| Today I left the house a little after 6 am and headed for the lab. It was so early that I didn't get a sunrise photo this morning! Here I am working at the computer sending you my journals. We have to do computer work in the morning before we go out in the boat and then when we come back in the afternoon. |
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Today we used a different method to locate manatees. We tracked them using satellite and VHF signals. The scientific name for this method is telemetry. It is very interesting! Rachel, another researcher at Mote, joined us today and explained the process to us. Here is a picture of Rachel and Teresa plotting the course for the day.
Before animals can be tracked in this method, a transmitter must be attached. In January four manatees were removed from the water and transmitters were attached. First a belt which the scientists make was placed around the manatee. It is tight enough so it will not fall off (hopefully) and loose enough so it will not hurt the animal. A tether was connected to the belt and a tag which floats was attached to the tether. Inside the tag (which is color- coded to distinguish each manatee) are three transmitters which allow the scientists to track the manatee in three different ways. One receiver is a radio receiver, another is a VHF receiver, and the third is a sonic receiver. Of the four manatees tagged one, Grover, lost his tag. The other three still have them and are monitored daily by satellite and checked visually occasionally. Today we headed to Palmasola Bay to check on Roseanne, an female adult manatee. We knew where to go because Rachel had gotten a satellite update at 7:30 this morning. She uses a computer program called Argos, which receives location updates from a government satellite. She got an excellent location fix (a three on a scale of 0-3) so we were fairly confident we were going to find her and we did. Below are some pictures of the tracking equipment.
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This series of pictures shows Rachel setting up the equipment to listen for the manatee. In the picture at the far right she is holding an antennae which will pick up the VHF signals being transmitted by the tag. Just as each animal is assigned a specific colored tag, each animal is assigned a radio frequency. Roseanne is 669. Rachel tunes the receiver to the appropriate frequency and we begin to listen. Here is a picture of the transmitter set to the correct frequency.
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Rachel explained what we should be listening for. The manatees make clicks and stomps. We listened for a while and then began to hear clicks. They were faint at first but became louder. As we got closer they became louder still and were classified as stomps. We all had a chance to listen and the sounds guided us to Roseanne. Here is a picture of me listening to the clicks. |
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We located Roseanne quite quickly and did a sighting at Palma Sola Bay. nnThe air and water temperatures were nearly identical at 84 degrees. We conducted photo identification and data recording for about an hour at this location. In addition to Roseanne we saw two other manatees, one of which was a calf. We did not take too many pictures because Roseanne is a known or documented manatee, and the others had few distinguishing marks. |
Today we also discussed how manatees are named. As I told you yesterday, before a manatee can be positively identified or catalogued, photographs must be taken of the entire body from various angles and include the head and fluke. Until a manatee is catalogued it is classified as indistinct ( a manatee with no readily identifiable markings), a distinct unknown (a manatee with distinct markings but with an incomplete set of photographs or a distinct known ( a manatee with distinct markings and a full set of identifying photographs. Each distinct known manatee is given an identifying name such as SB 80 and is entered into the computerized scar catalogue called MIPS (Manatee Individual Photo-identification Systems). The name stands for the location where the animal was completely identified and the number of catalogued manatees in that area. The name SB 80 means that the animal was the 80th manatee catalogued in Sarasota Bay. Other locations in the study area include FM (Fort Myers), CH (Charlotte Harbor), CIGF (City Island Grass Flats) etc. Manatees are often given nicknames based on their behaviors or other characteristics. Here are a few of the nicknames for Sarasota Bay manatees: Scoop, Migraine, IOU, and Kibbles. The photo above is Roseanne with her transmitter. Roseanne's catalogue name is SB 38. Can you explain what that means?
| Here is Teresa checking the map before heading to a new location. As you can see geography is important everywhere! |
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We went looking for manatees in two other locations today. We went back to Buttonwood Harbor where we had such great luck yesterday and to City Island Grass Flats close to Mote. We were not as lucky today! Our work would have been easier but certainly not as challenging if all of the manatees were tagged! We did see a few bottlenose dolphins today, but unfortunately they were too far away to get good photos. Perhaps tomorrow.
When we got back to land I took a few pictures of Florida license plates. They are not all the same as they are in Rhode Island. In addition to the "sunshine state" plate that we are accustomed to, there are many others. Florida residents can select a license plate which supports a favorite cause and some of the money donated supports that cause. Can you guess which is my favorite?
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