I have shamefully neglected this blog for far far to long. I have had plenty of ideas for great posts but they never quite make it to the blog. Some stories that I want to share are just waiting for the right day so don't despair (or at least that is what I tell myself). But today, today I want to write about something that has been bothering me for a while and my social media streams remind me that today is the "right day" to write this post.

Today is apparently 'International save the vaquita day' but who of you have heard of the vaquita? what is a vaquita I hear many of you say as you look at me with blank faces. My friends and colleagues in the marine mammal world will likely raise an eyebrow at that question; who doesn't know what a vaquita is and the problems that they face?? Well, I can tell you most people probably don't know what a vaquita is.  As an example, I was at BBQ the other weekend with friends, many of whom have (and continue) to spend much time in Mexico (I have never been to Mexico, but the importance of Mexico will become clear shortly). They did indeed look at me with confused expressions on their faces as I mentioned the plight of this little marine mammal. Then they asked 'what is a vaquita?'

I see plenty of posts in my social media streams calling for the conservation of this little mammal, bemoaning it's plight and calling it criminal that this species will be allowed to go extinct. But the reality is that these well meaning posts are really only going out to those who already know about the problem. You may feel good about sharing a post, spreading the word on the vaquita's plight but what are you really doing? Who are you getting the message to and how does it really help? (and I am guilty of this too, don't get me wrong). But should we really be so surprised that those not in the conservation world, or the marine mammal science world don't know about the vaquita?

To be fair there are more focused efforts to save the vaquita, both from within Mexico and further afield. This past December the Society for Marine Mammalogy awarded the Conservation Merit Award to acknowledge the efforts of Mexico's scientists, government officials, environmentalists and fishermen in their efforts to save the little porpoise. There is the group Viva Vaquita whose mission is to raise awareness through public education

But bringing back the vaquita from the brink of extinction will be an impossible feat. While their main threats may be through bycatch (being caught in fishing nets), in the totoba fishery, this is not the sole problem. There are deep underlying issues linked to the regions' ecosystem degradation that have resulted wider social issues. My colleague at UBC, Dr. Andres Cisneros-Montemayor pointed this out earlier this year that the problems of overfishing, and hence bycatch cannot be addressed through banning fishing. The problems of the vaquita are explicitly linked to the socio-economic conditions of the region within which the vaquita lives.

At present there is no incentive for local people to conserve the vaquita, what is in it for them? Andres gets to the point that most, if not all the other media and conservation campaigns to save the vaquita have failed to highlight. This is a socio-economic problem that cannot be solved through ecology and conservation. We need to instead focus our efforts on addressing the underlying problems. For the vaquita this will likely be too late but for other species threatened with extinction perhaps not. Perhaps the vaquita will be our canary in the coal mine to shift how we address conservation problems around the world, and see governments and conservation groups working with local communities to empower them to manage their own resources and ultimately conserve both their resources and their regions as a whole.

I strongly encourage you to both find out about the vaquita as well as read the Nerus Program press release and Andres' article on why we must consider social and economic factors in our bid to save endangered species. 

• Nerus Program Press Release: The impending extinction of the vaquita is not just a fishing problem - it's a social and ecological one too.

• Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., and A. Vincent. 2016. Science, society, and flagship species: social and political history as keys to conservation outcomes in the Gulf of California. Ecology and Society 21(2):9. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08255-210209
  

This morning I woke up to the news that the UN International Court of Justice in the Hague has ruled that Japan’s Antarctic whaling programme is not scientific and is therefore illegal. The court has ordered a temporary halt to the program.

Australia had brought the case in May 2010 claiming that Japan’s whaling programme was not scientific and the court agreed.  Japan currently have two “scientific” whaling programmes which they have been conducting through a loop hole in the international agreements that ban commercial whaling. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has allowed for limited whaling for “scientific” purposes. Two other countries-Norway and Iceland rejected the international moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 when the ban was introduced, left the IWC and continue to whale for commercial profit.

While Japan have agreed to abide by the decision of the court –a decision that Australia, environmental groups and whale lovers are celebrating around the world, I think that things are not this straight forward. Most of the reports that I am seeing are making claims that this is the end of Japan’s whaling programmes and perhaps even those of Iceland and Norway, but I am not so sure. At the moment I see a number of outcomes and not all of them are as positive as a total ban on commercial whaling.... yes call me a party pooper but I think that we need to think about and address the following points:

1.      Japan’s “scientific” whaling programme in the North Pacific was not included in this court decision and it is not yet clear if the court ordered halt on Japan issuing whaling permits (until their Antarctic programme has been thoroughly revamped) also affects their North Pacific programme.

2.      Japan could simply leave the IWC and continue to whale for commercial purposes as Iceland and Norway do. Japan have been threatening to do this for a number of years now and the reason that this is a concern to other anti-commercial whaling nations and scientists is because we will have no control Japan’s whaling activities – something that we do currently cling to as they remain members of the IWC.

3.      That Japan actually do cease their “scientific” whaling program and also pull the plug on their North Pacific programme. This last possibility would be fantastic and well worth all the celebrations!!

So I will be following this year’s IWC meeting with interest –and with my fingers crossed. I am really, really routing for outcome number three; there is nothing scientific about Japan’s whale hunt and it is about time that this is recognized, accepted , the loop hole closed and the whaling program stopped for good. However, for now I will be celebrating this victory for whale conservation with reservation as I think that the fight is far from over.  


News sources 31 March 2014
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/japan-s-antarctic-whaling-program-not-scientific-world-court-says-1.2592382

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26818863

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/japanese-whaling-halt-antarctic-international-court

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-31/ijc-japan-whaling-southern-ocean-scientific-research/5357416

I live in a part of the world where people love killer whales. And I mean LOVE killer whales, often to the point of obsession. The killer whale seems to provide people with the energy and inspiration to fight for their protection and as a result more people become aware of issues surrounding the marine environment that is right on their doorstep. Even my dentist asked me, as he was digging around in my mouth the other morning, if there had been a recent increase in whales here in BC because he had seen them a lot on the news recently. People notice killer whales and their encounters with them (especially when these encounters occur right here in Vancouver) make the news. 

Killer whales, described as one of the most cosmopolitan species after humans occur all over the world from the poles to the tropics. Genetic studies are now revealing that there are in fact many different species of killer whale, differences that are often reflected in their morphology, behaviour, prey preferences, and culture. Indeed three distinct types of killer whales occur right here in British Columbia –the resident whales that eat fish, the transients who prey on marine mammals and offshore whales that are thought to prey on sharks. 

Just as the types of killer whales vary around the world so do our attitudes to killer whales. My personal attitude to killer whales is one of awe, not because they are big beautiful black and white charismatic whales, but instead because these whales are apex predators. They are the only whale to have evolved to take on the largest animal that has ever lived –the blue whale, or to successfully attack other apex predators such as the great white shark. And to add to this they are also incredibly good at learning how to adapt –for example, in Norway the herring boats used to follow the whales to find their target fish; now the whales follow the boats. Why expend the energy searching for prey if there is a handy group of humans to show you? This ability to learn has inevitably led to conflicts between fishermen and whales. 

Living in Vancouver I was surrounded by folk who desperately wanted the whales to be freed no matter what. As a marine mammal scientist I knew that whales sometimes get stuck and while that sucks, it is part of nature. Nevertheless, the situation made me wonder what the Inuit people of Inukjuak, Quebec thought of all this hype and in some cases hysteria from all over the world. The media interest and social media commentary suggested that the majority of the small village wanted help to save the whales in a similar manner to those from Barrow Alaska when three gray whales became stuck in the ice (that story made it to Hollywood!).

As I wrote at the start here in the Pacific Northwest people generally love killer whales (yes I realise that this is a bit of an over generalization but...) –and there is a thriving whale watch industry. But in places where whales are snatching fish of lines they are not looked on quite so fondly. In the Eastern Arctic, just as in other parts of the world, attitudes toward killer whales varies. This morning I finally got around to reading a paper that I have been carrying around for weeks. This paper, entitled “Attitudes of Nunavut Inuit toward killer whales (Orcinus orca) by Kristen Westdal, Jeff Higdon and Steve Ferguson (published in the journal Arctic, 66(3): 297-290) was in fact what led to this blog post. The authors of the paper conducted semi-structured interviews with mostly Inuit hunters and Elders across two regions of Nunavut –Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island and Foxe Basin) and Kivalliq (western Hudson Bay). 

The paper reported on the attitudes of the Inuit related to their overall opinion of killer whales, of the dangers of killer whales, whether killer whales were viewed as helpers or competitors to their subsistence hunting activities, whether they actually used killer whale products, what they thought about scientific research on killer whales, the effects of killer whales on other species and also whether killer whales were hunted. Not surprisingly, the researchers found, that just as ice is not static neither are the attitudes and perceptions of Inuit with respect to killer whales. There is great variation within and across communities in the Eastern Arctic and these attitudes are also likely to change in the future as the numbers and distribution of killer whales change.

The point of this paper was to gain baseline data on the attitudes and perceptions of killer whales to help inform future wildlife management decisions in Nunavut. This kind of information is particularly important in the face of possible wildlife management conflicts related to Inuit subsistence harvests of species that are preferred by both humans and killer whales. In reading this paper I was reminded that it was not so long ago that killer whales were feared and disliked. Here on the west coast of North America killer whales have held both great cultural significance, particularly to BC`s First Nation peoples and the Coast Salish people as well being feared and disliked for perceived competition with fishermen. But on this latter point attitudes towards the killer whale have changed from one of fear to admiration. So I think that it is important for us to realize and try to understand that our attitudes of awe and admiration may be a little different to those of other communities, and that it is important to consider these attitudes and perceptions when considering management and conservation of marine systems, whether those attitudes are related to tourism and conservation here in Vancouver or related to how the killer whale might be impacting subsistence harvests in Nunavut.  

During the month of November I often see Canada geese flying over the fields of San Juan Island. The birds are flying in the typical V-formation, characteristic of migrating geese. I always had a vague idea that they were flying in these formations in order to save energy or that it had something to do with navigation, but I never really bothered to look into why they fly like this -until a recent article in Nature caught my eye.


The distinctive V-formation is known in a number of bird species and has been the subject of interest and intrigue to scientists and non-scientists alike. A team of researchers from the UK’s Royal Veterinary College travelled to Austria to work with the conservation group Waldrappteam – who work with the Northern Bald Ibis, a highly endangered migratory bird that went extinct in central Europe 300 years ago. Waldrappteam rear these birds and teach them to fly and eventually migrate. This is where one of my favourite wildlife themed movies pops to my mind –yep, you guessed it ‘Fly Away Home’. Guaranteed if I am looking after kids I will make them watch it –and I just admitted that here in public....

The researchers attached small data-loggers to the birds and recorded behaviours such as when the birds flapped and how hard they were flapping. Working with these trained birds allowed them to retrieve their data-loggers after each flight –something that is mostly impossible with wild birds, and the data they collected has provided new insights into how these birds migrate and why they adopt the distinctive V-formations.


The team discovered that these birds appeared to have keen awareness of the air structures created by their nearby flock-mates, and even more remarkable was that the birds seemed to have an ability to predict or sense the surrounding air patterns and so how to exploit them to their own advantage. 

The birds would position themselves in the aerodynamically optimum position within the V-formation, i.e. in the best possible place to take advantage of good upward moving air that was being produced by the bird flying ahead.  Upward moving air helps the birds stay aloft without the bird have to exert excess energy through flapping harder.  When a bird flaps it pushes the air down in order to stay up, this creates a downwash of air followed by an upwash of air.  The birds behind the front bird would position themselves where the upward moving air was located –this meant that the birds would not have to flap as hard to stay up so saving energy. The birds were also found to synchronize their flapping behaviour to further exploit the aerodynamic good upwash air.

This video beautifully explains what the research team did and what they found. Watch it! 

So these birds are flying in V-formations to save energy on long migrations. But what do V-formations have to do with bowhead whales? In this case the V-formation is does not assist in the efficiency of the whale’s migration, rather it seems to be an important behavioural adaptation for increasing the efficiency of feeding. 

Bowhead whales are baleen whales, they feed by filtering tiny marine animals –zooplankton through their baleen fringed mouth. Occasionally whales are seen in groups ranging in size from two to 14 whales swimming in a co-ordinated fashion such that a front “lead” whale is ahead at the front and the other whales are in a staggered lines behind the lead whale creating a V. This formation is also called an echelon formation.

As with the V-formations observed in migrating birds, these echelons are dynamic with whales changing positions, and group sizes changing as whales enter and leave the group. While it is not fully understood how this co-ordinated formation assists with feeding it is thought that whales adopt this behaviour when they are feeding on the shrimp-like crustaceans called euphausiids.

Euphausiids, unlike other zooplankton species that the slow moving bowhead whale feeds on, exhibit rapid evasive movements and are thought to be able to move out of the way of the whales gape as it moves slowly forward at the sea surface. So those little critters that manage escape the front whale’s mouth by moving to the side find themselves in prime position to be caught up in the gape of the whale behind.... and so on.  

This type of behaviour has also been observed in surface feeding southern right whales. The whales’ adoption of the V-formation ultimately increases their foraging efficiency while at the same time saving energy by drafting behind the lead whale so reducing the cost of swimming, just as the birds exploit the V-formation to exploit the upwash of the bird ahead to save energy during their migrations. So as an energy saving adaptation the V-formation is Very much a winner! 

SOURCES:

Portugal, S.J., T.Y. Hubel, J. Fritz, S. Heese, D. Trobe, B. Voelkl, S. Hailes, A.M. Wilson & J.R. Usherwood. 2014.
Upwash exploitation and downwash avoidance by flap phasing in ibis formation flight. Nature 505: 399-402

Waldrappteam http://www.waldrappteam.at/waldrappteam/indexl_en.htm

Würsig B, Dorsey EM, Fraker MA, Payne RS, Richardson WJ (1985) Behavior of bowhead whales, Balaena mysticetus, summering in the Beaufort Sea: A description. Fish Bull 83:357-377

Fish, F.E., K.T. Goetz, D.J. Rugh, & L. Vate Brattström. 2012. Hydrodynamic patterns associated with echelon formation swimming by feeding bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus). Marine Mammal Science. 29(4): E498-507

It has been an age and a day since I wrote on this blog. I could blame trying to get my thesis finished up (it is on track by the way) or numerous other things. OK, so I am going to blame my thesis after-all because it has been all engrossing and I haven’t really left my computer or thought about much else during this time! 

But I have decided that it is time for me to escape the thesis induced black-hole and re-enter the world of my blog. I do happen to have a plethora of ideas to write on –the issues surrounding self-promotion in science or last month’s Alaska Marine Science Symposium, and minke whales could always do with more attention. But instead I have decided to start a series of blog posts entitled “Sunday Science Somethings”. I have adapted and borrowed the Sunday Something idea from my sister, who wrote a fun blog about all things pretty and beautiful. My adaptation will also talk about beautiful things, however, you will have to expand your definition of beautiful because I plan to share amazing, exciting, and fun science stories –most of which I suspect will be marine focused as that is my thing. But science itself is a beautiful thing so borrowing the title from my sister’s blog on beautiful things seemed appropriate –and as an added bonus she is happy to let me use it!

This week has been full of fun, fascinating and significant science. Many scientists, science communicators and journalists converged on Chicago for the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS ) this week. My twitter feed has been filled with all sorts of interesting snippets’ –you can check some of these out by looking up #aaasmtg. But for me the most exciting science story to come up this week was that of study that has shown how it is possible to count whales from space. Yes, I did just write “count whales from space”.  In fact the paper, published in PLoS One this week is entitled just that: Whales from Space: Counting  southern right whales by satellite. 

This might seem like a completely outlandish exercise to many, who on earth thought one could count whales from space? But as I saw links to the article appear in my twitter and facebook feeds and the story highlighted by the likes of the BBC, I remembered the time I was checking out the Beaufort Sea with Google Earth –I had a short lived moment of over excitement as I discovered what I thought was a whale’s tail fluke.... on a closer inspection in turned out to be boat.  Needless to say the fact that scientists have now been able to show that high resolution satellite imagery (obviously Google Earth is not quite high tech enough. Yet.) can be used to count whales is utterly cool and I feel just a little bit vindicated for my Google Earth “discovery”. 

So how is it possible to count whales from space? And what are the practical uses for such methods? Or is it all just a bit of a news grabbing gimmick? First off, this is far from a gimmick. The implications for such a tool are widespread for both management and conservation of large whales. The methods presented in the paper provide the first successful attempt to use satellite imagery to count whales at and near the sea surface. Additionally, the authors attempts at automation means that whale counts can be made relatively efficiently and, importantly more quickly. The ability of this tool to help assess large areas for the presence of whales will provide an attractive alternative to the costly and risky aerial or vessel based surveys that are currently used for this purpose.

One of the reasons that I am so excited about this paper is because I can see the potential for using satellite imagery to count whales in areas that are subject to human activities –such as oil and gas activities or commercial shipping. While this approach would not be an effective tool for real-time mitigation it could provide useful for baseline data on the presence of large whales in coastal areas subject to these human activities. 

As with aerial surveys the methods presented in this paper can only count whales that are at or near the surface and so will always be subject to a bias –because whales only spend a small proportion of their at the surface. But with an understanding of how much time whales spend at the surface and how long they dive for we can try to overcome this bias. For aerial and ship based sightings this is achieved by calculating correction factors –essentially these are the probability that a whale will be at the surface when that patch of sea surface is in view of an observer. The number of whales detected in the survey –or image is then multiplied by this correction factor to give a better estimate of how many whales are actually present in the area.    My thesis work has developed availability correction factors for aerial surveys that are recording bowhead whales in the Beaufort Sea and these methods could also be adapted to help correct the counts of whales achieved through the use satellite imagery. Essentially this idea of counting whales from space is advancing aerial survey techniques into the next sphere... the exosphere and even beyond that into space. 

This summer I finally got the opportunity to spend a week with a group of researchers in San Diego. Mari Smultea and Bernd Würsig have been bringing a small team to San Diego since 2009 to fly aerial surveys off the coast of San Diego in order to collect baseline data on the distribution, density and behaviour of marine mammals.  

Mari invited me to join them for their final survey of 2013 so that I could have the opportunity to learn about how cetacean behaviour data are collected from aircraft.  Mari and I are both working with these types of data for our doctoral research, but unlike Mari I have not yet had the opportunity to see first-hand how behaviour data are collected from the air because my data mostly collected in the 1980s. So when Mari emailed to see if I wanted to join her and the team this July I jumped at the chance. Not only would I get to fly with Bernd Würsig –a leading expert in the study of cetacean behaviour and who was the first to define the different bowhead whale behaviours and collected the bowhead behavioural data that I have been using in my research, but this was my second chance this year to see the blue whale. The largest animal to have ever lived on this planet.

If you have read my earlier posts you may remember that my first real attempt to see a blue whale was back in April when I went out on a whale watch trip in Monterrey Bay. This quest was scuppered by killer whales. But this time round in San Diego my chances were better, or so Mari assured me. I was optimistic, especially after the team returned from their first flight of the survey to report that the blue whales were around just off the coast of San Diego. They came back that first afternoon having seen a number of blues that meant they were able to conduct focal follows on at least 2 whales.  

To conduct a focal the team will circle the whale from an altitude of 1500 ft if cloud conditions allow. They record the behaviour of the whale including the time it blows, when the tail is seen to rise out of the water –known as fluking, the time the whale dives and how long it dives out of sight for, which direction the whale is headed in, how fast it is moving and the general activity state of the whale (e.g., travelling , foraging or resting). All these data are recorded onto audio and video recorders and the whale is photographed as well. Later, these data are transcribed and scrutinized to ensure that everything is entered into the survey database.

For the first part of the survey I was able to help the team with various data tasks including examining sets of photographs collected during focal follows on the blue whales seen.  Mari and Bernd were keen to confirm that a whale observed during an hour long observation session was indeed the same whale.  I poured through photo after photo from three photo sessions that had been taken during the focal follow looking for a scratch or scar that would make matching the photos possible.  Then there it was a ding on the left shoulder of the whale –a scar likely resulting from a cookie cutter shark. I was able to match photos from each of the photo sessions confirming that they had indeed been circling over the same whale. By the end of the second day of the survey I had performed photo-ID on a blue whale from photos taken at more than 1000 ft but I still had not seen a blue whale in person.

The next day I got to fly. It was a short training flight and though I was optimistic we did not find any blue whales. We flew again the next day and saw many mola mola, common dolphins and even a group of bottlenose dolphins, but still no blue. The fifth day of the survey dawned, again the weather was not promising, but there was less cloud that the day before. We set off  to search for blue whales along the coast. Again we saw lots of mola mola and common dolphin but no blues. Heading south towards the border with Mexico we saw more common dolphins, circling groups to confirm species, estimate school sizes and document behaviours. We observed interesting behaviours such as synchronized upside down swimming followed by rapid darting manoeuvres in different directions.  We saw groups of three to six dolphins do this at a time while in front of the main school.  This behaviour was indicative of foraging –the dolphins appeared to corralling and chasing fish.

As we continued on we saw a group of Risso’s dolphins; Mari is studying the behaviour of these dolphins for her PhD and has observed Risso’s with other dolphin and whale species.  This time we saw them alone but were able to observe apparent social behaviours and surface active behaviours. These dolphins are much larger than common dolphins and very light in color due to the scaring that covers their bodies, not much is known about them in the Pacific so these surveys provide a unique opportunity to study them.  

We continued on our search for blue whales, following the edges of undersea canyons. We slowly made our way out to San Clemente Island and picked up more dolphins. Suddenly Bernd called out “whale”! Was this going to be my first blue? I saw the large rostrum of a baleen whale disappear beneath the surface –we circled back to pick it up as it surfaced but 12 minutes later there was still no sign of the whale. We continued on our way left wondering whether the whale had been a fin, sei or Bryde's whale. There was only one more day left on the survey and I was beginning to wonder if I really was going see to blue whale. Had I been slunk again?

We turned back for San Diego. Then there it was. A blue whale hanging there, seemingly suspended just below the surface. The whale glowed a beautiful turquoise blue color in the water. As we circled to document the sighting, my eyes were glued to the whale, watching and waiting for it to rise to the surface and blow. It hung there still, barley moving, then as the pilots turned back towards our track-line the whale rose majestically to the surface and blew. I watched the blue whale disappear out of view behind the plane. I had finally seen a blue whale and the image of this magnificent great whale hanging so gently below the surface was burned into my memory. 

The final day of the survey resulted in 155 sighting in 4 hours, common dolphins, California sea lions chasing bait balls, mola mola, and more Risso’s dolphins, we didn't see any more whales despite almost perfect sighting conditions but I was happy, I had seen and learnt so much, worked with a great team of people and above all I had finally seen a blue whale. 

This time last year I was on standby. I was awaiting the call to head north to Alaska to join my aerial survey team. This year I am not on standby because I am not heading north and I am more than a little melancholy about it. Alaska, the Arctic has a way of getting under your skin. I’m really not sure why this happens, especially as I am always stationed in Prudhoe Bay – the largest oil field in the US. Instead I am spending the summer at my desk working to finish my thesis, and wondering what I would have seen had we been up there flying surveys this summer.

I was based in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, perched on Alaska’s North Slope. With its gravel roads and trucks, it is an industrial hive serving the largest oil field in the US, floating on gravel pads atop the Arctic tundra. This is not your typical remote field work experience. The real experience begins when I board the survey plane, a sturdy de Havilland Twin Otter, specifically outfitted with specialized bubble windows for the purpose of marine mammal surveys.  We fly a series of pre-determined transects perpendicular to the coast recording all marine mammals that we see, but we are particularly interested in seeing  bowhead whales.

My PhD research focuses on how bowhead behavioural responses to industry operations influence the ability of aerial observers to detect whales; and how this may impact density estimates of whales in the vicinity of offshore industry activities. Working on these surveys provides me with first-hand experience and a better understanding of the data that I use in my research.

Shell, Alaska produced a pamphlet on marine mammal research in the Alaskan Arctic -includes our aerial survey work

Last Sunday, with a good dose of stubbornness and not nearly enough training I embarked on 13.1 miles of a very hilly half marathon.  Just 7 weeks prior my friend Meredith asked me if I fancied doing the San Juan half marathon with her.  At that point I had not even run 10 km! But I began to wonder what if? Could I actually do it? I had 6 weeks to train.... So I signed up. Then I decided I was going to use this run to help the American Cetacean Society Puget Sound (ACS-PS) Chapter fundraise for their student travel grants.  There was no going back now.

The student travel grants will be available for students studying cetaceans either at Pacific NW institutions or study cetacean populations in the Pacific NW. The grants will help students with the costs of attending and presenting at the Biennial Marine Mammal conference in New Zealand this December. It may seem like rather odd thing to raise funds for especially as I will not be attending the conference myself but I know from previous years how important these small grants can be.  In 2011 I received an ACS-PS travel grant when I presented my work at the Marine Mammal conference in Tampa. The grant covered my flight, without it I may not have been able to attend. In a short 3 weeks I had received incredible support from my family, friends, fellow students and other marine mammal scientists. We raised enough for two $500 travel grants. Now all that was left to do was to complete the run!

Training was going well; I was even beginning to enjoy getting out for a run after a day in front of my thesis. Then 3 weeks before the race, after my longest run to date, I was limping. A week later there was little improvement and I was beginning to worry... I was not able to train but more importantly I had a 13.1 mile mission just two weeks away! Jean (aka “Motivator Medley” or “Jean the Machine”) my dear friend and training buddy (who routinely kicks my ass while offering the nicest encouragement all at the same time) suggested I go see a physiotherapist. I have learnt to pay attention to Jean’s suggestions....

With instructions to ice, tape, massage and stretch I headed south to San Juan Island. I was still nervous, I hadn’t been able to train at all for 3 weeks! But once my fellow runners, Meredith and Barb turned up and announced that they hadn’t been able to train much either I felt a bit better. At least we were all in the same boat.

The day arrived, with our entry numbers pinned firmly and music selected we made our way over to the county fairgrounds –start and end of the race. Even as we were waiting for the “go” signal the reality of what I was about to attempt hadn’t sunk in. Then we were off.

The San Juan half marathon wove through Friday Harbor before taking us out into the valley on the open road.  It was about half way through town... not even a mile in that the reality of the situation began to sink in. But once out of town there was no turning back. For the first 5 miles Meredith and I jogged along with a couple of girls from Bellingham and a lady from Vancouver. They set a slow and steady pace which meant that by the time we reached the road that would wind us over the west side of the island we still felt great.

It wasn’t long before the first ugly hill reared in front of us, long and steep, it was not fun. Having made it up the hill we continued on past scattered houses, fields, the lavender farm –not yet in bloom and the lake where little boats gather to sail on long summer evenings. We jogged on to meet the road where the full marathoners turned right and we turned left back to town.  From a field on this corner Daniel, as promised, leapt up from behind the hedge to hand us water.

We continued on only to face the next big hill, not as steep as before but longer and larger... and what you go up you must inevitably go down.  Running down the hill, steeper on the descent was actually tougher than the ascent (yeah we did walk a bit of the big hill... but frankly we were more than OK with that!), by this point we were approaching mile 8 or 9 and my hips were beginning to ache. Mile 10 came up really quickly... too quickly in fact but I barely noticed (I later found out that the Mile 10 marker had been put in the wrong the place), as I concentrated on trying to keep my pace. We were almost to the home stretch, two more miles left to go and two more substantial hills. A marathon runner from Mexico called Fransico unwittingly got me up one hill by simply distracting me from my aching hips with random chatter. And then the last mile, shortly after the marker Meredith and I turned right leaving Fransico to complete his final 8 miles and we had just one more hill to conquer. And conquer it we did (well almost, we walked a bit of it, it is a really mean hill and even meaner after 12.8 miles!) making it to the top and mustering that last little bit of energy to make a dash for the finish line.

In all it took us 2 hour and 39 minutes to complete the course but what is important is that we finished what we started, and that was the accomplishment in itself. Did I think I had this in me back in April? Not at all! So for me this whole experience has taught me that if you really put your mind to it then you can always finish what you started.

Photos in the post were taken by Meredith Fourre, Barbara Sullivan and Debbie Giles

This past Saturday (8th June) was World Oceans Day.  Rather than spending my day writing something philosophical and insightful about the state of our oceans I was instead writing on an altogether different subject -though a subject that is also close to my heart.

The story started on Friday when I received a bit of strange text from my friend Tallulah, a local photographer. It went something along the lines of "I have a newspaper editor friend wanting a blog post from a longboarder for the Huffington Post... it has to be done by Monday". My response "I don't really think I'm qualified to talk about longboarding!". As it happens I longboard so that does sort of qualify me and ideas of what I might write began to form. The remit I was given was to write about why I love to longboard and whether the recent accidents involving longboards gave me pause for thought. 

There are many reasons that I love to longboard; I like the slightly offbeatness of it and I like the unconventional freedom that I get from it.  My board provides me an escape from the slog of grad school and the daily routine. Whether I just get out to skate the neighbourhood, the sea wall or further afield to the Seymour
                                                       Demo forest in North Vancouver. So there is no question that I love to longboard.

After a couple late nights and re-writes (including one on the ferry as I travelled to San Juan Island) I submitted a final draft to Tallulah's editor friend on Monday morning. Less than 24 hours later there I was... well my writing at least, staring at me from my computer screen. Not in a word document but instead on a webpage, the HuffPost Vancouver webpage.

I think I can say that this is my first publication. While it is not the peer reviewed hard core science article that I had envisioned (that publication process takes a whole lot longer than 24 hours!! my paper has been in press now for 3-4 weeks... I have lost count actually), this is no shabby thing. I mean seriously the Huffington Post?? What a weird and wonderful way to start the week!!

Follow this link to read the full article: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/frances-robertson/longboarding-safety_b_3418264.html