Tag: Ocean

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Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Exploring an Ocean Wilderness

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A rare Nazca Booby sighting brought joy to the team of wildlife observers on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Precious moments are abundant at sea, but, like most things, there are challenges. Gorgeous sunsets and getting close to wild creatures most people will never witness also comes with long hours, bouts of seasickness, and being away from loved ones.

California Group Director for Point Blue Conservation Science Jaime Jahncke went on his first science expedition in 1994; it was a cruise to assess anchovy stocks off the coast of Peru where he grew up. “Being at sea is fantastic. You can see things that no one else can see like a breaching whale or a rare bird,” said Jahncke. “But if you are sick it is pretty awful because there’s nothing you can do to escape the thing that’s making you sick.”

We’re off the north-central coast of California on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada for a marine mammal and seabird survey. A team of scientists has spent the last week logging wildlife sightings and collecting water and biological samples as part of a long-term effort to monitor National Marine Sanctuary ecosystems.

A humpback whale with the North Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Brown Pelican off the coast of north-central California. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue
Three Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, spotted near the Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

On the last day of this cruise, members of the wildlife observation team spoke a little bit about this work and why they think protected places like our National Marine Sanctuaries are important. The following is written in their own words, which have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Jan Roletto

She is chief scientist and research coordinator for Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary; Roletto has been going out to sea regularly since the late 90s.

I miss my husband, dog, and cats, but I live near where I work so you’re never really that far from home. That is one of benefits of place-based monitoring; with species-based monitoring, you have to go to where the animals are.

My job is really diverse. I like being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together for an unknown question. As research coordinator, my job is to find researchers who are doing work relevant to the sanctuary – people like Carina Fish who are studying the impact of ocean acidification on deep sea corals.

Long-term monitoring data isn’t exciting – it’s doesn’t get the “oohs and aahs” but it is really important. You can’t identify what’s really special or different without long-term monitoring data. For example, we can do rapid damage assessments because we have this data. Long-term monitoring is like a savings account. You put the data aside – you put a little away and when the need arises you have it. We wouldn’t be able to talk about climate change, about long-term change, if we didn’t have that long-term monitoring data.

It’s satisfying to have all this data when there’s an event like an oil spill incident – a leaky vessel or an accident – and be well prepared to respond. We’ve used ACCESS and Sanctuary data so it’s satisfying to be able to say, “This is what it looked like before; this is what it looks like now; and, this is what it will take to make to restore it to that previous state.”

Sanctuaries are important because U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service protects populations; sanctuaries protect habitats. You can’t have good populations of whatever is out there without homes – can’t have one without the other. We take care of the grocery store and the apartment building and fisheries takes care of the things that live there.

Kirsten Lindquist

Lindquist is the ecosystem monitoring manager for the Greater Farallones Association (GFA); she’s the birder for this cruise and has been going out to sea for 18 years.

I think the long days with no breaks (in terms of working 10 or 30 days straight) are hard. You get some intermittent weather breaks, but nothing you can plan for. You do get tired.

I love being in the ocean wilderness and the extreme environment — seeing all the different faces of it. On shore, people go to national parks and they can be there and experience them in a way that people don’t have the chance with oceans 40-plus miles off shore. I think if people did, they would understand why [National Marine Sanctuaries] are so special and why they should be protected.

Dru Devlin

Devlin is a research associate for Greater Farallones Association and wildlife observer on this cruise; she has been working on programs at sea like ACCESS since 2005.

The break in the normal routine is challenging. I love to come out here and then it’s great to get back home, but when I’m home, I can’t wait to be back out here.

It’s physically hard standing in weather and sun for the long hours – the change in diet and exercise too, but I love it. I miss my family, but I think it’s important for my son to see his mom do something that’s important to her and something that is important to others.

I like being part of a team and part of something that contributes to the knowledge base. Being out on the ocean is a touchstone of who I am – it inspires me to keep doing this work. It’s gratifying over the years to see what we’ve contributed to the knowledge base and how much more there remains to do.

Marine sanctuaries protect valuable resources like the biodiversity of life we see here – from the rich basis of life, the phytoplanktonic stuff all the way up to the largest mammals on Earth. If we don’t study it, we won’t know what we have – hopefully others see the value in that.

Taylor Nairn

She is the data manager for Greater Farallones Association and the data logger in this expedition; this is Nairn’s fourth year at sea.

Every cruise is different. The weather is pretty hard, but you can get through it and that feels good. The lack of privacy is hard too – after a while I need to turn inward, but it’s also good to be forced to get out of it.

I love the sense of adventure and independence. The sea is one of the last wildernesses and getting to experience that is really magical. Wild spaces have intrinsic value. True wild spaces and ecosystems are valuable in and of themselves.

Science Team ACCESS Cruise July 2018
ACCESS Cruise Science Team, July 2018. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Winged Ambassadors by Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

 

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Being On Station

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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.

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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
Exploring Ocean Worlds

Critical Science Literacy

Oregon Coast Image Credit: Jenny Woodman
Experts believe climate change is a science communication emergency. Mounting evidence suggests that action now may be our only hope. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman

The public struggles with science literacy.

A traditional view of science literacy focuses on information and facts — on textbook knowledge, but critical science literacy emphasizes awareness of how science is practiced, from the collaborative nature of research and how science is funded to the ways we evaluate what we know to be true at any given moment.

A science literate public is less concerned with scientific concepts rotely-memorized; rather, they are armed with enough understanding to think critically about the world around them and to participate in a democratic society. They are skeptical of sensational science headlines and carefully consider the sources of the information they consume. And, most importantly, they possess agency and autonomy, which strengthens our commitment to provide tools for decision-making without manipulation or covert persuasion.

Informed citizens make better decisions.

However, an ever-changing media landscape creates significant barriers between the public and the scientific understanding necessary to inspire meaningful action on climate change.

While climate change makes headlines daily, there are fewer (and fewer) journalists assigned to science and environmental beats. This combined with the deluge of data and information widely available on the internet makes critical science literacy fundamental in an age where science and technology pervade almost all aspects of our lives.

Evidence of sea level rise, hypoxic zones, and ocean acidification are just a few of the indicators that suggest the ocean is inextricably linked with climate change. Factoring in other human-caused stressors like plastic and pollution adds an even greater sense of urgency to the task of communicating about how oceanic changes impact our future and the future of many other species.

Experts believe climate change is a science communication emergency. Mounting evidence suggests that action now may be our only hope.

The ocean poses additional challenges for engagement. Over 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water, but most of the ocean is out of sight and out of mind for the students, activists, and change-makers who might help mitigate threats to our vital ocean ecosystems.

Because of this disconnect between awareness and the scope of threats to our oceans, vast expanses of our planet remain unexplored and unknown. In the deep, cold waters, there are mountains that would tower over the Himalayas and bioluminescent sea creatures who use tools. There are species that coordinate with other species to hunt and survive in the harshest of environments. Currently, at least half of the anticancer drugs on the market come from marine resources, so ancient sea sponges and cold-water corals we’re discovering now may unlock medical breakthroughs the likes of which we can only imagine.

How do you build literacy and engage with something so distant, with a place that seems out of our reach? We’re working to build emotional investment in ocean issues with multimedia storytelling and informal science education.

Science is a human endeavor and we are storytellers constantly searching for the connective tissue to make an audience keep reading, keep looking, and — most importantly — keep thinking.

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest; she is a 2018 lead science communication fellow for the Exploration Vessel Nautilus. Follow her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Read more

Goodwin, J. (2018). Effective Because Ethical: Speech Act Theory as a Frameworks for Scientists’ Communication. In Ed. Priest, S., Goodwin, Jean, & Dahlstrom, Michael F. (2018). Ethics and practice in science communication. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press.

Gottfried, J. and Funk, C. (2017). Most Americans get their science news from general outlets, but many doubt their accuracy. Pew Research Center Fact Tank.

Priest, S. (2013). Critical Science Literacy. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society,33(5-6), 138-145.

Priest, S. (2018).  Communicating Climate Change and Other Evidence-Based Controversies: Challenges to Ethics in Practice. In Ed. Priest, S., Goodwin, Jean, & Dahlstrom, Michael F. (2018). Ethics and practice in science communication. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press.

Schubel, J. (2016). Positioning ocean exploration in a chaotic sea of changing media. Paper presented at 2016 Ocean Exploration Forum: “Beyond the Ships.” New York: Rockefeller University.

Woodman, J. (2016). NOAA’s Chief Scientists Charts Course Toward a New Blue Economy. IEEE Earthzine.

Categories
Exploring Ocean Worlds

Proteus Sets Sail

Life on a blue planet. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman

 

 

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
Left to right: Borman, Holcomb, Anders, and Lovell on the deck of the USS Yorktown. Image Credit: AP Photo/Bob Schultz.
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.

 

 

Categories
Arctic Change

Take the A-Train to the Arctic

This Aqua satellite was launched in 2004; it collects about 89 Gigabytes of data per day about elements of the Earth’s water cycle -- including water in liquid, solid, and vapor form. Image Credit: NASA’s Earth Observing System
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This Aqua satellite was launched in 2004; it collects about 89 Gigabytes of data per day about elements of the Earth’s water cycle — including water in liquid, solid, and vapor form. Image Credit: NASA’s Earth Observing System

In the Arctic, much depends on ice. Pack ice. Drift ice. Old ice. New ice. For some wildlife, ice provides safe haven from predators and for others, it offers access to prey. For humans, many of whom are living in isolated coastal communities with no roads in or out, ice is everything.

Sailors and explorers have kept sporadic records about ice conditions dating back thousands of years, but only since 1979, with the launch of Earth observing satellites, have streams of near-constant information about Arctic sea ice been available. Using images and observations captured daily, scientists are able to measure ice thickness, area of coverage, and seasonal fluctuations in the advance and retreat of ice coverage.

Real-time sea ice images and data are vital for the safety of researchers like George Divoky and for people in Arctic communities who depend on ice for subsistence hunting and fishing. Anthony Fischbach is a wildlife biologist for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in the Alaska Science Center Walrus Research Program, where he has worked since 1994. Fishbach delivers a daily “Ice Mail” to just over 100 people interested in up-to-date information on Arctic sea ice. Subscribers include Divoky, scientists in Russia, and remote Inuit communities who may not have easy access to internet connections capable of retrieving large amounts of data.

“The main niche I’m trying to fill is a way to get meaningful sea ice imagery and charts in the palm of your hand or on the deck of a ship where you’ve got really minimal bandwidth,” said Fischbach. “If you’re in a remote community that has 2G cell phone connection or if you’re on an Iridium-linked vessel, the existing ways of accessing the data just don’t meet the need.”

He described his own experiences of working in Arctic coastal communities or being on board a retrofitted crabber, “We just struggled to get the data through the existing methods and we couldn’t get all the data we wanted.”

Today, Fischbach relies heavily on two satellites we’ll be following closely this summer — Aqua and Terra. Both are part of NASA’s Afternoon Constellation or A-Train, which is a convoy of satellites operated by NASA and international partners. The satellites travel together, completing a polar orbit twice a day; because of the Earth’s rotation, a polar orbit means that the satellites will observe the entirety of the planet’s surface every one to two days.

The A-Train crosses the equator at about 1:30 a.m and 1:30 p.m.; the Terra satellite passes the equator in the early morning, Aqua in the afternoon. This timing and repetition allows scientists to generate cloud-free images and to study how temperatures over land and water change from day to day.

By flying satellites loaded with a host of Earth-observing instruments in a formation, scientists are able to gather a great deal of meaningful data. According to NASA, flying in concert “allows for synergy between the missions—synergy means that more information about the condition of the Earth is obtained from the combined observations than would be possible from the sum of the observations taken independently.”

While each satellite is tasked with different mission objectives, the data from individual instruments can be combined to paint a more vivid and informative picture of the Earth’s climate and atmospheric systems.

This visualization shows the orbits of NASA-related near-Earth science missions that are considered operational as of March 2017. Video Credit: Greg Shirah for NASA Visualization Studio

A key instrument on board Aqua and Terra is a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, or MODIS for short, which is capable of of observing across 36 spectral bands or wavelengths at different resolutions (250, 500, and 1000 meters). (A complete technical profile of this instrument and the data it provides can be found here.)

MODIS is an integral instrument for studying the ocean, because it aids in the creation of ocean color maps. Ocean color reveals much about phytoplankton productivity, which, according to NASA, forms the basis of the ocean’s food chain and plays a big part in carbon storage and movement. MODIS also allows for detailed maps of sea surface temperatures, which are known to influence weather patterns. Since MODIS is able to study water in liquid, solid or gas form, the instrument aids measurement of snow and sea ice and how much solar energy is being absorbed or reflected back to space.

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This ice map for May 24, 2018, generated by United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Alaska, combines MODIS images from Aqua and Terra with National Ice Center data. Image Credit: Anthony Fischbach for USGS

Fischbach explains that the images in his daily emails (seen above) are processed with false color so you can distinguish the white of the clouds with the white of the sea ice; sea ice is aqua-colored and the clouds appear white. The images show detail down to 250 meter resolution, meaning you can clearly see objects that are 250 meters or 820 feet wide.

To people living and working in the the Arctic, these sea ice data could be comparable to monitoring hazards on roadways in the lower 48, because the ice and water provide access for both transportation and food.

The ice is moving constantly, which creates precarious decision-making choices in remote regions without the right information. With several days of ice data in hand, people in the field  like Fishbach and Divoky can make better choices.

“I’d really like to know as much as I can about how the ice is moving. Is there more ice coming this way? Is it going to be congesting? Is it going to be opening up?” he asks. “You know, do I launch boat out in to the ice —  the shifting seascape — where I could get pinned in and trapped and not make it home?”

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

Arctic Sea Ice By NASA Earth Observatory

50 Years of Earth Observation by European Space Agency

Monitoring Sea Ice by NASA Earth Observatory