists — are nesting grounds for thirteen species of seabirds and six species of marine mammals that breed or haul out on the islands each year.

According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife service, the Farallons host the largest seabird nesting colony south of Alaska with numbers greater than 350,000 in the summer, including nesting Common Murres, Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, and Western Gulls.

Just 27 miles west of San Francisco, these rocky islands weren’t always an ideal habitat for seabirds. During the California Gold Rush, a lack of agricultural infrastructure led hungry prospectors and entrepreneurial foragers to the Farallons for eggs, which pushed the Common Murre to the brink of extinction.

Over the years, a combination of exploitation from hunting and foraging to military uses left the island in a state of disarray. Feral cats and nonnative rabbits introduced by previous inhabitants obliterated many seabirds. Oil spills and pollution also took a toll on the habitat, which was established as a national wildlife refuge in 1909 by Theodore Roosevelt. Since the late 1960s, partnerships between U.S. Fish & Wildlife, NOAA, and Point Blue Conservation Science have helped to restore and maintain the Farallons for wildlife and research.

fig1
Computer imagery shows the topography of the seafloor of Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the steep drop-off of the continental slope west of the Farallon Islands. Image Credit: USGS/Woods Hole

We’re here on the second day of an Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies, or ACCESS, cruise. It is part of a long-term effort, now in its 15th year, to monitor and understand the oceanographic conditions, prey availability, and abundance and distribution of seabirds and whales in the region.

The data collected on these cruises, which take place three to five times per year, are used to help inform decision-making and research priorities in Northern and Central California National Marine Sanctuaries. ACCESS is a partnership between NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries and Point Blue Conservation Science.

Seabirds and marine mammals are drawn to the region by a process called upwelling. In the spring, strong winds move across the surface of the ocean circulating and drawing cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean areas that lie below the edge of the Continental Shelf and Slope. This process is part of what makes these waters, according to NASA, “some of the most biologically productive in the world.”

When these nutrients reach the sunlight at the surface, the perfect environment is created for marine plant life — from phytoplankton to kelp forests. The plants, in turn, feed the wildlife.

Krill thrive in these nutrient-rich waters. “Its size is tiny, but its significance is colossal,” Mary Jane Schramm writes. “Krill – a shrimp-like crustacean – forms the basis of the marine food web for whales, seabirds, fish, squid, seals, and sharks throughout the world’s oceans.”

As we zigzag along the coast via predetermined transect lines, this productivity is evident in both the variety and quantity of life seen here.

The expert wildlife observers are armed with details to make each sighting even more exciting. When prompted, Dru Devlin, research associate for Greater Farallones Association, offers up a litany of fascinating details about the Common Murres, which nest on steep, rocky cliffs.

P1120994-e1495499040662-1024x692
Common Murres on Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Point Blue Conservation Science

The female lays one large blue egg, which she sits on for the duration without nourishment. When the egg finally hatches, she takes off to replenish her strength for whatever lies ahead and the father steps in to take care of the baby chick. (In Far from Land: The Mysterious Life of Seabirds, Michael Brooke points out that seabirds generally only produce one to two eggs per year, which he adds is smart evolutionary strategy, because otherwise the ocean would be full of birds with nothing to eat!)

Murre chicks leave the nest, before they’ve fledged, meaning they haven’t grown flight feathers. When the time comes, the father and chick leap off the steep cliff and into the water below where the little one floats for up to two months, waiting for its flight feathers to come in.

Yesterday, we heard a cacophony of bird calls throughout the day; Devlin explained that we were hearing the father birds calling out to their chicks as they returned from fishing for food. Devlin concludes her explanation by asking me to imagine what it must be like to look for your baby in the midst of rough seas and large swells and I find myself, once again, awestruck by the tenacity of seabirds.

 

 

Black-footed albatross in flight. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Pacific White-Sided Dolphins. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

In a very short period of time, I’ve seen so much. As a city kid from Philadelphia, my encounters with animals outside of zoos were limited to squirrels and pigeons, so much of these sightings are pretty big firsts for me. While everyone was busy deploying equipment on a side deck after breakfast, I ducked around a corner for a quiet moment and found myself alone with a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins, playfully lingering alongside our vessel.

Observing these creatures is a rare treat made even better when accompanied by a team of biologists and wildlife experts to explain what I see and fill me with a sense of wonder for new favorites like the uncommon Common Murres.

Spotted Wednesday, July 4:

Common Murres

Sooty Shearwaters

Sabine’s Gulls

Herring Gulls

Brown Pelicans

Cassin’s Auklets

Blue Whales

Humpback Whales

Unidentified Whales

California Sea Lions

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follower her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

This article was updated on July 5.

Read more

History of Farallon Islands by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Farallon National Wildlife Refuge by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

California Coastal Current by NASA Earth Observatory

The Farallon Islands are Off Limits to Humans – but Not Wildlife by Bonnie Tsui

Common Murre Identification by Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Tiny Krill: Giants in the Marine Food Chain by Mary Jane Schramm for NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Finding My Sea Legs and an Awkward Encounter with a Gumby Suit

Jenny Woodman in Gumby suit after an abandon ship drill. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Pelicans flying near Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco just before 11 a.m. on July 3. Anyone without immediate tasks to perform worked on finding their sea legs while we transited to our first location.

For me, this included several hours becoming one with my berth as this was the only place where I didn’t feel as if my stomach was planning on making our cabin’s head a permanent home. The bunks are incredibly comfortable with curtains for privacy and a mattress that envelops – something I genuinely appreciated when the ship really started rolling. We are zigzagging along predetermined paths from east to west, and then west to east. When traveling west, the going can get pretty rough because we’re moving against the swells.

I heard the waves slapping the side of the ship with a ferocity that made the vessel seem much smaller than she is. The seas were actually quite calm, but there were still moments when it felt as if we were perched on a cork, bobbing in a boiling caldron of water.

img_7702
Jenny Woodman in a “Gumby” suit after an abandon ship drill. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

My queasy, but cozy respite was interrupted by an abandon ship drill before lunch. This required mustering in predetermined locations with our life vests and immersion survival suits. Each of us donned our own unwieldy orange neoprene “Gumby suit,” which is designed to keep the wearer floating and dry in cold water while awaiting rescue. The NOAA officer in charge of my assigned life boat, Lieutenant Jesse Milton, was kind and didn’t laugh at my ineptitude. Nonetheless, after attempting to stand and zip the suit on the back deck of the ship, I suspect I wouldn’t fare too well if anything were to actually go wrong.

The expedition is part of a project, now in its 15th year, to better understand and monitor the marine ecosystems off the coast of Northern and Central California. The Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) cruises happen three to five times each year.

Screen Shot 2018-07-03 at 6.13.55 PM
The transect lines on the map show the locations visited multiple times each year by scientists studying how oceanography and prey distribution impacts wildlife in the region. Image Credit: ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Each cruise returns to specific locations and travels along what are called transect lines; there are a total of 21 lines in the area being studied, which stretches from Northern to Central California. Jaime Jahncke is the California Current Director for Point Blue Conservation Science, the organization collaborating with NOAA to conduct the ACCESS work. He explains that repeat visits to the same locations help scientists assess change over time, from season to season and year to year.

With the data collected on these cruises, the team is able to compare warm years like 2014-2015 to previous warm periods and see that there were fewer krill, the preferred food source for many of the wildlife feeding here, and more gelatinous zooplankton, which are less nutritious. When appropriate food sources are less abundant, observers see wildlife feeding closer to shore and subsequently, closer to shipping lanes, which increases the chances of ship strikes and entanglement.

We completed our first transect by mid-afternoon. While traveling along these lines, a group of scientists stay on the upper deck of the ship, which is called the flying bridge. Each person has a specific job.

chase-180703-6835-2
Wildlife observers on the flying bridge from right to left: Taylor Narin, Dru Devlin, and Kirsten Lindquist. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Kirsten Lindquist is the birder on this cruise and the ecosystem monitoring manager for the Greater Farallones Association (GFA). (You can read more about GFA’s efforts to support NOAA and the Sanctuaries here.)

Lindquist says, “Common murre, six, at three-two-zero, flying, zone two, with fish.” Then, Taylor Nairn, the data manager for GFA, logs the observations in a laptop.

Then, the Research Coordinator for Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Chief Scientist for this cruise Jan Roletto calls out mammal sightings, “Blow . . . unknown whale, traveling.” She is working alongside Dru Devlin, a wildlife observer with a long history conducting surveys for ACCESS and GFA’s citizen science program, Beach Watch.

The highlight for me was seeing my first Tufted Puffin, which was beautiful.

chase-180703-7223
Mola mola in Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Spotted on July 3:

Common Murres
Western Gulls
Red-necked Phalaropes
Sooty Shearwaters
Pink-Footed Shearwaters
Black-Footed Albatross
Northern Fulmar
Rhinoceros Auklets
Cassin’s Auklets
South Polar Skua
Tufted puffin
California Sea Lions
Fin Whales
Blue Whales
Humpback Whales
Unidentified Whales
Mola molas

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. She writes about ocean health, technology, and climate change; she is a 2018 lead science communication fellow for the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus. Her work can be found in Atlantic Monthly, IEEE Earthzine, and Ensia Magazine.

Read more

Pocket Guide to Beach Birds of California by Point Blue Conservation Science

52 Years of Conservation…and Still Counting by Point Blue Conservation Science

Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS)  by Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary

 

 

Categories
Arctic Change

Work Worth Doing

George Divoky in the field at a Cooper Island nest site in 1972. Image Credit: George Divoky
G. Divoky at BG-1 1972
George Divoky in the field at the first Black Guillemot nest site discovered on Cooper Island in 1972. Image Credit: George Divoky

The Cooper Island Black Guillemot study was recently mentioned in an Associated Press story by Seth Borenstein about researchers who “accidentally” began studying climate change. A number of scientists measuring a biological phenomenon have encountered unanticipated effects from climate change and understood those effects were more important, both biologically and politically, than what originally motivated them to initiate their research. The 44-year Cooper Island study has undergone a number of changes before its current focus on assessing the decadal effects of Arctic warming on seabirds.

When I first landed on Cooper Island in 1975, I had no intention of studying climate change or global warming.

Neither the globe nor the Arctic had warmed in the decades immediately preceding the start of my study. Research at the Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony started as part of a large federal program assessing Alaska’s then largely unknown marine ecosystems in anticipation of leasing offshore waters for oil development. Cooper Island was the furthest north of many seabird colonies in coastal Alaska where biologists documented the extent and basic biology of the state’s seabird resources in the late 1970s. When that program ended in 1981, due to a change of administrations and a less urgent need to move forward with offshore drilling, it had provided sufficient information for the drafting of environmental impact statements.

In 1982, lacking federal funding, and possibly more importantly logistical support, I made the decision to return to Cooper Island to continue the Black Guillemot study. I had developed a real attachment to northern Alaska with its field seasons of 24 hours of daylight and sea ice always visible just offshore. Through annual banding of breeding birds and their nestlings in the late 1970s, I had developed a population of largely known-history and known-age seabirds. I was initially drawn to the study of seabirds having read the works of British ornithologists conducting multi-year studies at a single colony and documenting the life histories of individual birds. Such work is beyond the scope and timeframe of pre-development environmental assessments and of federal agencies, with their frequently shifting agendas.

Only in the third decade of research was there an indication that increasing atmospheric temperatures were affecting the Black Guillemot colony. Earlier snowmelt in the 1990s allowed earlier initiation of breeding. Climate change impacts rapidly increased in the 21st Century as decreasing sea ice and increasing sea surface temperatures reduced the guillemots’ preferred prey and greatly reduced breeding success. The least nuanced sign of Arctic warming, polar bears stranded on the island approaching our field camp, began in 2002 and this will certainly occur again this summer.

While monitoring the effects of climate change will continue to be the focus of the work, the study is now proceeding in ways never anticipated in 1975. Since 2011, we have deployed biologgers on the bands of guillemots to measure diving behavior during breeding and location and activity of birds during the nonbreeding season. That work is being continued and analyzed as part of the Sentinels of Sea Ice (SENSEI) project, which this fall will have our collaborators from France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) hiring a post-doc to examine our demographic database.

Vicki Friesen of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario has a graduate student, Drew Sauve, examining the genetics of individual guillemots and the heritability of the metrics we have obtained on breeding biology.  Drew recently completed a master’s degree on the heritability of timing of egg laying and is beginning a doctoral program utilizing the Cooper Island colony and database. He will be joining me on the island later this month to gather additional genetic material.

As I walked around the colony this past week in this 44th year of the study, determining nest ownership and dates of egg laying, it is extremely satisfying to know the data is part of a data set spanning six generations of guillemots and can provide unparalleled insights into the biology of an Arctic seabird experiencing a rapidly changing environment.

This field report is part of an ongoing series titled Arctic Change centered around George Divoky’s 44th field season studying Black Guillemots, sea ice, and climate change on a remote Arctic island off the coast of Alaska. To donate and support Divoky’s work on Cooper Island, visit the Friends of Cooper Island.

Read more

Alaska’s North Slope Snow-Free Season is Lengthening from University of Colorado Boulder

Exit, Pursued by Bear by George Divoky

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Science at Sea

NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada is a state-of-the-art fisheries survey vessel that studies a wide range of marine life, sea birds and ocean conditions along the U.S. West Coast. Image Credit: NOAA
NOAA-Ship-Bell-M.-Shimada-underway_Photo-courtesy-NOAA
NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada is a state-of-the-art fisheries survey vessel that studies a wide range of marine life, sea birds and ocean conditions along the U.S. West Coast. Image Credit: NOAA

I’m preparing to mobilize with a team of scientists on board the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada on July 2. We’ll spend the next nine days cruising from San Francisco through three National Marine Sanctuaries — Cordell Bank, Greater Farallones, and Monterey Bay — collecting water samples and looking for seabirds and marine mammals.

cbnms-updated-map
National Marine Sanctuaries along the California Coast. Image Credit: Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

The expedition is part of a 15-year project called Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS), which aims to study linkages between weather, oceanographic conditions, and climate change within the sanctuary system. One of the main things they will observe and monitor is prey distribution in order to help identify areas where seabirds and whales might be heading for their next meal.

By locating places where foraging might overlap with human activity, sanctuary managers can help reduce the risk of harm to wildlife — ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear is a major problem scientists are working to address.

Each year, three to five ACCESS cruises are conducted; over time, the data collected on these expeditions may reveal trends, which might help shed light on how climate change impacts the ocean, and subsequently all of us. Extreme warm water events are a particularly important area for study, because the temperature fluctuations disrupt the food web and can lead to major die-offs.

ACCESS is a partnership between NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries and Point Blue, a nonprofit conservation science organization founded in 1965. Collaborations with at least 10 public and private organizations also aids in processing and analyzing samples and data collected during expeditions.

For a series we’ve titled Sea Sentries, I’ll be posting regular updates with photos, interviews, and stories to help deliver our readers out into our National Marine Sanctuaries, so check back regularly and join me at sea!

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. She has spent the last four years writing about ocean health, technology and she is a 2018 lead science communication fellow for the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus. Her work can be found in Atlantic Monthly, IEEE Earthzine, and Ensia Magazine.

Read more

Why protect 600,000 square miles that most people will never see? by Jenny Woodman

National Marine Sanctuaries

History of National Marine Sanctuaries

Categories
Arctic Change

Cooper Island’s 44th Field Season Underway

George Divoky's 2018 arrival on Cooper Island for his 44th field season. Image Credit: Craig George
6.20 gjd arrival
George Divoky’s 2018 arrival on Cooper Island for his 44th field season. Image Credit: Craig George

June 19, 2018, after several weather-related delays, Search and Rescue pilots transported George and his gear to Cooper Island. His cabin is packed floor to ceiling with supplies stored over the winter, and he arrived with 800 pounds of equipment to support his 44th season studying Arctic seabirds.

While the Arctic has experienced back-to-back record-breaking years of warming, Utqiaġvik and North Slope of Alaska encountered unusually cold weather and snowfall this spring. According to George, he hasn’t seen conditions like this since the 1970s.

archive
The most recent image of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Barrow Observatory show snow accumulation in the middle of June 2018. Image Credit: NOAA ESRL

He predicts the late snowmelt will make this season particularly difficult for his Black Guillemots, who are already struggling to adapt to an ecosystem imperiled by climate change.

The delayed breeding season means the parents will have to fly farther to reach retreating sea ice in order find food that is ideal for guillemot chicks.

The longer distance means the parents expend more energy, which is a precious commodity for seabirds. In Far from Land, Michael Brooke writes, “Natural selection will favour individuals which do not imperil their own long-term chances of survival by recklessly over-investing in any single year’s offspring.” Brooke adds that it is better to forgo a single year’s offspring in the hopes of future generations of potential chicks, because seabirds like albatross and guillemots tend to lay small clutches of eggs. The Cooper Island birds typically lay two eggs each year.

Based on previous year’s data collected via geolocators George uses to track the birds, he thinks they’ve been in Nuvuk for the last month. Also known as Point Barrow, this headland is about nine miles east of Utqiaġvik. The guillemots are waiting for the snow to melt, George says.

“Snowmelt at NOAA’s Barrow Observatory typically occurs about a week before egg laying,”  George noted on social media. “Female guillemots don’t ovulate until snowmelt allows access to the nest cavity.”

2018 Jun 19_GJD and cabin from air
George waves goodbye from Cooper Island on June 19. Image Credit: Craig George

Once George sets up camp — which is no small feat alone in freezing temperatures — he’ll be sending us regular updates via satellite, which we will be sharing here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest news and Arctic insights.

This story is part of an ongoing series titled Arctic Change centered around George Divoky’s 44th field season studying Black Guillemots, sea ice, and climate change on a remote Arctic island off the coast of Alaska. To donate and support Divoky’s work on Cooper Island, visit the Friends of Cooper Island.

Read More

NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) Global Monitoring Division, Barrow, Alaska Observatory

Looking For Signs of Global Warming, They’re All Around You by Seth Borenstein

Trying To Stay Optimistic In A Seabird Colony That Is Half Full – When It Is Really Half Empty by George Divoky

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds

Proteus Sets Sail

Life on a blue planet. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman

 

 

Left to right: Borman, Holcomb, Anders, and Lovell on the deck of the USS Yorktown. Image Credit: AP Photo/Bob Schultz.
Woodman leaving San Francisco Bay on the E/V Nautilus in 2017. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman
USNS Comfort, a 1000 bed hospital ship, on the way to provide disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, 2005. Image Credit: Henry J. Holcomb
The Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus is a 211 foot former East German “fishing boat” fully outfitted for scientific exploration. Image Credit: OET/Nautilus Live

As a kid, I sprawled out on the shag carpet in our family room reading Nancy Drew mysteries and watching Star Trek. My childish imaginings were punctuated by the steady rhythmic sound of an electric typewriter clicking and humming in the nearby study where my dad wrote at home. He is a newspaper man. Over the span of his 45 year career he covered everything from the local school board meetings to state capitals, from the Apollo 8 splashdown to the revitalization of the Naval shipyards in Philadelphia.

I spent my childhood loitering in bustling and grungy news rooms, coloring in the weekday comic strips and waiting for dad to finish this or that important thing. By the late 80s, he was on the foreign desk at the Philadelphia Inquirer where I “helped” edit a story about a young Mikhail Gorbachev leaping up a flight of stairs two at time — the blinking cursor of the Atex computer screen is forever burned in my memory.

Watching him finagle time in the locomotive car of freight trains, on Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, on US Navy aircraft carriers and on a thousand-bed hospital ship taught meaningful lessons about writing, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Storytelling takes shape when you get out there: see the drama of boring everyday life unfold in front of you; smell the smoke and diesel fuel; get dirty.

I suppose it’s not surprising that I’ve spent the last few years cornering NOAA administrators and scientists at conventions and meetings, handing out my business card and asking for passage on any ship that would take me. I researched and applied for fellowships and writing residencies.

Finally, my efforts paid off. In 2017, I joined Oceanographer Robert Ballard’s Corps of Exploration on Board the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus as a science communication fellow. We spent two weeks exploring deep underwater canyons and the edge of the continental shelf in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary with the Nautilus’s beloved robotic duo, Argus and Hercules.

The sanctuary lies off the coast of California, northwest of San Francisco. The sanctuary territory was expanded in 2015 to 1286 square miles of largely unknown deep sea habitats. During over 90 hours of diving with the robots, we found deep sea sponge and coral communities, along with a host of life — octopuses, skates, and catsharks — clinging to and lingering about the rocky substrate at the bottom of the ocean. It was a breathtaking spectacle to witness scientists and sanctuary managers discover new species and gain a deeper understanding of this precious natural area. Their excitement was joyful and contagious.

This summer, I’m heading back to out to sea. Through the Proteus platform, we’ll experiment with a combination of essays, live field reports, graphics, photos, and whatever we can get our hands on to help transport you, our readers, to remote and wonderful places in our own ocean world.

In July, I’ll return to California on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada for a seabird and marine mammal survey. The cruise is part of a collaboration between three National Marine Sanctuaries (Cordell Bank, Greater Farallones, and Monterey Bay) and Point Blue Conservation Science via the Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) cruises. It will be the 15th year of data collection and observation, helping provide a baseline for understanding sanctuary waters and the impacts of humans and climate change on these regions.

In September, I rejoin the team on board the E/V Nautilus as a lead science communication fellow. This expedition is a joint mission with NASA to explore underwater volcanoes with robots at the Lōihi Seamount. By watching how ocean explorers work remotely from the safety of their vessels in dangerous and unfamiliar environments, NASA can be better prepared for future space missions.

We’ll also be covering George Divoky’s 44th field season in the Arctic where he studies a small colony of Black Guillemots. These seabirds spend most of the year out on the ice; they come to Cooper Island every summer to breed. While George set out to study guillemots in 1975, he also ended up conducting one of the longest running studies of sea ice and climate change along the way. This Plumb Line special series is titled Arctic Change.

With this, our first season at sea and all our future projects we’ll work together to build critical science literacy and to engage the public with the ocean–our planet’s life support system.