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I am learning that science starts early in the morning! Today we were on Lido Beach at 6:30 am to look for sea turtle nests. The nesting season starts today and continues through October. Volunteers have specified areas of the beach where they walk the beach looking for nests. They mark the nests when they find them. After the sea turtles hatch (gestation period is approximately 45 days) the volunteers also watch for injured babies which are taken to the Mote lab where they are nursed back to health and then returned to the water. Here is a picture of Teresa wearing her official sea turtle volunteer t-shirt. |
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We did not see any sea turtles this morning but we did see a few things of interest. We saw several ghost crabs. They are called ghost crabs because they are a white color and are nearly transparent. Below is a picture of the crab and also a hole which is its home. We also learned about an interesting local insect called "noseeums". Can you guess why they have this name? Here is a hint: try breaking the word into 3 syllables.
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| Another interesting thing we saw this morning was a
protected bird nesting area. This serves as a nesting area for several
species of coastal birds. If you go to the northernmost part of the
Narragansett Town Beach you will see a similar nesting area. Do you know
what species of bird is protected and nests here? The beautiful sunrise
again this morning is another reason for rising early.
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Today I am trying to use the GPS. Do you know what GPS stands for? Do you know how this instrument works? Using it I pinpointed the exact location of the Mote Marine Lab. It is located at 27 21', 35.7" N and 82degrees, 35', 09.7"W. How is that for accuracy?! What geographic theme is that? The lab is located on Longboat Key. Perhaps you could place the lab on the map of the local area. "Key" is a geographic term. Do you know what a key is? If not you could use either your science text or your geography text to find the definition. If you cannot find it in either of these textbooks, the geographic dictionary located in the school library would certainly have a definition. There are a great many keys in this area. Think about the geographic theme of human-environment interactions. What would be some of the HEI's in an area where there are many keys?
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We actually left a little bit later today. MERV was in for repairs. We were traveling to a more distant location today and wanted to make sure the boat was in "tip top" shape. In addition to looking for manatees we have jobs onboard the boat. We learned the proper way to tie (and untie) the boat up, how to set up the bimini, and how to connect the batteries for the trolling motor. There was actually quite a bit of science in that lesson. We hooked the batteries in such a way that we used the power from both batteries at the same time. Here is a picture of how they are connected to each other and to the trolling motor. Your science teachers will be better able to explain it than I! |
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Here are pictures of the Earthwatch volunteers performing tasks necessary to get the boat ready - untying it from the dock, hooking up the batteries which will power the trolling motor, and connecting the radio - just in case! We left the dock at approximately 10:15 this morning and headed north to Bowlee Creek.
| The exact location of Bowlee Creek is 27degrees, 25', 11.2"
N and 82 degrees, 55', 07.1"W. I am having fun
playing with the GPS! Now here is a math problem for you. How far is Bowlee
Creek from Mote Marine? Here are some hints: 1 degree of latitude is
approximately 69 miles. There are 60 minutes in a degree so each minute of
latitude is a little more than a mile. We stayed a Bowlee Creek for about an hour but unfortunately we did not see any manatees, although we did have a few false alarms. I am learning that it takes a great deal of patience to be a scientist. I am also learning that “no data” is data. The many manatee signs at Bowlee Creek were evidence that manatees do frequent the area. |
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We left Bowlee Creek and headed to another “manatee haunt”, Buttonwood Harbor. Here we were in luck. We located a group of manatees at a grass bed in the harbor. We were very excited to see our first manatees on the open water, but before we could begin taking pictures and recording data we had to record some basic information about the sighting. We had to take both the water and air temperatures, record our exact location using the GPS (that instrument is coming in handy), and test the water salinity using a refractometer. We also had to record the exact time that the sighting began as well as the general conditions including wind speed, general weather conditions, and hindrances to observation (things like clouds, choppy water, and murkiness). Although is was a beautiful day - warm and sunny - conditions for manatee viewing were only fair because of the murkiness of the water. In the pictures below you can see the various instruments we used to take these readings as well as the data sheets we used.
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This is the air temperature - water temp was in the low 70's |
Refractometer - salinity was 40 parts per thousand |
GPS for determining latitude and longitude. |
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Here I am along with Gigi, one of the other volunteers, taking salinity readings. |
| Once all of this information had been recorded we were ready to begin taking pictures. Teresa, the principal investigator took the pictures, and my earthwatch partner, Miss Plante did the recording today. The goal of the Florida Manatees project is to create a database of the manatees in Sarasota Bay based on photo identification. To completely identify a manatee you must have photographs of the left and right sides, the head and the fluke (tail). Most often these photographs are not all gotten during the same sighting. Another important part of the identification is to note the distinguishing scars and mutilations. The recorder is responsible for drawing the scars on the manatee outline on the data collection sheet. Today Miss Plante was the data recorder. It is a big responsibility and seems difficult at first. She assured me that it is not that hard once you get used to it. It will probably be my turn tomorrow. | f
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Here is a picture of the data sheets used in the Florida Manatees project.
We stayed at Buttonwood Harbor for about 2 hours and saw 12-15 manatees including 2, possibly 3, calves. We used the trolling motor to get close to the animals so that we could get good pictures. We had to make sure that we did not go too fast to scare them away. One manatee actually bumped into the front of the boat and scared both us and him! It scared him so much that he, and many of the others in the group, swam away very quickly! I always thought manatess swam slowly, but they can move very quickly when they are frightened. In the picture below you can see the wake the fleeing manatees created.
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There are several things to be alert for when you are on the lookout for manatees. One is manatee “footprints”. The manatee propels itself through the water with its fluke; as it does it creates a series of ripples which look like footprints. The smallest ones are the closest to the animal, so you can “follow the footprints” to locate a manatee. Another way to locate them is to look for air bubbles. Manatees are herbivores; they eat a great deal of roughage and as a result often have gas. The gas bubbles help us locate them. Mud swirls also indicate that a manatee has been in the area. To the left are some footprint photos. They look like ripples in the water |
I took tons of pictures today, but it is difficult to get really good pictures of manatees. Most of the time they just put their heads or noses out of the water to breathe and then submerge again. They usually go under water for several minutes, but can stay under for 15-20 minutes at a time. As a result many manatee pictures show them partially or completely submerged. When we would spot a manatee we would alert the rest of the group by giving the location: manatee at on o’clock or manatee at 5:30. Another problem today is that there were a number of hindrances - glare and murky water being the biggest problems. Here are a few of the better pictures of the day.
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Here is a manatee. All that is visible is the scar on the lower left. Today the scars were often the first part of the manatee visible through the murky water.
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All of these manatees also have scars. Notice the differences. I hope you can begin to see how scarring patterns can be used to identify manatee. |
We returned to the dock around 4:30 today and helped to clean the boat. Science is not all glamorous! After that Miss Plante and I went to the library to type our journals and then headed to Pansy Bayou to do our land survey for the day. Because we were taking pictures and recording data we were not able to take our own pictures today.
