Month: October 2022

Antarctic limbo: SEPT 25th

Parker Forman

Do you ever have those dreams where you’re juuussssst about to do something incredible, but then suddenly wake up? That’s sort of what every day of the last month has been like while waiting to hear if our research team is, in fact, deploying to Antarctica. In truth, we still don’t really know if the ice will be stable enough to safely live and work on, but for now we are at least half-way to our dream field-season studying emperor penguins at Cape Crozier in Antarctica.

The waiting period has kept us on the edge of our seats with numerous moving parts that could cancel our plans. A big priority, and one that we could at least do something about from home, was to avoid contracting Covid-19. Our team has been in a self-imposed quarantine for the last month (thank goodness for furry companions and HBO!) to make sure that the lingering global pandemic would not stand in our way again. In 2020, New Zealand closed its doors to outsiders in hopes of waiting out the covid storm, and our research along with many other Antarctic projects was put on hold. A year later our plans were postponed yet again due to the long backlog of isolated researchers eager to leave their desks and get back to work in Antarctica. This year, we had priority but still feared delay due to positive covid tests.

Perhaps the most torturous part of the self-imposed quarantine, was waiting for our GO/NO GO date two weeks before departure to New Zealand (the Antarctic deployment hub) and not knowing whether all our efforts where futile. While you might think the penguin team would be getting better at waiting to return to our huddle at Cape Crozier, this could not be farther from the truth. Several days past the GO/NO GO date, we had heard nothing about our fates, but had acquired some promising images of the sea ice around Cape Crozier. Sadly, some of our colleagues working in McMurdo Sound had already been canceled due to unstable ice conditions, but with the satellite images, we began to feel hopeful that the ice at Cape Crozier was in good shape. Our team leader, Gitte McDonald, explained that all the “muddy” looking ice was a great indication that our penguin friends had initiated their breeding season in April, and had likely been happily pooping away and staining the ice ever since. Poopy ice, means stable ice. Eventually, we received communication that a helicopter wasn’t available to confirm our hypothesis, but that we should at least plan to proceed to New Zealand.

The next hurdle was that we were scheduled to leave the following week but hadn’t received any flight tickets. With so many people returning to the ice and the busiest season yet, the logistics support teams had been working overtime to coordinate flights and we hadn’t risen to the top of the list yet. Three days before our team had already packed bags and repacked them many times (okay let’s be honest, I think I was the only one packing multiple times), my computer in the adjacent room audibly blinged letting me know an email was waiting. Could it finally be the email we’d been waiting for since 2020? Were we going to Antarctica?

While the past 233 email messages I received elicited a drop-everything-and-run to the computer response, including my favorite mug and my iPad (R.I.P.), this time was different. I told myself it could not be the Antarctic program, not at this time of night and not after not hearing anything since early this last summer. I gently placed the valuable items I had in my hands down and slowly made my way to the computer where my inbox read:“Scheduled flight to Christchurch New Zealand tomorrow October 8th” – US Antarctic Program (USAP).”

My jaw dropped – we were leaving in 24 hours! I felt absolutely elated but tempered with a healthy dose of panic as I repacked my bag for the last time and condensed all my pre-departure chores into half the time I’d anticipated. But finally, we are that much closer to going to Antarctica!

The next day our team met at a central location in Santa Cruz to wait for our Uber shuttle to the San Francisco (SFO) airport. As our bags aggregated on the curb, our Uber to the airport canceled last-minute and we executed our backup plan. Our new hero, Jenny (a longtime friend of Gitte and an experienced Antarctic researcher), crammed all of us and our gear into her 2008 Tundra and rushed us over Highway 17 to SFO. With tickets and passports in hand and carry-on bags full of our science tools (dataloggers, power cords, multiple computers…oh my…) we boarded our plane to Auckland, New Zealand. After a bumpy 13-hour flight across the Pacific we landed in Auckland and made our way through customs. Maybe not everyone finds customs to be fun, but I love it, especially when they tear apart my meticulously packed bag to find all the science treasures inside. This time customs left all my gear as it was.

As we exited customs we heard: “Birgitte McDonald, Caitlin Kroeger, and Parker Forman……last call for flight A567 to Christchurch the Gate will be closing in 17 minutes”.

With the speed of penguins being chased by a pod of killer whales, some luck, one lost water bottle in transit, a whole lot of perspiration, and running (literally, running) on fumes, the penguin team made our connecting flight to Christchurch with one minute to spare. Now in Christchurch, a city located on the southern tip of New Zealand’s larger island and the hub for many traveling to Antarctica, we are patiently waiting for our flight to Antarctica.

After many years waiting the penguin team is almost there!

Swim on,

Penguin team

Emperor penguin 2022 Field Season Introduction

Parker Forman

Hidden Lives of Emperor Penguins

Despite being the first emperor penguin colony discovered in 1902 during Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) little is known about the at-sea behavior of emperor penguins from Cape Crozier. The first scientific expedition to study them was in 1911, when a small group from Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition team made the perilous journey to the colony in the winter to collect eggs. Since this early study, most research at the Crozier colony has involved counting the birds to monitor the population. In the Fall of 2019, we headed to Cape Crozier to study the foraging ecology of one of the southernmost emperor penguin colonies, and after two years of delays due to the Covid pandemic, we are excited to be returning to Cape Crozier this year to complete the study. We hope that you will follow along on our adventure as we prepare for the fieldwork, travel to Antarctica to study the birds, and analyze the data. We look forward to sharing with you new discoveries about the ecology of the emperors of the ice.

Background
Emperor penguins, the largest species of marine birds, are an abundant year-round predator in the Antarctic ecosystem. Like other predators, they are vulnerable to environmental change that impacts ecosystem productivity: these changes permeate through the food web and modify foraging behavior, and ultimately survival and reproduction. Despite their importance in the Ross Sea ecosystem, relatively little is known about Ross Sea emperor penguins’ foraging ecology and habitat use. Developing a comprehensive understanding of these metrics for penguins in the Ross Sea is imperative for predicting how climate change will impact emperor penguin populations and foraging ecology, and understanding the impacts of these changes on the Ross Sea ecosystem.

Project goals
To understand their role in the ecosystem and how this may shift with environmental change, it is imperative to learn what food sources are important to them and how hard they have to work to get a meal. Our collaborative project is investigating the foraging ecology and habitat use of Ross Sea emperor penguins during late chick-rearing, an energetically challenging phase of the life cycle when parents must meet the demands of their rapidly growing chicks. We will tag the penguins with dataloggers (small electronic devices) to find out where they go in the ocean and how deep they dive to find food. Additionally, we will be measuring how many calories they need and collecting guano samples (poop) to learn more about their diet. This study will fill important knowledge gaps on the energy balance, diet, and habitat use of emperor penguins during this critical time.

Additionally, while our focus is on emperor penguin foraging ecology, this project is part of a large-scale project, “Ross Sea Research and Monitoring Programme: is the world’s largest MPA effective?” This collaborative project’s goal is to characterize the Ross Sea Ecosystem as it is now (baseline) and develop and apply methods that can measure long-term changes for the purpose of testing Marine Protected Area effectiveness.

Funding and logistical support
This is an internationally collaborative project with funding and logistic support provided by the National Science Foundation (CAREER Grant #: 1943559), Antarctica New Zealand, and funding provided to NIWA as part of the project “Ross Sea Research and Monitoring Programme: is the world’s largest MPA effective” (New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment).

Permit for penguins in snow storm: US Antarctic Treaty Permit (2011−016).
Penguin going in water with tag on: US Antarctic Treaty Permit (2013-006).

Eyes in the (Washington and Oregon) Skies

Kali Prescott

By Sierra Fullmer

Many beach goers love to watch coastal animals resting, playing, and swimming along the shoreline, including my typical study species, the southern sea otter. However, some species are much harder to find and require extensive efforts to see them, even for the experts! During the months of August and September I worked with a small team of scientists from NOAA and the affiliated organizations Upwell Turtles and Moss Landing Marine Laboratory to survey the Oregon and Washington coastline and locate, capture, and gather valuable information on the endangered leatherback sea turtle.

Aerial survey team in front of the Twin Otter observation plane. People from left to right: Sierra Fullmer, Nick Toth (NOAA pilot), Katherine Whitaker, Karin Forney, Scott Benson, Priti Bhatnagar (NOAA pilot), Garrett Lemons. Not pictured: Vicky Vasquez and NOAA pilots Conor Maginn and Kennieth Brewer. Photo credit: Garrett Lemons

As a part of the aerial team, I assist with locating these five- to six-foot, 800- to 1400-pound leatherback turtles, but it’s not as easy as it may seem!

My role as an aerial observer involves scouring the seas for any signs of turtle habitat, food, and other associated species - plus on our very best days the turtles themselves! The Western Pacific leatherback sea turtle population has declined by approximately 80 percent since the 1980’s1,2. Leatherbacks face challenges all throughout their lives. Although they are largely protected at their primary nesting beaches, they still face threats at secondary nesting beaches, where adults are occasionally still harvested, and eggs poached. Upon leaving their nesting grounds, juvenile and adult leatherback turtles face a maze of fisheries as they pass through the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of many fishing nations and international waters while traversing the entire Pacific Ocean to reach the western coastline of North America. Once in North American coastal waters, adult leatherbacks spend the summer and fall months feeding on blooms of jellyfish that annually occur with upwelling events of cold, nutrient-rich water being drawn to the ocean surface1. How these leatherbacks select and re-locate these patches year after year is still unknown, and part of what we hope to investigate with our surveys. But fear not, we have figured out some clues to help us in our search.

 

On “fly-days” our lead researchers Scott Benson and Dr. Karin Forney have undergone intense weather monitoring and decided we face good wind and cloud conditions that should provide calm, white-cap-free waters. In our ideal weather days, the waters are so calm that we can see the airplane’s reflection on the water from 650 feet in the air! Once we get the go-ahead, we pile into our cars, head to the airport to meet our NOAA pilots, and prepare our recording equipment before strapping in and taking off!

On our first few flights, we hoped to get a coarse understanding of the environment along the Oregon and Washington coastlines and to identify areas where we might have the best luck turtle-spotting. Over the course one week, we spent 28 flight hours flying transect lines that extended from Newport, Oregon to just south of La Push, WA. With these long flight days, we collected data on water conditions, jellyfish blooms, and marine species presence within 25-30 miles of the coast. Our initial transects were spaced every four miles of latitude, which narrowed to a more fine-scaled 1-mile spacing as we focused in on the main target area. Non-turtle species data we collect not only assists with our project but can also be used in other studies such as harbor porpoise population surveys.

But how did we get this information? We stuck our faces (almost) out of the plane of course! But not how you might think...

For these surveys we are flying a specially modified Twin Otter plane owned by NOAA that has a large “bubble window” on either side just behind the pilots and an additional belly window in the back of the plane. These windows combined allow our observers an almost 180-degree view of the water below! While surveying, each observer spends approximately 45 minutes sticking their entire head and shoulders into the windows and calling out every species of animal they see. Then when you finally start to feel a kink in your neck and think you may never make it out of the window, you rotate! My personal favorite spot in the plane is the belly window, where you lay in the back of the plane, stick your head into the small window, and watch the water, algae, and animals as you fly by. If you’re lucky enough to be in the belly on a perfect day, you can even spot your own reflection hundreds of feet below!

Lead scientist Karin Forney looking out through the belly window mid-survey.

An external view of aerial observer, Sierra Fullmer, looking through the belly window. Image was taken from below while the plane was parked on the tarmac.

Although these views sound glamorous, much of our time is spent looking through sun glare, counting tens to hundreds of animals (sometimes in the span of a few minutes), and making sure you don’t lose focus waiting to find the elusive turtle hidden amongst the algae and ocean sunfish (Mola molas).

Over the last several years of leatherback research, a trend has appeared that leatherbacks are often found in association with dense aggregations of large Mola mola, or ‘molas’, as we call them for short. Large molas are typically four to eight feet in diameter or longer and feed on the same food as leatherback sea turtles: blooms of jellyfish species including brown sea nettles (Chrysaora fuscescens) and moon jellies (Aurelia spp). While flying over the water, when we hit an area of ‘Mola mayhem’ it’s a period of excitement, focus, and a little bit of insanity – especially for the data recorder. I had the eye-opening experience of data recording through my first section of ‘Mola mayhem’ during this field season, where every observer was calling out mola sizes and numbers every second and my entire job was to record them on our digital data log as fast (and accurately) as possible. My fingers were flying so fast I even knocked a key off the keyboard! Don’t worry though, I replaced it at the end of the mayhem.

To get an idea of the mayhem picture this, you’re standing in the middle of an auction house where three different auctioneers are calling out their bids at the same time and your job is to write down everything each auctioneer is saying simultaneously and correctly. Mayhem is the only description. However, it’s extremely important data to collect to really narrow down where our turtle habitat may be, as this helps us find the few leatherbacks that are still making it through the maze of fisheries to our coastlines each year. The proof is in the results.

At the end of our third survey day, with only an hour of fuel left, our team was flying through Mola mayhem calling out large molas left, right, and center when the belly observer calmly called out “turtle” and all chatter stopped for what felt like the longest second. In this time, our pilots and data recorder marked the coordinates as fast as possible, and everyone instantly went on high alert. This was our chance. The pilots circled back, once more flying over the area while every observer was trying to look past the glare of the sun sitting low on the horizon. The pilot started a count down, “You should see it in three…two… one…” and to our amazement the turtle popped out of the glare. The entire crew erupted with excitement and started calling out directions, “turtle at your nine-o’clock, just under the wing!” We managed to circle it for approximately 15 minutes, relocating it between shallow dives and getting a good look to confirm there was no tail (which means it was not an adult male). It was a large, round female and our first aerial sighting in the Pacific Northwest since 2011!

It was the perfect ending to what had been my longest day of flying so far, and a sense of hope for the rest of our survey efforts. Now that we know where to find ‘turtle water’, we have our zone of Mola mayhem, and we know there’s still turtles out there, we hope we can find more turtles for Stage 2: boat capture and tagging. Hopefully I’ll have more updates for you all at the end of the field season, until then I’ll be one pair of the eyes in the sky!

Aerial observer, Sierra Fullmer, looking out the bubble window during a survey, watching the glassy ocean surface passing below. Photo credit: Karin Forney

References

  1. Benson SR, Eguchi T, Foley DG, Forney KA, Bailey H, Hitipeuw C, Samber BP, Tapilatu RF, Rei V, Ramohia P, Pita J, Dutton PH. 2011. Large-scale movements and high-use areas of western Pacific leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea. Ecosphere. 2(7):art84. doi:10.1890/ES11-00053.
  2. Benson SR, Forney KA, Moore JE, LaCasella EL, Harvey JT, Carretta J V. A long-term decline in the abundance of endangered leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, at a foraging ground in the California Current Ecosystem. Glob Ecol Conserv. 2020;24:e01371.
  3. Tapilatu RF, Dutton PH, Tiwari M, Wibbels T, Ferdinandus H V, Iwanggin WG, et al. Long‐term decline of the western Pacific leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea: a globally important sea turtle population. Ecosphere. 2013;4:1–15.

Lauren Hearn

Taylor Azizeh

Lauren Hearn

 

 

I'm a recent graduate from Florida State University (2022), where I studied marine biology and chemical oceanography. I completed an undergraduate thesis there on biogeochemical cycles in the Southern ocean and the role that phytoplankton play in them. I collected seawater samples in the Southern ocean and analyzed the data in Ocean data view for the ongoing GEOTRACES project, which helped fuel my thesis.

I've started volunteering in the Vertebrate Ecology Lab this fall to assist with recording marine mammal strandings and completing bi-monthly surveys. I look forward to continuing to assist members in the lab and widening my exposure to marine mammal research. Broadly, I'm interested in how chemical oceanography and marine populations interact, and how studies of the two can overlap to benefit each other. I hope to narrow down my research focus and continue my education by pursuing a master's thesis.