Happy late Memorial Day! So on Monday we were free until one, that’s when we went on our daily nature cruise. It’s mostly geared for tourists who are seeking adventure and are looking to view the Porcupine Islands up close. You can’t actually step foot on the three of the four Porcupine Islands as a result of ocean bird nesting. Anyway, the cruise hugs the coast of Mt. Desert Island for a while then we go off to Egg Rock, then to Irounbound Island, then we swing through the Porcupine Islands. Egg Rock is popular because that’s where hundreds of seals haul out on the daily. Our job is to count and record how many seals we see, which species they are and how many pups are out there. Lately we’ve also been seeing two juvenile bald eagles out there. Ironbound is home of the peregrine falcon. They nest on the cliffs and they don’t actually build a nest. Their eggs are designed to roll around in a circle so they won’ fall off the side of the cliff. Peregrines are one of the fastest birds in the world and they can dive up to two hundred miles per hour. After Ironbound we go to Sheep Porcupine Island, which hosts a nest of two adult bald eagles. Their nests can be up to eight feet deep and thirteen feet wide.
Later in the evening we attended a Whale SENSE meeting. Whale SENSE is an organization geared towards educating people about what to do in case of a whale sighting. They have a specific procedure to follow that will reduce the risks of injuring a whale via boat or propeller. They also talked about how they’re going to start using the cruises this summer to collect more field data. There are also lobster cruises in addition to the nature cruise. Essentially Lindsay and I are the guinea pigs of their new program.
-Bre
I’m just going to elaborate a little more on Bre’s second paragraph. During this seminar, I sort of realized the degree of importance that our work can potentially have in the Bar Harbor bay area. Bre said that we’re the “guinea pigs” of this new program that they’re initiating, which is spinning off of this other program called Citizen Science, an organization that gathers ordinary citizens not necessarily educated in any field of science to volunteer their time and resources to partner with professional scientists and contribute to their projects. That was a definitely a run-on sentence but whatever. Basically our mentor wants to gather high school students and other citizens of the Acadia National Park area to come on these nature cruises and gather field data, which mainly consists of taking seal counts (adults and pups), sea birds, raptors, other wildlife, and documenting their location and behavior. We also note the tide times, ocean state, visibility, wind speed and direction, etc. to note any correlations. While the data is likely to stay constant for weeks or even months at a time, the data collected could provide a ton of insight on the state of marine life in the area. Bre and I have gotten to know the nature cruise photographer pretty well, and he mentioned that ten years ago, it would be quite lucky to see even eight seals on their trip. Now we have been counting over 200 on a single island about the size of Mt. Desert Rock. No one knows why, but if there ever happens to be a drastic change in population in the future, the collected data may be able to give some vital clues.
Also, I just wanted to note that during the SENSE meeting, which I found exceptionally interesting, how passionate these people were about the well-being of the whales, which I really appreciated. One woman shared a story about how she knew another whale watching crew who went out off the coast of Mexico once, and while trying to maneuver away from the highly endangered Right Whale, the whale changed course and they accidentally hit and killed it. I heard a few gasps and I looked around to see nearly everyone bowing or shaking their head. It really made me realize the importance of safety and protection of the whales when coming in contact with these species, and many whale watching companies often neglect safety procedures for the sake of time and money, which is extremely disappointing.
-Lindsay
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| This post was pretty boring so here's a picture of two seal pups that one of program members, Rosie (the stranding coordinator), got a call to look at. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it that time, but the pictures were still really fun to look at! |
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