Me getting in position to photo ID a whale shark

October 25, 2011

Journal entry 5

WHAT'S UP? AND WHAT DID YOU DETERMINE IN TERMS OF YOUR THESIS? WHY?
WHAT WAS THE MAIN MOTIVATION(S) DRIVING YOUR DECISION?
*aerial monitoring project

A few weeks ago I met with Dr. David Rowat (MCSS Chairman) and Laura Jeffreys who is out here with the Marine Conservation Society Seychelles for the next 4 years doing her PhD on human impact of animal's behavior (namely whale sharks and turtles I think???). David said there were two "projects" I could chose from and focus on that for the next 6ish weeks I'd be out here.

1. MCSS is trying to learn what "normal" whale shark behavior is i.e. what whale sharks do when people aren't looking. David collected the initial data using a microlight aircraft to get aerial data. The pilot speaks into a dictaphone for 5 minutes and says exactly what the whale shark is doing during those 5 minutes. Then he wants to get aerial monitoring of how whale shark responds to boats (15 m away, 10 m away, 5 m away, etc), how they respond to people (15 m away, 10 m away, 5 m away, etc), and how they respond to certain numbers of people in the water. He'll compare that to the null record of just "normal" whale shark behavior swimming around. On top of that David is getting "daily diaries" which is a type of satellite tag that allows the computer to reconstruct every move the shark made (depth, temperature, and a lot of other stuff I'm not too sure on) within a 24 hour period. He'll compare the data on the daily diaries of specific shark movement with people or boats in the water.


2. Looking at the tourist perspective of whale shark ecotourism in the Seychelles, via surveys that have been filled since 2008 (?). I would look at surveys and pay particular attention to people who were dissatisfied with the encounter and people who said they didn't get their money's worth and look back and see if those were days that thee weren't any whale sharks spotted during the encounters. And again run different numbers through the SOCPROG computer program and see if there is any statistical significance to them. This would be important to do because the tourist component of ecotourism is essential and if there is something the MCSS whale shark program needs to change or improve, it would be good to figure it out soon.

So after the initial meeting and emailing my faculty advisors, I decided to go ahead with the aerial monitoring idea. Since I've been out here, I've realized whale shark research is where my interest is, not whale shark ecotourism. I didn't realize the distinction before. MCSS does a good job balancing the two, but it was explained to me that project 1 (aerial monitoring) focused more on whale sharks and project 2 (questionnaires) focuses more on people/ tourists. I got really good input from my faculty advisors who prompted me to consider long-term academic/ professional goals and do what I find more interesting. Also to look ahead 10 years and try to picture myself working with the animal part of the tourist part of ecotourism. And also with either focus I will still be learning something about eoctourism. Something else I like about this project is that it is so long term and something that hasn't been properly looked at or studied in depth yet

With only the 6 weeks I had there wasn't a lot I could do with the actual experiments since those are a few years down the road, so I'm helping out with the transcribing recordings, formatting them in Excel, and doing my best to analyze some of it. I've been looking at the 130ish dictaphone recordings that MCSS already has from 2005 and 2006 and figuring out the best way of converting whale shark behavioral analyses into actual numbers to play around with. (by "whale shark behavior" I mean if the whale shark is swimming or diving or turning or banking or feeding, etc). Right now the dictaphone encounters have been transcribed on excel spread sheets and the numbers they use are based on "time"-- so how many seconds the whale shark behaves that certain way. For now I haven't thought of better way to convert whale shark behavior into a numeral value. The I have to keep reminding myself is that the end goal for me is to make the behavior data analyze-able. Once we figure that out, MCSS can start analyzing the data with the SOCPROG computer program (or by other means not discussed yet) and get some initial stats of "normal" whale shark behavior. I've added certain whale shark behavior like banking and ascending that wasn't included before when another intern transcribed the 2005 and 2006 data, but everything else I've kept consistent and and matching her format.

October 12, 2011

Journal entry 4


Last Saturday (October 8th) it was raining like crazy in the morning, which is something I've started getting used to by now. But it meant I was expecting a slow day. The morning was fairly typical in that we processed all the data from our whale shark encounters the day before. Then in the afternoon... WE GOT TO TAG BABY LEMON SHARKS! There is a conservation volunteer group called Global Vision International (GVI) that has a base camp on the south of Mahe (the island I'm on). MCSS and GVI have a functional relationship; as a matter of fact, three of the MCSS interns completed a phase with GIV previously. So someone from GVI sent word to MCSS that there were 5 baby lemon sharks in the mangroves by the GVI camp. One of our MCSS staff is trained to tag sharks, so all of us whale shark interns were able to go attend and participate in the process. The first order of shark tagging business was to spot and catch them. We had two advantages 1. The GVI volunteers knew where the sharks were and 2. It was low tide. We tromped through the mangroves and spread out a net starting at the mangrove and extending it to the open ocean, then slowly brought the net closer together.
I was on the pivot end of the net so I didn't move; I just stood there in the water with the fishing net. We were so lucky in that, one after one, the baby lemon sharks just started swimming straight into the net! Two of them got tangled in the net and had to be maneuvered out. We were able to catch three of the five sharks spotted. They were put in coolers and brought to the beach to be tagged. The shark was flipped upside down so it went into a state of tonic immobility and therefore not aware of the rest of the tagging process. Then an incision was made, an acoustic tag was placed inside, and then the shark was sutured, all while still being upside down.
The spaghetti tags were too big for little sharks, so that is why the acoustic tags were used. There are acoustic receivers set up along certain bays and coastlines of Mahe, so when tagged sharks, rays, or other fish pass by, the receiver picks up on the acoustic tag. This helps MCSS and other scientists understand where these animals travel, if they come in certain bays, and if they ever return once they leave the area. Only two of the lemon sharks were tagged because the third shark seemed too stressed but all three sharks were successfully returned to the water as soon as we were finished with them. These little baby sharks were incredible! All of them were only about a foot and a half long. Later we found out these were sharptooth lemon sharks which are considered more vulnerable than other lemon sharks. It was an overall great day.

Yesterday we went back to try and tag the other baby lemon sharks, but after a lot of waiting, wading, baiting, and rain, we had to call it a day. Also, since the tide was coming in during our attempt, the current was flowing the wrong way to entice the sharks to the net and the deeper water just seemed to make everything much more difficult. However, one of the bait fish did have a perfect little bite mark taken from it that could have very well been from a sneaky lemon shark hiding in the mangrove.

Today since there were still no whale sharks seen in the area we went to go retrieve the acoustical receivers (Vemco VR2Ws) at the mouth of Baie Ternay. We had a GPS location for each receiver and they were placed shallow enough to snorkel to. We were only able to find one of the three acoustical receivers this afternoon because the visibility was awful. The receiver was replaced with another one and the data from the retrieved receiver will be downloaded here at MCSS. So even though we haven't been able to be on as many whale shark encounters as hoped, it's still always busy at MCSS and there are plenty of projects to get involved with.

Journal entry 3


Last week an environmentally responsible conservation tourism group called Aqua-Firma joined MCSS for our whale shark encounters for the week. On the evening of Sunday October 2nd, Dr. David Rowat gave a lecture at the Sun Resort to the Aqua-Firma clients about MCSS and whale shark conservation in the Seychelles. Afterwards the interns and pilots got to mingle with the Aqua-Firma clients over Sun Coco pizza. Towards the end of the week, the weather finally permitted us to take the Aqua-Firma clients out on a whale shark encounter. The cloud conditions created a perfect window of time for our trip, and what an incredible trip it was! We were able to snorkel with three different sharks over a series of seven encounters. Two of the whale sharks were estimated at about 5 meters while the other shark was around 7 meters. When the photo ID shots were run through the I3S database that identifies individuals, two were returning whale sharks (last seen in 2003 and 2009) and one shark was brand new to the area. That encounter trip was one of our best this season, and both Aqua-Firma and MCSS were privileged to enjoy snorkeling with these amazing animals.

What also made this Aqua-Firma encounter trip one of my personal favorites was that I spotted a manta ray in the water during the whale shark encounter-- or at least that's the story I'm sticking to. I was in the water with some of our Aqua-Firma clients "spotting" the whale shark (meaning I was with the shark directing the clients and boat with my arm which direction the whale shark was moving). All of the clients were behind me so it was basically just the whale shark and I in the area. I struggled to keep up with the shark's steady swimming with my hand in the air, but the whale shark found a thick patch of plankton. I quickly lost sight of the shark because the visibility was so bad. While my head was still in the plankton-rich water I started to make out the shape of a strange white eerie thing. It honestly just looked like a weird crumpled white thing. I could just barely see the shape because the water was so murky with the plankton, but I suddenly realized it was the cephalic lobes of a manta ray! It must have been there feeding on the plankton too, but as soon as I realized what it was, the shape has disappeared. Soon afterwards I was joined by the Aqua-Firma clients and I excitedly told everyone I just saw a manta. So far this season I have been lucky enough to see two manta rays from the boat, but not until that moment had I been able to realize I had been swimming with a manta too. That whale encounter trip ended up being our most successful for the clients and the most fulfilling for me because I had the opportunity to swim with whale sharks and see a manta ray in the water!