December 2, 2005
Not much to report. Unfortunately we are fogged in. Who knew fog was 100 miles from shore? You can barely see off the boat, so we cannot work. It has been like this since yesterday. We are holding out for winds to blow it off, but those might be coming with a storm front, which means we could not work anyway. Bummer. I am just crossing my fingers that we do not run out of time to do the Channel Islands on the last few days, because that should be the most happening spot. Tuesday was a pretty good day. We had a sperm whale sighting. It did not get that close to the boat, but I got a great view through the big-eye binoculars of it's huge dorsal hump. We also had a Black-footed Albatross follow us for 
awhile, as well as the largest mola mola (ocean sunfish) I have ever seen, about 6 feet. It was so nice outside that for dinner we had a huge barbeque on the aft deck including king crab legs and steak.
We still are encountering huge schools of common dolphins. It is funny, at first they seem to run from the boat, and then it 
as if they all get the message that not only are we safe, but that it is incredibly fun to surf the bow. All the sudden they start racing towards the boat in all directions, making counting them incredibly difficult. The mom and calf pairs are so fun to watch, I love that she brings them to surf, and they leap out of the water in unison. We can not biopsy them anymore, we are already at our permitted amout of takes.
The ship is mounted with a hydrophone on the bow, so the acoustic lab records and listens to the dolphins. Listening to the dolphins through the headphones is awesome, you hear squeaks, squeals, and clicks.
Love, Shannon
Shannon says...
"Listening to the dolphins through the headphones is awesome, you hear squeaks, squeals, and clicks." |
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The David Starr Jordan
Click here to learn more about the boat Shannon calls home for the next three weeks.
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