Book in Review: Elephants on the Edge

Hey Team!

Okay, I am a bad, bad blogger. I know this. I knew it when I started blogging. While I like to pretend I have interesting things to say occasionally, I also like to pretend I'm really busy (but if I broke down my time usage, I think a lot of it is laziness). So I haven't blogged in a bit, even though I've wanted to talk about this book for about a month now.

So welcome to a new feature of the blog: book reviews! Sometimes you read books that change your life. I have come across a lot of these types of books, but most of them don't really make the grade of this blog.

Except this one.

Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us About Humanity is a book written by G.A. Bradshaw that takes a look into the minds and lives of elephants, and how we relate ourselves as humans to them.

That description does not do this book justice. The book looks at the history of elephants and people interactions in Africa, India and the United States. The book looks at how science has proven that elephants are sensitive, intelligent, emotional beings. The book looks at the neurological and psychological similarities ad differences between humans and elephants. The book reminds us that we have been mistreating these amazing animals for as long as they can remember (and it's true that they remember way longer than we do; it's in the book).

Elephants have always been in my top five animals list. I think my family knew it before I did. In my room, second to figurines of dolphins, I have more elephant figurines than anything else (3 wooden ones, a metal one and a white one that I am 80% sure is not ivory). And recently I have had a lot of really neat ideas swirling around my head connecting people to whales to elephants, in terms of behaviour and sociality.

So a book all about the connections between elephants and humans? I was intrigued, and after the introduction I was hooked. I read at every opportunity for 2 days and I wish I wasn't such a fast reader because I wanted to continue reading it.

I don't know how to do a book review, but I don't think it's about going chapter by chapter and explaining the book. However some highlights of the book seem right to me.

**

Back in 2000, there were reports of young bull (male) elephants attacking rhinos across South Africa. These attacks were fatal, sexual and above all, perplexing. The book tries to explain not only the reasons behind the attacks, but what we can learn about human violence and potential solutions by looking at these attacks. The book also tries to make us understand why we find the attacks to be so disturbing, even though normally interspecies (between species) violence is not something new (welcome to the predator-prey relationship).

What the book explains is that unlike humans, elephants are able to be intelligent, emotional, social animals without resorting to violence. They live in structured herds and there are never fights for dominance within herds or between them. They are a peaceful species, both to other elephants and other animals (self-defense aside). Which is why elephants attacking rhinos blew the minds of scientists and public alike. A normal reviewer might tell you what they discovered, but really, read the book.

**

Humans have not treated elephants well in a really long time. In Africa they put it back to European colonization. In the United States they put it back to the first circus elephant. In India... harder to put a date on it. But it's been a while since we've shown elephants the respect we should. Which is interesting, because study after study show that they think and feel emotional and psychological stress just as humans do. So the circus trainers who chain and isolate their elephants, the hunters who bring down a cow (female) and live-capture the calf (baby), the Mahout who beats their elephants into submission, all create victims of abuse and trauma that show the exact same symptoms that humans do. Time and time again in the book, they show examples of elephants with PTSD, depression and suicidal tendencies. Sound familiar?

And it's not subjective. Neurological tests on humans and elephants show that their brains are behaving in exactly the same way after these major life-altering traumas.

So while we as people speak out about genocides of people, call isolating children abuse and combat domestic violence against women, we turn away from the exact same abuse and genocide in a species that reacts in the exact same way. And when humans rebel against their abuse, they are freedom fighters (and more power to them). When elephants rebel (and trust me, they are smart enough to understand revenge and vengeance), we kill them and call them terrors.

I don't really see the fairness, do you? For more examples and information, read the book.

**

I think I could go on for days, and ask any of my coworkers, I did. This book made me wonder about how we treat animals in general, how many other species might be at our level (or higher) in intelligence and emotion, but we can so simply turn away. Now of course, I just finished eating chicken for lunch, so I don't know how much I have changed, but thinking about it is the first step, right?

And as a marine biologist, I easily moved Bradshaw's arguments toward my own loves, whales and dolphins. Clearly cetaceans are brilliant and feeling animals with complex social systems, but just as clearly we are able to turn a blind eye to their inappropriate use and killings. Or we see it, feel sad for a day, but then move on.

There are more movements for the freedom of people against abuse (killing included) than animals. Which I understand, we are a selfish species. And I am NOT saying these are bad. I'm just saying it's unfair, because why shouldn't animals with equal-human (I hate the term near-human. When was the last time whales started Ocean War I?) intelligence get equal human rights? The right to food, habitat, and safety? How hard are those, really?

I don't know if I did this book justice. The elephants in it are exceptional stories, as are the people who have devoted their lives to saving them. The science is sound and the scientists she cites are at the top of the field of elephant biology. There were times where I was reading stories or more often than not statistics, where I had to put the book down and walk away, because of the overwhelming sadness that came from reading it. But I could only stay away for about 2 minutes before the book pulled me back into itself. It's an addicting read.

I recommend it to every biologist, if only just to make us think about the way we ourselves use animals in the name of science. Do we have the right? And of course, I recommend it to every human soul, to make us rethink the way we treat each other, but above all, how we treat animals. Because isn't one of the early warning signs someone might be a serial killer is animal abuse?

Think about it. Read the book.

Speak Loud.

Buy the book from Amazon
Or from Chapters

Because I am not kidding.

Back from Camp!

Hey Team!

Wow... it's been a really long time. I can't believe I didn't blog for the entire month of August! Cetus has been going through some tough times. We get the majority of our funding from the federal government, and we were supposed to hear about approval back in March. Well we are in to September and we still haven't heard anything. So from mid-July onward we have been off the water. My supervisors have been trying to keep us all busy, but until very recently it's just been a lot of filler work.

It worked out that in the meantime, I got to go up North, off Vancouver Island to work with the Robson Bight Marine Ecological Reserve Warden Program. Whoo, that's a mouthful!

So The Robson Bight Ecological Reserve is a bit of water that is closed to all boat traffic, except for commercial fishing ships during fishery openings. So the job of the warden program is to watch the waters of the Reserve and make sure that no boats go in. Especially with whales around. And with straitwatch off the water, they've also been doing a bit of vessel monitoring, but they don't take any data on that.

Anyways, I got to go up for two weeks and be an intern for the wardens. The base camp really is that... a camp. We sleep in personal tents, cook off of camp stoves and spend our evenings around the fire. There is no electricity except to recharge small electronics, no running water and no roads. The only way to get to boat bay is to well... take a boat!

Can you say remote?

There were two parts to the job: the cliff and the boat. After a tiring 45-50 minute hike through a temperate rain forest you get to the top of a very high cliff directly across from the Bight. Once there, you take a boat count every 15 minutes, detailing how many of each kind of boat you see, where they are (in terms of determined zones) and how fast they are going (stopped, fast, slow). Also every 15 minutes you are doing an orca scan. These include how many, where they are and if you can, which ones they are. We pretty much left the orca scans to our boss, FM. On top of the scans, every time a boat crosses in front of the cliff you have to record it: time, type and direction.

If that didn't seem like enough work, local ecokayaking tours will also hike up the cliff (from a different direction) for an interpretive talk, where we tell them all about the Bight, the whales and Cetus. These are a lot of fun because the people on the tours are generally really enviro-friendly and curious. And they usually buy a hat or CD (thank you for the support!).

On the boat, the main thing is to keep boats out of the reserve. We hang around camp until we get "the call", then we get to the boat and on the water. I always felt like a firefighter on boat days. Always half ready, not getting into anything that I couldn't put down at the drop of a hat. Once on the water we zoom off to the (usually ignorant) perpetrator and kindly inform them that they are in a no-boat zone. Occasionally we'd have the chance for further interpretation and tell them more about the reserve and the whales.

We'd also go out if there were whales, though the priority was if there were both boats and whales in the areas around the Bight. From an exceptionally safe distance we would keep an eye on whales, only really moving to keep them in sight or if a boat was approaching.

In the weeks I was there whales occasionally took the day off, so some of my boat days were short and sporadic on the water. But it felt so good being back on the boat and seeing killer whales again. It's amazing how much you can miss bouncing around on the waves.

One of the funniest moments on the water was when we were swarmed by Pacific white-sided dolphins. We were chasing down a boat and then off a sudden we had between 6-10 dolphins riding our wake (the waves made by the motor) and our bow (the rushing water going by the front of the boat). Most people think this is awesome, because the dolphins come so close you could touch them. Us? We were annoyed because they were in our way and we were way too close to marine mammals! We spent a good 5 minutes telling them to go away!

That being said, it was cool being close to dolphins again, I haven't been since Florida. And how many people can say they were splashed by a wild Pacific white-sided dolphin? I can!

All in all, it was an amazing two weeks. The other people I worked with were a lot of fun and we were able to have great in dept discussions about everything environmental, political and human-related with ease, acceptance and open-mindedness. Thank you Cetus for running such an amazing program and for letting me be a part of it!

Speak Loud!

Killer Factoids

Hey Everyone!

So I realize now that while most people will know what a killer whale is, how many know what they are all about? Well, I think a new "feature" in this blog will be a quick fact sheet on the feature species of an internship. Starting with my second favourite cetacean species, the orca, aka the killer whale.

So. Twenty-five facts on the killer whale.

**


1. Killer whales aren't technically whales at all. They are the largest dolphin species in the world.

2. "Orca" means "demon of the underworld". So whether you call them orcas or killer whales, it doesn't really matter. They're pretty hardcore no matter what you call them.

3. An orca's life span is normally between forty and fifty years old. That being said, there is a whale in B.C. that they think is over 100 years old.

4. Killer whales are found around the world. The North Pacific, the North Atlantic, the Antarctic Ocean, and a couple seas as well.

5. Every population has sub divided into two or three "ecotypes" - fish eaters and mammal eaters. They can also be differentiated by colour patterns, eye patch size, foraging/ family behaviours and acoustics.

6. These ecotypes never interact with each other. They avoid each other physically and don't breed with each other.

7. Off the coast of British Columbia there are three ecotypes: The residents (fish eaters), transients (marine mammal eaters) and offshore (fish/shark eaters).

8. The resident orcas feed primarily on chinook salmon. A study that looked at the stomach contents of residents found that over 90% of their diet was chinook. 

9. Transients feed on more of a variety, but only marine mammals. Dolphins, porpoises, sea lions, seals, small(-er) whales. They will not each fish. The Vancouver aquarium's first rescued whale didn't eat for almost a month because they kept trying to feed it fish. They say once you taste red blood you never go back. They're like vampires.

10. We don't know a lot about offshore, but they have found that their teeth are so worn down that we believe they are eating sharks and the skin is grinding down the teeth.

11. Residents live in large pods, between 20-50 individuals. They have matriarchal society, which means each pod has a primary female matriarch. Her offspring stay with her their entire lives, unless a daughter has enough offspring of her own to start their own pods

12. Residents hunt primarily through echolocation, because fish are pretty stupid. They work as a team to take out as many fish at a time as possible.

13. Transients live in much smaller pods, a maximum of 10 individuals. Their society is a lot more fluid, but they also tend to stick close to family.

14. Transients are hunting much smarter animals, and animals that can hear echolocation. So they have to be super sleuth about hunting. They are pretty quiet, working either alone or with only a couple others to bring down their prey.

15. Killer whales share their food. Not just mother/offspring, but any individuals around after a kill will get a piece. And this is transients and residents. There are videos of these massive animals gracefully tearing off small pieces of salmon in order for everyone to have a taste.

16. Chinook salmon are the largest species of salmon on the west coast, which means that not only do killer whales like to eat them, so do humans. This has but a lot of pressure on the killer whales.

17. In the 60s/70s, People decided that killer whales were a pest and a hindrance to the commercial fishing, so the government implemented intense killer whale whaling. A machine gun was set up for the sole purpose of killing orcas. Fortunately, it was never fired.

18. But during the time of whaling and these decisions, the populations took a massive dive. Now, there are about 200 transients, just under 200 Northern residents and only 87 Southern resident killer whales.

19. We don't know yet if the Southern population will ever recover, because they are facing three massive issues: Lack of food, boating traffic and pollution and contaminants.

20. As skillful a hunter as killer whales are (and trust me, they have mad skills), they can't compete with humans. And when they share each kill, and each kill becomes harder and harder to make, the whales really are slowly starting to starve off. British Columbia has some of the most sustainable fisheries in the country, but it might still not be enough. Add on top all the sport and recreational fishers, who are also looking to catch a big ol' chinook, and we have a problem. (If you are buying salmon, ask first if it is wild harvest vs. farmed, and try to avoid B.C. chinook salmon).

21. Orcas are big and can go pretty fast, but boats are faster. If someone is just speeding through a pod of orcas, they might be able to move out of the way fast enough, and those propellers are sharp. Plenty of whales found and assumed dead have been from prop accidents, because usually in nature vs. machine, machine wins. (Go slow in areas known to have killer whales in them)

22. The residents rely on echolocation to find their scarce food source, and boats are extra loud in the water. The sound of motors cover their communications, making it harder, if not impossible, for a pod to hunt. And they are hungry (Don't get close to whales with your motor running. If you find yourself close to whales, shut down to keep quiet).

23. Having to come up for air is hard! Having lots of obstacles in your way makes it even harder! Any kind of water vessel makes it more stressful for killer whales to travel, hunt and breathe, and they can't afford to lose energy stressing out. (Don't get close to whales, and stay out of their path of movement).

24. Southern resident orcas are the most toxic animals in the world. They have accumulated massive amount of toxins in their bodies from pollutants and chemicals found in our waste. Chemicals used as fire retardants, pesticides, herbicides, you name it. (Know what goes into your products!)

25. Entanglements in fishing gear and deaths cause by physical pollution is nothing new to killer whales. Scientists have found tons of garbage in the stomachs of beached whales. (Reduce, reuse and recycle! Replace plastic in your life as much as possible).

Depressed? Don't be! These are amazing creatures and people have dedicated their lives to learn as much as we can about them and through education, learn what we can do to save them!

Speak Loud!

Watching Whale Watchers

Happy One Year Anniversary everyone!!

Yes, one year ago today, I thought it would be a good idea to share my experiences and knowledge of marine biology with the world. As far as blogs so, it's not going to win any awards, but I think it's come in handy from time to time.

So to celebrate the occasion, I figured I would talk about the biggest part of what I came out to Victoria to do: watch killer whales!

There are three major problems facing killer whales off the B.C. coast: lack of food, pollutants and toxins in the water and boat traffic and disruption. The DFO is doing it's best to balance salmon for people and for whales, and we can all do our part by being aware of the chemicals in our products (like PCPs, DBTs, etc.) and by limiting our waste (excess packaging is the enemy!). But one thing that is hard to deal with is boat traffic.

That's where the straitwatch program comes in.

Killer whales are amazing animals. They are huge, intelligent, majestic animals and seeing them really does make your heart sing. We don't want to take that away from people, so we aren't there to harass people on whale watching tours, because people who 'interact' with animals are more likely to want to help them (see my post on zoos and aquariums here).

But having a lot of boats around the whales is a problem, for three big reasons: motors are loud and disrupt their echolocation and communication, boat propellers do an excellent job of cutting up and potentially killing animals when they collide, and boats are obstacles for travelling and breathing. Imagine you are swimming in a pool, and you need to come up for air. If there are people, noodles, toys or boards all around, finding a place to come up for a breath is more difficult, and it puts physical stress on your body. That's what happens to whales when there are ten, twenty, forty boats around. And these guys aren't eating enough to have any more stress put on them.

So the Canadian government has put guidelines in place for safe whale watching. You can't go closer than 100m, you stay out of their path of movement, front and behind, and you have to slow down within 400m of the whales, to limit motor noise and to avoid accidentally hitting one. Failure to follow these guidelines can be considered marine mammal harassment and that is illegal.

Fairly simple, yes? We think so, but they only work if people know them.

So we go out every day in the summer and are on the water basically to educate. We take half-hourly vessel counts around a focal group of whales, as well as perform incidents scans, where we watch for anyone being non-compliant with the guidelines. In between all this data collection, we're talking to private boaters and making sure they know the rules. Ignorance is the environments biggest enemy.

Most of the people we talk to seem to be unaware of the guidelines, although we take every answer with a grain of salt. Some are really interested in the whales and we'll tell them some of the biology surrounding them (I think I'll do a Killer Whale Facts blog soon...) again, to get them interested in the animals and hopefully in their conservation. Some people aren't so friendly though, and really do see the whales as a pest rather than something to protect. We can't change everyone, but we can do our best.

Beyond killer whales, we see some other really cool animals. Harbour seals, harbour porpoises, and the coolest so far, a minke whale! The waters of British Colombia are full of amazing animals, and it's so important for us to try to make a difference.

One of my favourite stories is one of a young boy walking on a beach, filled with starfish that had been washed up on the shore. Hundreds and hundreds of starfish out dying in the hot sun. In the distance, the young boy sees an old man slowly bending down, picking up a single starfish and throwing it back into the sea. The boy watches the man do it again and again, slowly and surely. The young boy walks up to the old man and says "Sir, there are hundreds and hundreds of starfish on the beach. You are going so slowly, you will never be able to save them all." The old man smiled to the boy and said, "You are right, I can't save them all. But I have saved this one, and that will have to  be enough."

Maybe the positive impact straitwatch is making may seem like a small one, but any sized step towards environmental reconstruction is a step in the right direction, and one I am more than happy to make 4 days a week. Even in the rain. And wind. And waves.

Speak Loud!

PS. Have a piece of cake to celebrate this blogs anniversary! I promise I won't tell!

The Politics of Science

Hey Team!

First I am sorry that once again, this blog is being very sporadic. I know that the makings of a good blog is consistency, but if you haven't learned this by now with this blog, my life in anything but consistent! And as this is all about things I learn as I learn them, there are times that I am not learning much.

Second, this is going to be a very Canada-centred blog post, but if you reading this from another country (hello from Canada!), I hope that it can somehow be relevant to you as well. If not, you might just be lucky (or possibly extra unlucky).

**

Canada seems to be going through a very interesting bout of politics at the moment. Almost as interesting to us as the US politics, which is a big deal. We had a lot of fun about a year ago, when we had to have a re-election and the same party that held a minority government got voted in again, but with a majority government.

Which to most people would make you think that Canada wanted them in power, yes? I mean, we a democratic country and we vote in the people we want in government. Personally, I think we have it pretty sweet, considering the alternatives.

But of course, not everyone is happy with our current government. And I don't expect them to be. Democracies function out of a collective of ideas, not singular ideologies.

I'm rambling again, let's re-focus this post...

The Conservative Party, the current Canadian government, has a certain way of running the country. It has kept us out of deep economic turmoil and has some pretty strong opinions on our foreign front. But where it is sorely lacking is in its support of scientific (mostly biological and environmental) research and funding.

The collective "we" of the science community have had some serious issues with government policies over the last few months. Budget cuts have meant cutting entire labs that are looking into some really important labs, prominent scientists are now job hunting and practices that we know are detrimental to the environment (see oil, fishing) are still going with no signs of slowing down.

And, like I've said in the past (over and over again), there is no money anywhere. But sometimes it's difficult to watch government money go to other programs when we are struggling to make ends meet.

Now, I'm not a politician. I don't understand politics. I am the last person to get on a soapbox and say I can do it better than the people in Parliament. And I know that there is so much more to running a country than being concerned about the environment (which is why I never vote for the Green Party). And I also don't believe that either of the other two major parties in Canada would actually do a better job if they were in power. It's really easy to promise the voters change when you have no control over anything (like how I think it should be really easy to change over all electricity to solar power).

Scientists are passionate people. If we weren't, we'd be pretty bad at our jobs. Which means that most scientists have really strong opinions on how the country is run, and we tend to focus on things most important to us, like the environment, the animals and of course, the financial support to do the research that we believe will save the world (which I do actually believe we are doing).

But when you have more than one interest in political parties, it can get difficult. I don't agree with a lot of the choices the Conservatives are making environmentally. I don't think letting go of DFO researchers, shutting down labs and opening new fisheries are smart ideas. I would love for them to stop funnelling money into the Alberta oil companies and start financing solar power research (can you tell I'm super into solar power?).

But, I like that I can still find some kind of job when I really need one. I like that this government seems to be doing its best stand strong against international madness and is actually speaking out against racism here in our own backyard. I like that they aren't trying to create and fund more social programs that we can't afford, because I really don't want to pay more taxes on everything I buy.

So sometimes I feel really stuck. I love the fact that people are passionate about the politics of the country, because we should demand the best of our government. But how do you balance their passionate displeasure with your more neutral approach? Sometimes it's hard to smile and nod and agree with their vehement dislike of the government, because while I agree with the issue at hand, I have a lot more than just environmental interest in our government.

I'm not sure if there is a lesson here, or if this was just a ramble. I definitely believe that you should question whoever is in power, and if they do something you don't like, you should say something. We have the privilege of living in a country that lets us do that. And we won't be able to make the most forceful impact on our environment without governmental support, and I really wish we had more from our current government. But at the same time, we have to remember that there is a lot that goes into running a country, more than just what is good for the environment.

Leave an opinion, I am really curious to hear what people think. Please feel free to agree or disagree, just be nice about it!

Speak Loud!

Talkin' on the Docks

This is probably one of my most uncreative titles, because I'm going to talk about Dock Talks.

Cetus and their straitwatch program is all about making sure people are respecting the whale watching guidelines the government has for killer whales and other awesome cetaceans. So while we do go out and actually try to stop people from doing bad things (more on that in a future blog post), what we are really about it prevention.

I think conservationists and maybe surgeons are some of the few people that would love to have no reason to exist. If there was no reason for conservationists to work, they'd be so happy, because it would mean that no animals were in any danger. That would be awesome!

So part of what we do is go canvassing around marinas, and stop and chat with local boat owners and see how much they know about the guidelines, and educate them on what the guidelines are if they don't know. We try to get them to take a brochure with all the rules and such on it, but it's more important that we talk to them, give them the information and sometimes we get to hear some really interesting stories. One of my favourites so far includes was a man who was given an honourary guardian status from a native american tribe for cleaning the beaches on their island. That was really neat to hear.

For this part of the job, introverts need not apply. You have to be pretty comfortable to walk up to total strangers who think you are going to sell them something and tell them about safe whale watching. It can't sound like you are accusing them, and you have to know how to smile and nod when they say ridiculous things (it happens). If you are shy and too scared to approach people, then you'll never talk to people. I, myself, is in no way an introvert, but even I was a little awkward when I had to do it on my own.

And it can get really monotonous. The marina that I have gone to for all my dock talks so far (the only one I know how to find) isn't huge, but you have to stick about for a couple hours to get as many people as possible. And the weather hasn't been top notch (can you believe I'm missing the weather back home?), so the water hasn't been drawing a big crowd. So I do a complete walk of the marina, talk to a couple people... and it's only been half an hour. I think the last dock talk I did I walked the entire marina at least 4 times in the 3 hours I was there. It wasn't so bad when I had a partner, but alone it can be a little lonely, and a smidge boring.

But I started this entire blog screaming that nothing about being a Marine Biologist is glamourous. This is just another example.

I think I'll learn where another marina is and go there next time. Switch it up and meet some new people.

Speak Loud!

With an Outreached Arm...

No, that's not the right quote, but I am allowed to paraphrase, it's my blog.

So I am out in Victoria, BC! It's beautiful out here, so much so that I wish I never lived anywhere else, but logistically it would be tough to stay here. But I think I'll have to start planning yearly pilgrimages to Vancouver Island just to get my fix of the landscape.

One of the first things I did for Cetus was help out with an outreach effort. We went to Maple Bay during their boat festival.

Instead of telling you all about it... I'm going to (once again) direct you to the Cetus website, where I have already put my blogging skills to use in writing out it for them!

So click here to see what I had to say about the Boat Festival!

Speak Loud!

PS. The last two photos were of my own taking. More pictures to follow (including ones of killer whales!)

Good News!

Hi Everyone!!

Wow, it's been a while! Sorry, but April was pretty boring. Finished up on inventory (I looked at over 7200 samples. Oy.) and I just finished helping out on some data conversion (I might post about that in the future). But in terms of Marine Biology, it's been a quiet month.

Until Now!


I have been accepted as an intern with the Cetus Research Society for this summer! It's out in Victoria, BC, Canada and I am so excited to (finally) get out to the West Coast and live like a hippie (kidding). The internship will get me out on the boat but also talking to people about killer whales and the impacts of boating. I'm really excited to get experience in both aspects.

So keep your eyes peeled starting in a couple weeks for updates on my adventure!

Speak Loud!

It's a Mans World... Or Is It?

Hi Everyone!

 This might seem a little out of place, but my grandmother sent this video to me because it reminded her of me, and not to seem conceited or anything, it reminded me of myself as well.

 Science has always been a mans world. It seems like only within the last generation or so am I reading women names in my journal articles. It's no surprise that the farther up you go in the chain of research, at the end of it all you are more likely to find a man than a woman.

 But it's changing, and I am one of the many trying to change it.

 When I was finishing grade 6 and figuring out where to go for middle school and potentially high school, my dad was pretty adamant about placing me in an all girls school because, he believed, there would be a better chance of me getting a strong education in math and science, because he understood then (and I definitely didn't) that math and science is a mans world.

 But my love of theatre, my ambition for challenge and my preference for public school won out in the end, and I don't think my education suffered. I lucked out with amazing math and science teachers that certainly but no emphasis on gender in the classroom, and I won't deny that the female population in all my classes kick butt. But looking back, I understand and appreciate my dad's worries. Especially because he thought I was going to be a doctor (just kidding... I think).

 I grew up in a house of feminists. Go get a copy of Cat in the Hat right now. Read through it. Notice how Suzy doesn't say a single word of her own? Her brother talks for her the entire time. This is not the story my sister and I grew up with. It wasn't until we were reading on our own did we realize this, because my dad had an extraordinary habit of giving lines to Suzy. That's the house I grew up in.

 So ladies, it's time to break barriers. Yes, our grandmothers did their share, so did our mothers. But there are still walls to take down, and we don't need to call a man in to do it. I am young and naive and I know it, but I do think I'll be able to have a hectic, life-sucking job and still be able to raise a family the way I want to.

 Anyways, this video. Basically saying all the same things I was brought up to believe, but by a woman who has done it. I enjoyed it so much, and I hope you do too. For any men reading this blog, I think you can also enjoy it, and think about what she says on what true equality is in a relationship.

 Speak Loud!

Just Do It

I know I sound like a Nike commercial, but it's relevant, I promise.

I can't say it enough times, because it's something that  I don't think everyone believes when you tell them: science is NOT glamourous!

This is not CSI, or House, or Big Bang Theory, or another TV show that shows you how cool it is to be a scientist. This is hard work, no pay and nothing to show for it beyond your CV.

And I do it 'cuz I love it.

What brings this warning on? My current task at work is dull with no challenge. I am doing inventory of seal teeth, animal tissue and teeth slides. I go through every sample, note which teeth are missing, and put it all in a spreadsheet.

I've done just over 850 teeth samples (which feels like 1900, because the left and right are separate), and believe me, there are moments when I ask myself "I need a degree for this?"

Welcome to internships. Welcome to science.

90% of successful students, professors and researchers you will meet have had a period like this. Compared to this, photo-ID was fun! But it looks good on a CV, future supervisors and employers will see this and go "she can do the crap work, and do it right." Plus, the more you say yes to your current boss, the better the reference is for the next job.

This goes for unpaid internships. We would all love to get paid for what we love to do, but like the struggling artist in Soho, we need to suffer for our work.

Anyone who isn't a biologist (aka most of my friends) cannot comprehend the idea of an unpaid intership. When I tell them about past/ future plans, the second question they ask (first being "where is it?") is "is it paid?"

My darling friends. If I was getting paid to be a marine biologist, I can assure you: It would be the first words out of my mouth!

An interesting story. I was chilling with some people, talking about my plans for unpaid internships, and a friend goes "I love my work, it's interesting and I can't imagine doing anything else. But if they didn't pay me... I don't think I would do it."

Totally fair. Most people would choose a career that actually pays them. I get that.

But with that attitude, biology with chew you up and spit you out and tell you to be something easy. Like a doctor.*

In my field, particularly marine mammal behaviour, you need to be ready to give up time, energy, money, sleep, food, and most importantly, sanity, to get what you want. Ifs and Maybes need not apply.

So my pupils, I again offer you the opportunity to check yourself. Are you willing to do anything, give anything, to be a marine biologist? If not, I suggest getting into birds. Everyone wants to give money to ornithologists. Just be ready to wake up really early.

Complaining about my job and something to think about... yupp, successful blog.

Speak Loud!

*before I get some scalpels launched at my head, I AM KIDDING! Becoming/being a doctor is not easy, I promise I understand it's a challenge. Please don't poison me and make it look like an accident.

Lab Rats Aren't Just for Study...

It's been really swell being back at the DFO. I've learned a lot and I've been having fun and it's been great working with old and new friends.

So I'm going to share my lab work with all of you!

Part One: Beluga

I was helping TM with her beluga project. She's looking at whether belugas from different communities are being stressed out or not. So she had me taking little bits of blubber from larger samples of blubber to freeze dry, crush up and analyze. Pretty simple stuff: cut off a bit of blubber, weigh it, but it in a vial and stick it in the freezer. Repeat. It's fatty, greasy work put pretty fun.

Part Two: Bowhead


MC is doing some totally awesome project connecting all the major whale species in the arctic food web, but his primarily looking at killer whales. He took bowhead baleen and drilled into it at 2 cm intervals. He collected the drillings, and then I help weigh out 1 mg samples of each drilling.

This one was tricky. 1 mg is a really small amount, so I was working under a magnifying glass most of the time. And there wasn't a lot of ways to label a really small amount of baleen drilling, so if any mistake made in mixing up samples, you had to start over again.

Part Three: Seals


This has been a lot of fun! I've been taking the lower jaws of arctic seals (ringed, bearded and harbour) and boiling them. It might have put me off watching my grandmother make chicken soup.

Once the jaws are nice and boiled, I take them out, remove all the skin, tissue and occasionally the tongue (those are the best ones!). Then I get out the pliers and pull some teeth!

Who needs to take the DCAT when you can pull seal teeth without a dentistry degree?

The teeth are sent to a lab that takes thin shavings, stick them on a slide and then count the calcium rings to figure out their age.

It's been really gross, totally stinky and completely awesome. My back is aching, my hands are killing me and I've almost impaled my fingers on a canine more than one time. But it's been stimulating work and not monotonous at all.

So that's what I've been up to so far. There might be more, or I might be out of here again! Who knows what the future has in store...

Speak Loud!

It's Been a While...

Hey Guys!!

Sorry it's been SUCH a long time since I last undated this thing. While working in Puerto Rico I broke my laptop (there were serious tears) so I didn't have all my excellent resources to help me write this!

But now I have it back, I'm back home on the range (AKA The Prairies) and I am in a new position at an old job that I can't wait to tell you all about!

So no, I'm not dead and yes, I am still writing. If by magic my computer still has some notes I took I might have one or two more posts about Puerto Rico, but I am excited to share my work back at the DFO!

Speak Loud!

Meet My Friend, Theo

While we all sit around finagling (I can't believe that it's a real word, but it is) with a silly program (more on it later in this post), I figured I'd write my next blog post. Another educational one, on a piece of equipment lovingly called a theodolite.

Never heard of it before? Neither had I until I started applying for internships in marine mammology. Seemingly it was originally used for surveying on land, but someone thought "why can't I track dolphins using it?"

Well... you can, I guess; but it's really really hard.

Too late, it's the thing to do now. Le sigh.

First. Climb up to the top of a high cliff. Make sure you have a clear sight to the water, no trees or tall buildings in the way.

So now you have this theodolite

Hello, Theodolite

It's sitting nice and neat in the box, but you want to use it. Take its stand

Hello, Stand

Set it up. Make sure it's level. Otherwise steps after this will be harder. Use little bubble levels to make sure it's level.

Using two hands, place the theodolite on the stand. Screw it in. So far, so good.

Now... level the theodolite. There are three levels on the theodolite.

You use the little discs to mirco-move the theodolite up and down until the theodolite (for now on being called 'theo') is completely level no matter which way you spin it. Note: there are two dials on the theo. One lets it spin on the horizontal plane, the other let's the eyepiece spin on the vertical plane.

Okay, turn it on. Spin the eyepiece around until the theo recognizes it (beep!). Then you need to set the horizontal 0 mark. You can use any reference point, but then you have to remember your reference point for the day and it'll change every time. So why not just use North? That way, you can use the same reference every single time! Genius! I wish I had come up with it.

Press the "0 set" button and you're ready to go.

Find something to track. Boat, jetski, surfer, dolphin, whale, whatever. Line them up above or below the white arrows which are set up like a sight of a gun (I had to be told that). Then look through the eyepiece and you'll see a cross hair (now I feel like a stalker/ sniper). The goal is to line up that crosshair at the exact same place on your subject every time.

Now the theo is part binocular, so you can see things in the water from so far away. So as your subject is moving, you can fine tune the eyepiece to follow it as it moves through the water.

It's hard. Like, really hard. Like, ridiculously really hard.

While watching your subject, when it does something of interest, you record the behaviour and the 'location' that is on the theodolite. Then you can use that 'location' to figure out a true location later on (which will come in another post).

That's all there is to a theodolite. In essence, it's an easy piece of equipment to work. In reality, it's a pain that takes years and years of experience to expert. But it's effective and less expensive than tagging whales.

Speak Loud!

Look at What You're Listening To

Phew! I moment to breathe! And therefore, a moment to blog.

It's been a non-stop whirlwind for the past 11 days. The station is set up, we are trying to find people with boats willing to take us out to look for whales, and in the background, a couple interns are busily trying to find whales in the midst of hundreds of thousands of sound clips.

Yupp, I said hundreds of thousands.

So young padawans, I am going to (try to) explain to you the intricacies of acoustic analysis.

Hydrophones are underwater microphones attached to recorders that are suspended in the ocean by buoys. They record noise at intervals for a specific amount of time, then are brought back to the surface. The recorded clips are downloaded onto a computer, and then analyzed by people with absolutely no time on their hands (which is why they ply interns with free accommodations and a tropical setting).

The clips, in some kind of sound file format, can be analyzed in a variety of ways. One way would be to simply listen to them. All of them. Now can anyone tell me the problem with this?

Let's do a math question: a hydrophone records for a 20 second interval every five minutes for 5-8 months. What would be the length of sound you would have to listen in order to analyze every file created?

I don't even want to do the math. Bonus points for whoever does (and comments below).

So obviously that is a bigger waste of everyone's time than watching grass grow or paint dry. Plus everyone's range of hearing is different, so who knows what one person might miss?

The solution to this is to look at the sound files and find whales.

Wait... what? What dimension are you living in? Seeing sound files?


Calm down! Let me explain...

Spectrograms are a type of image that let's you see sounds over their frequency range over an amout of time. It's a graph, x by y, but each point is so minute and there are so many that it becomes an image. An image of an empty underwater spectrogram might look like this...

Sample found here

If it looks like a lot of mess, that's because it is. The ocean makes tons of noise, and that's all it is: noise.

BUT

When something biological makes sound, it shows up crisp and clear against all the background noise. Here is an example of a humpback whale spectrogram.

Can you see the whale? Can you?

Look at the empty spectrogram. Now at the whale one. Now back at the empty one. The empty one is not the whale one, but with patience and time, it could be.

So using programs like Ishamel, RavenPro, or SASlab, you can create these spectrograms and look for whales, fish, dolphins, whatever you need. Even things like rain, thunder, boats and jet skis show up distinctly on spectrograms. And once you know what your looking for, it's pretty easy and fast to get through the ones that don't have anything on them.

For us, once we find whale or fish or anthropogenic noise on a clip, we mark it in a spreadsheet so our supervisor can do what she needs to do.

That's it. Some people's eyes start to get really tired after a couple hours, but for some reason I can do about 8 hours worth of files without my eyes going buggy. I suppose that to be a good thing because I want to study acoustics for the rest of my life (or at least my next degree).

A really funny side effect: You start being able to look at the shape of the marks on the spectrograms and be able to make the sounds of the animal. So based solely on the whale shaped marks, I am learning to sing whale. But I will ever be as good as Dory.

That's it! It's essentially what I've been doing since I got here, other than general cleanup and maintenance of the station (AKA house).

One last thing... I love that my family and friends are reading and following this blog, believe me, the support is amazing and occasionally brings me to tears (kidding... sort of). BUT if anyone out in cyberspace is reading this and doesn't actually know who I am, I would love to hear from you in the comment section! The point is to inspire and educate, and I don't know if any of my friends or family are secretly aspiring marine biologists. That's it, just giving everyone a shout out.

Speak Loud!

On a Scale of Yellow to Purple...

So I just seem to keep getting more and more South! As I've said to friends and family back home, I am not looking forward to Northern weather after spending 5 months in the tropics (add the three months of summer at home before that, and I have spent 8 months in shorts and tshirt weather)!

For those of you know don't know, I am now sitting in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico at the Marine and Coastal Ecology Research Centre, where I am going to be analyzing humpback whale acoustics for approximately 3 weeks. Tres exciting, no? Oui! Okay, enough French.

More details on the actual science once I do some more of it, and when I have a better idea of what we're doing. This post is more to turn on the alarm for another one of my little wake-up calls to aspiring Marine Biologists; and that is the whole point of this blog anyways (that, and so I can stop trying to explain what I do to my parents).

This post, my dear friends (and random readers... I know you're there, leave a comment!), is too discuss my present living and working arrangements. Which is a far, far cry from my situation back in Sarasota.

Disclaimer: This is NOT me complaining at all. This is an experience that I am more than excited to have and I think it'll make me a better scientist in the future. This is simply comparing one research site to another, and a way to look at the variation of arrangements you have to be prepared for in this field. 

Okay, so...

In Florida, I lived in an apartment that was about a 15 minute bike ride from the lab. Yes, I had to share it with 3 other girls and yes, I did have to share my room. It had a living room, a kitchen 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a little porch.

In Puerto Rico, 8 of us are in a 3 bedroom house. 2 of the rooms have bunk beds, where 4 people sleep, the master bedroom is for our supervisor and her significant other, and 2 of us (including yours truly) are sleeping in what could be considered the living room area on a couple of cots. Our kitchen does not have a stove, so we cook everything either on the propane BBQ, in the toaster oven (we've baked bread in it, guys) or in the microwave. You can't put anything in the toilet or it will clog the septic tank. This includes toilet paper. Used toilet paper goes into a little waste basket that gets cleaned out every night. There is no hot water anywhere. Kitchen sink, bathroom sink, washing machine, shower: all cold water. The internet is pretty weak, especially with 8 people on it at the same time. So no skyping, and no online TV shows or movies. And the house is also the "lab", where we all sit on our computers and do the analysis, and where all the field gear is stored.

In Florida, the lab was in the corner of the Marine Mammal Research Centre. It had half a dozen offices, an AV room, a storage room or two, a little kitchenette and a conference room.

In Puerto Rico, we sit outside at a dining room table with our laptops and do everything off of programs we've installed or downloaded. Our gear is stored in the front porch (which has to be kept locked at all times), or anywhere else we can find room for it.

In Florida, we had pretty set office hours. Sure, when we were in the field you had no idea what time you'd be home for dinner, but on lab days we came in at a certain time and for the most part left at a certain time.

In Puerto Rico, we are supposed to start work at a certain time (and we're pretty sure we'll be able to do it), and we're supposed to only work to a certain hour, but seeing as we're all around in the evenings anyways, it's easy to try to wrangle some work out of us at night as well, even if it's just easy work.

In Florida, we were assisting in a study that had been in progress for over 40 years. The science behind it was near perfect, the methods near flawless, and our supervisors knew the in's and out's of all the programs we used for our photo-ID and any other analysis done.

In Puerto Rico, this study is less than 5 years old, and the acoustic analysis is a brand new addition. So our supervisor is learning right along with us, and we are being little guinea pigs for programs and analysis methods.

There are probably a million other differences between the studies, but those are some of the biggest. We all cook and clean communally, something we didn't really do in Florida, and the team is a lot more diverse than back at Mote. These are the realities of the job. You're not always going to be working in a well situated institute. Sometimes you are going to be working somewhere without running water or something like that. So consider all the differences I've posted. If you don't think you can handle it, I might suggest reevaluating the specifics of your career choice.

The title for this post was meant that even though it is a comparison along a scale, one is not necessarily better than the other (like a scale of 1 to 10, or white to black, etc.). Both types of field/living sites are exciting and offer pros and cons, just like yellow and purple. Plus I like both those colours :)

On a completely other note, those who know me more personally know that I spent about 11 days travelling around Puerto Rico before settling into the internship. For those who don't know me personally, you know that now. I survived it, I met some amazing people, and learned a bit about travelling around Caribbean islands. This is not the forum to talk about my travels, but I'm sure if I talk to you soon, you'll hear all about it!

Speak Loud!