Journals 2004/2005

Katie Roberts
Hingham Middle School, Hingham, Massachusetts

"Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance,and Status of Humpback whales (SPLASH)" NOAA Ship McArthur II June 27-July 26, 2004

Journal Index: June Intro - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 July 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10       11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18       19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25

July 8, 2004

Photo: Protected Resouces Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California. swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/

After our spectacular day in the sheltered waters of the Inside Passage, it was time again to return to the trackline. This morning, the McArthur II navigated Chatham Strait through thick fog, which clouded our view of Glacier Bay as we exited the Inside Passage via Icy Strait. After refueling the small boats in a harbor just outside the strait, we returned to our trackline on the high seas for some on-effort sightings. The slower pace of sightings today will allow the photo catalogue team, coordinated by Holly Fearnbach and Cornelia Ordekova, to play catch up in computerizing the hundreds of shots from yesterday's photography frenzy!

The catalogue team hopes to have a working catalogue to publish and share with other scientists upon the completion of leg 4 in October. This means sorting through hundreds of photographs, assigning accession numbers, and ranking each photo based on the "quality" of the photos and their appropriateness for use in matching. A major undertaking, particularly given the recent flurry of cetaceans!