For the past month or so I've been going on weekend whale watch tours out of San Diego as a volunteer for the Scripps Institute which works with the tour company in providing a naturalist (cetalogist?) for these trips. Basically, I'm just the go-fer, carry the exhibits on board, and hand out literature, etc.. (I get asked questions and if I don't know the answer, just make it up and they don't know the difference. Hey, just kidding!) The naturalist last Sunday, on finding out that I'm a sea kayaker, mentioned that the American Cetacean League (??) has been using sea kayaker volunteers armed with cross bows with suction cup tips to afix radio transponders to the whales for tracking their movements. The kayaks can get closer to the whales than a larger boat can with out spooking them (which is against the law). The little else I know about the ACL is that they have a whale "watch" station on the bluffs of Palos Verde peninsula, manned 24/7 by volunteers with telescopes and binocs, during the migratory season, to take a census of the passing parade. This and other censuses are compiled to make a judgement of the strength of the California Gray whale population. I'm intrigued by all of this and wonder if anyone else has done this, or worked with the ACL, or knows anything about it? It sounds like a whale of a lot of fun and challenges, while doing something useful instead of just juking around for my own sport and adventure. -- Nick (just call me Ishmael, with suction tip harpoon in hand) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 3/14/00 4:08:39 PM Pacific Standard Time, n.v.rob_at_deltanet.com writes: << I'm intrigued by all of this and wonder if anyone else has done this, or worked with the ACL, or knows anything about it? It sounds like a whale of a lot of fun and challenges, while doing something useful instead of just juking around for my own sport and adventure. -- Nick (just call me Ishmael, with suction tip harpoon in hand) >> Nick, I am aware of Steph Dutton being involved in tagging and following whales from sea kayaks. I attended a slide show that he put on about this activity a couple of years ago. If I recall correctly, they went out in a double, with a paddler in front, Steph in back, and a cross bow shooter in the center hatch. Steph didn't mention anyone else being involved in this activity, which they obtained special permission to do and were doing on behalf of some type of "scientific" research program. He was doing this activity in the Monterey Bay area. I believe that they were also following whales, by permit, under the 100 yard rule, for "scientific" reasons too. I am not really sure just how "scientific" his activity actually was. I believe that the following year Steph was supposed to follow the whales down the coast, but I never heard what did or didn't happen. Duane Strosaker Southern California http://members.aol.com/pirateseakayaker *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> From: Strosaker_at_aol.com[SMTP:Strosaker_at_aol.com] > > I am aware of Steph Dutton being involved in tagging and following whales > from sea kayaks. (snipped) > > I believe that the following year Steph was supposed to follow the whales > down the coast, but I never heard what did or didn't happen. > At the Delmarva Paddlers Retreat last October, I believe Robin Snow (who was going to join Steph) told me that due to various reasons, Steph was no longer tagging and tracking. My memory can be poor at times so I am sending this to her for confirmation. As I recall, he had temporarily stopped the tagging and tracking to devote all of his time to the Makaw (sp?) tribal hunt when that hit. I seem to remember that he and his wife were now approaching it from an educational perspective, increasing individual awareness. Debs *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
"Reeves, Debbie" wrote about Steph Dutton: > I seem to remember that he and his wife were now > approaching it from an educational perspective, increasing individual > awareness. Steph & Heidi are currently running whale watching trips on their boat Sanctuary, out of Monterey, CA. I believe there is some info on their past projects on their web site http://www.graywhale.org/ Frank *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 19:46:46 -0800 >To: Nick Von Robison <n.v.rob_at_deltanet.com> >From: Michael Kundu <projseawolf_at_earthlink.net> >Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Tracking Gray Whales >Cc: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >In-Reply-To: <38CED083.5295A699_at_deltanet.com> > >Paddler Steph Dutton, who used to represent Necky Kayaks, was one of the people who initially postulated and experimented with this kind of telemetry tracking on gray whales. From what I have heard, the reality of this method of affixing transmitters to whales is far from effective -- crossbows do not deliver enough of a psi-force to effectively seat transmitters for any length of time on these whales. In fact, I don't think Dutton's crew ever managed to get an actual transmitting device on a whale for any length of time at all. It is my impression that the Dutton team has ended any of their boni-fide attempts at scientific work with gray whales -- but of course, he would be the best resource for this information. > >Researchers working on orcas have had little success in keeping suction cups on whales for the long-term. The migration route and length of gray whale migration is fairly well established, and any tracking of these whales would be better acheived by using biopsy transmitters -- a more invasive technique, but frequently used on other types of whales. > > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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