{"id":331,"date":"2008-08-27T19:29:50","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T02:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=331"},"modified":"2008-08-27T19:29:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-28T02:29:50","slug":"orca-sighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2008\/08\/27\/orca-sighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Orca Sighting!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Erin<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>
Erin Loury<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Erin Loury<\/a>, Ichthyology Lab<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regular 4 a.m. wakeup calls are brutal even for the coolest fishing survey.\u00a0 Once the boat is steaming towards our destination, very few things can come between me and my precious snooze time.\u00a0 But this morning I heard words that had me on my feet in a hurry:\u00a0 \u201cKiller whales!\u201d<\/p>\n

Science crew and volunteer fishermen alike clamored onto the deck and pressed ourselves against the boat railings, scanning the early morning horizon as our captain maneuvered us in for a closer look.\u00a0 Suddenly we saw them –\u00a0 two black jackknives of dorsal fins appeared over the rolling swells.\u00a0 We spotted two small orcas (another term for killer whale), their heads surging\u00a0 forward through the waves.\u00a0 Their characteristic white eye spots stood out like warpaint in fearsome contrast against their sleek black bodies.\u00a0 I watched in disbelief and euphoria as their heads broke the water’s surface once, twice, and again before they disappeared from sight.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Chad King (SIMoN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since I wasn’t able to snap a decent photo of my own, this one is courtesy of SIMoN<\/a> and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, who generously host a marine photo library for public use<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though orcas are found in all the world\u2019s oceans and are not unheard of in Monterey Bay, to actually see them here is rare and really quite special.\u00a0 Orcas are voracious hunters – as far as their prey are concerned, they earn their nickname, \u201cwolves of the sea,” and probably the Latin meaning of their scientific name, Orcinus orca<\/em>: “from hell!” \u00a0 Orcas near Monterey, like the ones I saw, sometimes hunt gray whales passing through on their migration from Mexico to Alaska with their new calves (ie, easy targets).<\/p>\n

But even their ruthless reputation\u00a0 just added to my enthusiasm, which somehow always gets the best of me around whales and charismatic wildlife.\u00a0 Cheering and clapping at the sight of my first orcas,\u00a0 I threw my fist in the air and shouted \u201cJump!,\u201d – you know, like in Free Willy<\/em><\/a>?\u00a0 Apparently these orcas had never seen the movie, since they missed their cue.<\/p>\n

Still, it was a good miniflashback for me, remembering how I used to dream of being like the kid in that movie, who lived by the ocean and got to spend time with awesome marine life, lucky duck.\u00a0 And now I am<\/em> that kid, getting to see the real deal on days like this, roaming free.\u00a0 Such sweet job perks even make the 4 a.m. wake-up call\u00a0 worth it – at least until tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Erin Loury, Ichthyology Lab Regular 4 a.m. wakeup calls are brutal even for the coolest fishing survey.\u00a0 Once the boat is steaming towards our destination, very few things can come between me and my precious snooze time.\u00a0 But this morning I heard words that had me on my feet in a hurry:\u00a0 \u201cKiller whales!\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[153],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ichthyology-lab"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}