Researchers' Blog

2010

Wow, what an exciting February for Marine Life Studies. We kicked off our newest project the "Joey Jones Scholarship and Educational Fund" and all monies donated at the AT&T plus the whole month of February went directly to build the scholarship fund. Plus we promoted our free educational program for the schools.

The schools are facing so many cutbacks in funding that this is an important endeavor for Marine Life Studies. We kicked off our free educational program on Monday, February 15, 2010 by visiting third graders at Stevenson School, Carmel Campus and it was so much fun. It is really important to give back to the community.

“The next generation holds the keys to better understand the importance and beauty of our planets’ ocean ecology,” says Stap. “I want to offer youngsters a chance to pursue an education in oceanic studies. It is so rewarding to give something back to those who will continue to value our oceans and marine mammals.” (Excerpt from article written by Leslie Miller 2-22-10)

Victoria Wade and I were so excited at the enthusiasm of the kids. We left them with an assignment. We supplied the teacher, Ms. Foster, with everything the students would need to accomplish the task. Each student received a photo packet with 15 identification photos of both humpbacks and killer whales, plus blank sheets of flukes and killer whales, so they could draw their own and develop a short story on how the Humpback Whales and Orcas received certain markings that are used to identify individual animals. We plan to post some of their work once we get copies. V. Wade

For more information on booking Marine Life Studies for your school please send an email through our “Contact us” Page.

We are now on Facebook so check it out. Become a fan. It is free. There are pictures posted already and I plan to facebookadd more plus video so stay tuned.

 

Update on W.E.T. (Whale Entanglement Teams of Central and Northern California): Marine Life Studies coordinated a hands-on water training for W.E.T. in December. Cheryl McCormick, Executive Director of the American Cetacean Society (ACS), joined us. The article about W.E.T. is now available on page 5 of “Spyhopper, ACS Newsletter”.

We purchased more tools for W.E.T. The cache of tools available for the Monterey Bay area is growing. We still need more funding to have a complete kit. I have put in a grant proposal so we can complete the set but will not know until later this year if we will be awarded the grant.

The American Cetacean Society, Monterey Bay Chapter, provided us with a grant of $500 to print Response and Reporting cards on waterproof paper last year. We have distributed all of those throughout central and northern California. But we ran out and needed more so Marine Life Studies just provided funds to print another batch of the cards so we can continue distributing to boaters. If you need a waterproof Response and Reporting card please contact us and we will get some out to you. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped distribute them.

Aloha, Peggy

2009

WOW, we are so excited about BIRDIES FOR CHARITY. It is a tremendous opportunity to show you care by PLEDGING today. Thank you for taking the time to make a difference while at the same time you could win some amazing prizes. It is a Win-Win for everyone.

Joey Jones logo
We are so proud to announce the “Joey Jones Scholarship and Educational Fund”.

Marine Life Studies wanted to honor Joey Jones for all his help and kindness. He was lost at sea on April 3rd, 2008. He was a tremendous asset to the community and has touched the hearts of so many people, both young and old. We wanted to carry on Joey’s legacy by giving opportunities to others and helping them achieve their educational dream while helping to create a sustainable ocean environment and maintain the beauty and abundance of the ocean.

Joey worked hard at bridging the gap between the marine science community and the fishing community through cooperation and dialogue.  There is even a curriculum available to schools built around the work Joey did. It is the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary’s “Fisherman in the Classroom.” For more information contact Voices of the Bay.

It has been a joy working with Joey’s family in launching the “Joey Jones Scholarship and Educational Fund.”  Joey’s sister, Janice Barker, put together a beautiful PowerPoint presentation on Joey’s life, Lisa Jones, Joey’s daughter, did the voiceover, and Mike Jones, Joey’s son, wrote the biography.  It has been a real concerted effort. We are delighted and proud to have Mike and Lisa are on Marine Life Studies Scholarship and Educational Advisory Committee.  


MLS new logoHow you do like the new logo? It was a gift from Manny Espinoza of Espinoza Graphics who designed the logo for Marine Life Studies. Janice (Joey Jone’s sister) was helping me with a logo I was designing from a photograph I had taken in the fall 2008. Janice took it to a Photoshop class she was taking from Manny. Manny was kind enough to take on the project of creating our logo. Well, done Manny  - thank you for the beautiful logo and all your hard work. Please check out his website - www.espinozagraphics.com

Marine Life Studies organized a hands-on water training for W.E.T. (Whale Entanglement Teams of Central and Northern California) for December 1,, 2009. The training was led by the lead for W.E.T. of Central California, Jim Harvey and the lead for W.E.T. of Northern California, Pieter Folkens. The training was a great success with multiple boats used for the training including the “Sheila B” (Moss Landing Marine Lab), the new rib inflatable (Moss Landing Marine Lab), small soft bottom inflatable (Moss Landing Marine Lab), v-bottom inflatable (Bob Talbot’s boat) and “Sweet Pea” (Marine Life Studies).

“Sweet Pea” was used as the “whale” by attaching a wooden replica of a whale tail that had line and fishing net to simulate an entangled whale. Then a couple of the W.E.T. team would get in the small soft bottom inflatable and try to disentangle the line, etc. from the pseudo whale tail. The Sheila B acted as a support boat so when a different tool was needed it could be transferred from the Sheila B to the W.E.T. team in the inflatable. The other boats were used in similar fashion so we could get as much hands-on water training in. We had type I, II and III training for the people on the W.E.T. team and proved to be a very productive training. Luckily the seas were kind to us that day.

Cheryl McCormick from the American Cetacean Society came up for the training and there will be an article upcoming in the “Spyhopper” Newsletter, so look for that.

We were all thrilled to continue our boat-based research surveys on Monterey Bay. It was an amazing season operating our research boat surveys this fall (2009). Marine Life Studies success is due to our amazing, highly skilled, and dedicated volunteer staff. I would like to give them my heartfelt gratitude for all their hard work. It has been a pleasure working with them.

Mary Whitney, Terri Dratt, Victoria Wade, Duane O’Sullivan, Jude Iverson, Homer Holmes, George Black, Topher Mueller, Al Leverette, Dave Schramm, Martijn Stiphout, Lucy Bryant, Ashley Ganer, Angela Kilmer, Kathi Koontz, Dana Riley, Steve Jensen, Willow Jones, Sue & Ron Leinweber, Cathy LaGrand, Dick Stap, Marilyn & Larry Schutz, Sudy Dostal, Jane DeLay, Lisa Crandell, Dida Kutz, Bruce Storrs, Tiffany Thomas, Debbie Waugh, Melanie Wiegner, Chuck Davis, Betsy Collins, Kelly Grace, Karen Kleid, Bruce Thomas, Noel Flores, David Reins, Kate Cummings, and last but not least “Whiskee” our canine research assistant.

Love and Gratitude to all,
Peggy

In 2009 we continued to move forward with the Whale Entanglement Team (W.E.T.) project. You can see on our home page that the W.E.T. now has a dedicated toll-free number and a Response and Reporting card, available on waterproof paper. Please contact us if you would like to get a waterproof card or are interested in helping to distribute them.

Pieter Folkens designed the Response and Reporting card. We all appreciate Pieter's hard work. Pieter is the lead for the W.E.T. in the Northern California area including San Francisco Bay and Jim Harvey of Moss Landing Marine Labs is the lead in Central California including Monterey Bay.

The American Cetacean Society, Monterey Bay Chapter, generously donated $500 toward the printing costs. We have been distributing the cards throughout Central and Northern California with the help of several dedicated volunteers and NOAA including the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. We also have a downloadable flyer that you can pass along. It gives information on how to get a waterproof Response and Reporting card. Please feel free to email it to anyone on the water that you think could use a waterproof card. If you would like printed copies of the flyer please contact us.

We are all anxious and excited to get back out on the water this fall to continue with our research effort. We will conduct boat-based surveys on the water in Monterey Bay. If you are interested in volunteering for Marine Life Studies please contact us. There are many areas in which you can volunteer either on or off the water.

This fall a student from California State University, Monterey Bay will be joining us on our boat surveys. She is a graduate student and wants to do her thesis on the growing problem of marine debris, distribution and density, and impact on marine life (entanglements, ingestion of plastic, etc.). We have already shared our data with her from past seasons. Looking forward to having her onboard.

We encourage students to join us on the project. Please contact us if you are interested. We will be happy to teach you all aspects of the project and proper procedure of research techniques.


The fourth annual Whale Quest Kapalua held in February 2009 was another huge success. Every year I have led one of the Educational Workshops for students that are invited from area schools on Maui. The fifth grade students are delightful and fun to work with. This year I led the workshop on Marine Debris, which is such an important topic. Approximately four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea. The workshop helps the students understand the consequences of choices they make, how it can affect the environment and learn that their actions can bring about positive change.

ChicoBags was so kind to donate their really cool reusable cloth shopping bags for the event. They are a big hit and my favorite reusable shopping bag. ChicoBags are cleverly designed and easy to keep with you. The bags fit in your pocket or purse when they are stuffed into their integrated pouch. The pouch has an attached carabiner to easily hook to your key chain, backpack, belt loop or purse strap. They are so compact I can easily fit 3 or 4 of them in my purse so I always have ChicoBags on hand. ChicoBags makes it easy to kick the single-use bag habit. They make a great gift for any occasion. I actually use them as a gift bag instead of using wrapping paper. The gift of a ChicoBag is a gift that keeps on giving.

Maui is moving forward to kicking the plastic bag habit. It is fantastic that the Maui County Council passed a ban on plastic bags. The ban will go into effect on January 11, 2011. The movement of banning the use of plastic bags is starting to take effect in other areas in the country. Learn what you can do to help end the use of single-use bags in your community.

More yet to come in 2009 so please check back. We encourage you to check out our Donate page. Your support is vital in the accomplishment of our mission and goals. In this tough economic time everyone is stretched pretty thin. Donations all over the country have declined. Whatever you might be able to donate would be greatly appreciated. Check out our "Wish List" as maybe you have some equipment that could be donated. Remember gifts and donations are 100% tax deductible.

FYI, all personnel involved with Marine Life Studies serve as volunteers; we have no paid employees. To this end, all donations are applied directly to the fulfillment of our research, education and conservation mission.

Thank you for all your support especially to our dedicated volunteers. I want to extend a special thank you to Cathy LaGrand of LaGrand Design for generously donating her time to the design and maintenance of the Marine Life Studies website. It always amazes me what she does with the jumble of information I provide her.

I also want to express my gratitude to Sue Leinweber. Sue typed in all the data from the fall 2008 season. It is a very time consuming and tedious job. Sue, thank you very much for generously donating your time.
Aloha,
Peggy

2008

WOW, 2008 has been a very exciting, productive and busy year for Marine Life Studies (MLS). There are so many things to update you on since I have not kept up with the blog like I should. Most exciting for us is the formation of W.E.T. (Whale Entanglement Teams of Central and Northern California). This is a project we actually started working on in the fall of 2006 that was slated as the number one project for MLS to focus our efforts on. It all started with a question, "Why doesn’t California have a coordinated statewide program for disentangling whales like Hawaii?" Mary Whitney, a valuable volunteer for Marine Life Studies as well as the founder of Fluke Foundation, wrote a great article for the American Cetacean Society (ACS) newsletter "Soundings -- the Newsletter of ACS Monterey Bay" October 2008 issue. See the article here.

MLS had a booth at the recent ACS Conference in Monterey, November 15 and 16 to get the word out to the public. We had the tools that MLS purchased in the spring of this year as well as photos of entangled whales and a video courtesy of Ed Lyman and Dave Mattila who are the head of the disentanglement network for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback National Marine Sanctuary (HIHNMS). In fact Ed taught the training and strategy session held at Moss Landing in May that Mary wrote about in the W.E.T. article. The response was great and we even got a few donations for much needed equipment. If you would like to donate for the purchase of tools for the W.E.T. project send to address on donation page and be sure to write on the check or letter that the money donated is specifically for W.E.T.

100% of all monies donated for W.E.T. go to purchasing the equipment that we still need to have a full cache of tools. As with all donations your donation is tax deductible under the guidelines of 501(c)3.


The week after the ACS conference, Cheryl Jennings, News Anchor for ABC7/KGO TV of San Francisco came out to interview us about W.E.T. and learn a little about the research we do on Monterey Bay with MLS. It was a beautiful weather day so we were very lucky. Volunteers of W.E.T. and volunteers of Marine Life Studies were interviewed including Duane O’Sullivan, Jim "Homer" Holm, Bob Talbot and Pieter Folkens (the lead for W.E.T. of Northern California. Jim Harvey is the lead for W.E.T. of Central California but was at an important conference out of state and unfortunately not available for the filming of the piece by Cheryl.)

Now that I have updated you on the success of W.E.T. to keep things simple I will let you know the other exciting things that have happened in 2008 in chronological order.

The winter was very exciting with the volunteer work I do with the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation in Maui. We had an incredible and productive season plus some of my most amazing encounters with the humpbacks.

The premier of "Humpbacks from Fire to Ice" was presented by Ross Isaacs, the director, co-producer and underwater cinematographer on the project at Whale Quest Kapalua in February 2008. "Humpbacks from Fire to Ice" is an intimate film portrait of the first year of a baby humpback whale’s life narrated by David Attenborough. I had the pleasure of working with Ross for part of the making of the film in Maui. Ross Isaacs is an amazing and accomplished cinematographer who was a joy to work with. This film was a labor of love for Ross. He is very passionate about bringing his love of nature to the screen for others to enjoy and his love of animals. Ross has a big heart and gentle soul who cares deeply for the humpbacks as all earth’s creatures.

The Courier Mail in Australia (by the way that is where Ross lives) interviewed Ross about the film and some of the special moments. In the piece Ross talks about the amazing encounter in the water with a mother and her calf. That happened this winter. I was in the water doing stills while Ross was on video. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. The mother was nicknamed "Barnacle Betty" because of her barnacles. Truly an experience I will never forget as at one point "Barnacle Betty" swam right towards me within a couple feet and turned, which was amazing in itself, but then the calf squiggled between me and it’s Mom and touched me. It was the most calm and peaceful thing I have ever experienced. In all my years of research I have never reached out to try and touch a whale or a dolphin. I feel as if I am a guest in their world. So to have a whale touch me was very special. I cried tears of joy as I knew it was a once in a lifetime experience. Both Ross and I were under special federal and state permits with NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service to be in the water.

The Hawaii Whale Research Foundation (HWRF) has done a few projects with the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) over the 30-year span that Dan R. Salden, Ph.D. has been studying the competitive behavior of humpback whales. This year TBS wanted to do a documentary called "Ocean Odyssey", directed by Naomi Kawaguchi. The documentary aired in Japan in March 2008 starring award-winning actor Hideaki Ito.

The filming for the documentary was done in January and February of 2008 in Maui. It was an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of a documentary that would help educate the people of Japan on how research can be done by observing living whales. The film crew was amazing and a lot of fun. The joy on their faces after the encounters we had with the humpbacks was heartwarming. The incredible, magnificent and beautiful humpbacks captured the hearts of all. All that were involved in the project will be great ambassadors’ for the humpbacks in their country of Japan. I was so thrilled to be a part of it.

More to come…… Marine Life Studies had a very productive spring and fall doing surveys on the water in Monterey Bay. Will update more on this soon.
Aloha,
Peggy

2007


Well, in 2007 we had some more boat problems, which limited our days on the water. There were a couple times we got back to the harbor safely on a wing n’ a prayer. But the main thing is we got some more water days out on beautiful Monterey Bay. Nothing makes me happier. While working on the boat hoping to get it running while floating dead in the water (luckily it was a calm, beautiful day), I kept dreaming of the day that we can get our dream "Green Research" boat that runs on renewable fuels. See our "Wish List".

George Black can tell you stories about his first season with us. George is a retired teacher and principal with great boat handling experience. He is actually my dive buddy of 10 years. He drove all the way from Michigan so that I would have one dedicated person every day to help on the project. As you may know the Marine Life Studies (MLS) staff, composed of highly skilled and professional individuals, is entirely volunteer. It was great as George helped with loading and unloading the equipment everyday, set up, and captained the boat. He helped with hydrophone recordings and plankton tows. George was a great asset .

George at work:George and Mary:

The project could not run without our local volunteers. Many thanks go out to Sarah Graham, Danny Frank, Gina Thomas, Martijn Stiphout, and Mary Whitney for all their help on the boat this year.

Since MLS has limited funds to run the project we decided that in 2007 we would concentrate on projects that could make a difference but would not take much cash, just time. So of course a project we actually started working on in the fall 2006 was slated as the number one project to put all our efforts into. The project is to help facilitate a "Whale Rescue Network" for Monterey Bay that has grown to incorporate all of California and coordinate it with existing trained personnel already in place.

Marine debris is increasing which is detrimental to marine life, especially commercial fisheries gear/nets. Whales and dolphins can become entangled in all sorts of manmade debris floating in our oceans. We want Monterey Bay to have a full set of disentanglement tools and annual training for a crew with the expertise to be able to go out when an entangled whale is reported and use their skills to free them. We have been working with Joe Cordaro, the Regional Stranding Coordinator for California and Ed Lyman, Marine Mammal Response Manager for the Hawaiian Islands National Marine Sanctuary (HINMS) on providing more training for large whale disentanglement.

Training will be held in the spring of 2008, date and location to be announced. Contact us to be on the mailing list. Humpbacks are endangered and are one of the whales mostly likely to become entangled because of their curious nature.

If interested in becoming involved, a prerequisite would be to take the following Incident Command training which is free and available on line. There are several levels. Here are the links for levels one and two:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is100.asp
http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is200.asp


Marine Life Studies (MLS) received a $2000 grant from the Fluke Foundation and a $600 donation from private individual toward the purchase of disentanglement tools. MLS placed an order for as many disentanglement tools that the donated money could buy. This is a great start but to have everything needed for the full compliment another $8000 is needed. Donations are welcome and can be designated just for the purchase of disentanglement tools. Remember your donations are tax deductible. Please contact us if you have any question, would like more information about this important project or to become involved.

In some parts of the ocean there are 6 lbs of plastic for every pound of fish. During our own research in 2007 we actually documented more sightings of garbage than we did of marine mammals while doing our boat transects. We had 53 sightings of garbage and only 40 sightings of marine mammals.

" Impacts of larger debris have been well-documented over the years, including marine mammal, fish and seabird mortalities caused by ingestion causing starvation and suffocation, and entanglement. Research into the impacts of smaller debris is emerging, but it is known already that small plastic debris is ingested by marine life at all levels of the marine food web, from zooplankton to the largest marine mammals."
[The above excerpt is from: MUNICIPAL BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR CONTROLLING TRASH AND DEBRIS IN STOMRWATER AND URBAN RUNOFF
Prepared and Written By:
Miriam Gordon, California Coastal Commission
Ruth Zamist, Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Project]

See http://www.plasticdebris.org/ and click on BMPs for Trash & Debris [Trash_BMPs_for_Munis.pdf]
4 Laist, D.W. 1997. Impacts of marine debris: entanglement of marine life in marine debris including a comprehensive list of species with entanglement and ingestion records. pp. 99-140. In: J.M. Coe and D.B. Rogers (eds.), Marine Debris: Sources, Impacts, and Solutions. Springer-Verlag. New York, NY


Marine debris is on the rise:
We had more sightings of garbage than we did of marine mammals during our research surveys in 2007 on Monterey Bay. We had 53 sightings of garbage and only 40 sightings of marine mammals.
Below is a breakdown of the type of garbage for each sighting in 2007:
53 Total Sightings of Garbage:
Breakdown by type:
Total of 15 sightings of balloons
Total of 1 sightings of cardboard
Total of 15 sightings of paper
Total of 20 sightings of plastic
Total of 2 sightings of Styrofoam. As you know balloons are a pet peeve of mine but also plastic shopping bags. Plastic bags kill an estimated 100,000 marine animals annually. so please choose to use reusable and cloth shopping bags instead.

You probably have heard about the North Pacific Gyre that is a huge area of floating marine debris twice the size of Texas. It is essentially plastic stew floating just below the surface in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. For more information check out these web pages:
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml
http://www.algalita.org/breaking_news/research_voyage_2005.html
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

2006


A major threat to whales, dolphins and other marine animals throughout the world is the contamination of their habitat. An important part of our mission is to reduce contamination and to help foster a respect for the environment. During our efforts on the water in 2006 I was astonished at how much garbage we saw. We had a total of 46 sightings of garbage. Twenty-two of the 46 sightings were of balloons. Balloons are a pet peeve of mine.

Please dispose of balloons properly. Do not let balloons loose into the atmosphere. Balloons travel incredibly far. Even when released inland they can end up in the ocean. Please spread the word that balloons can mean death for marine animals.

See www.savethewhales.org for an alternative to using balloons for birthdays, grand openings, and other festivities.

Leatherback turtles are endangered so each and every one of them is critical for the survival of the species. Leatherback turtles eat jellyfish. A balloon in the water can be mistaken for it's favorite food. Balloons, plastic bags, styrofoam, and trash floating in the water all can be mistaken as food and the turtles die when this trash blocks their intestines.

Link for more info on leatherback turtles,
and a link for a children's activity called “Protecting Leatherback Turtles from Balloons” that shows them how a balloon can look like a jellyfish to a turtle.
You can make a difference. Please properly dispose of your garbage. Celebrate events without the use of balloon releases.


Below is a breakdown of the type of garbage for each sighting in 2006:
46 Total Sightings of Garbage:
Breakdown by type:
Total of 22 sightings of balloons
Total of 1 sightings of cardboard
Total of 3 sightings of paper
Total of 11 sightings of plastic
Total of 1 sightings of plastic bottle
Total of 3 sightings of plastic water bottle
Total of 1 sightings of plastic/paper
Total of 2 sightings of Styrofoam
Total of 1 sightings of unknown material
Total of 1 sightings of wood

What I find really alarming and sad is that we had 46 sightings of garbage compared to only 69 total sightings of dolphins, whales, and other marine animals. This is a wake up call that more outreach needs to be done to educate the public in disposing of balloons and other garbage properly. An individual can really make a difference and help ocean life by spreading the word.

Up to September 28, 2006

longbeakeddolphinI met the Earthrace team in Monterey as I went down to talk to them about my dream of eventually having a research vessel that runs on biodiesel fuel. "Earthrace is a bid to break the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a powerboat, and using only renewable fuels. The program includes an 18-month tour calling at 60 of the worlds' great cities, promoting fuels like biodiesel, and raising awareness about sustainable use of resources."



Photo by Mich Nelson.


After hosting the Earthrace team at my house the weekend of August 26th, they left Monterey (check out their website at www.earthrace.net to continue their North American tour. They will be trying to beat the world record of circumnavigating the globe all on biodiesel in March 2007.  Pete Bethune, the skipper and the one who had the vision for the boat, came back to Monterey while the crew was in San Francisco for servicing. Pete stayed the whole week at my house working on paperwork and phone calls.

On Friday, Sept 1st Earthrace was in Santa Cruz so Sarah Graham and myself met them. We helped them sell t-shirts and DVD’s. We also presented them with a net on behalf of Marine Life Studies to help us in our efforts to pick up trash while on their tour. See article by Ruth Carlson at: www.talkintravel.com/westernus/earthrace.html.

After the Earthrace team left Santa Cruz, John Allen, one of the Earthrace volunteers came back and stayed with me for a week as he had sponsors to meet with in the bay area while the rest of the team continued the tour in southern California. So for about 2 weeks my dining room table was the temporary office of Earthrace. While he was here, John was so impressed by our Marine Life Studies project that he donated $100 on behalf of Earthrace. Thank you Earthrace!


To help raise much needed money for the Marine Life Studies (MLS) project we had a fundraising garage sale Sept 2nd & 3rd.  We had lots of shoppers. Thank you for your support. I especially want to thank all the wonderful people who donated items for the garage sale. The outpouring from the community was heartwarming.

On September 9th and 10th Marine Life Studies (MLS) participated in Whale Fest on Fisherman’s Wharf.  This was a good way for us to let the community know what Marine Life Studies is all about. We held a raffle to help raise funds. Bob Talbot and Patagonia donated items for the raffle, which was great and very generous of them. We also raffled off a couple items for Earthrace and that money went to their cause. List of winners:
1) Carrie Pitkin - Roseville, CA [Talbot poster]
2) Kim Woltman - Monterey, CA [Talbot poster]
3) Brent Williamson - Marina, CA [Talbot poster]
4) Tiffany Thomas - Lahaina, Maui [Earthrace poster]
5) Benji Shake (not sure what city he lives in) [green fleece Patagonia jacket]
6) Dana Riley - Carmel, CA [Green Patagonia Vest]
7) Deborah Ferreira - Tracy, CA [Talbot poster]
8) Holly Widener - Seaside, CA [Green flowered Patagonia fleece pullover]
9) Peter Bruno – Monterey, CA [Talbot video]
10) Greg Wiese - Citrus Heights, CA [Earthrace video]
 
A big thanks to the community who attended Whale Fest and to the MLS volunteers who worked the booth.

After Whale Fest, one of our MLS volunteers, Tif Thomas, and myself met the Earthrace team in Newport Beach and went with them to San Diego. We assisted them with projects and cleaning the boat as well as helping them sell DVD’s and t-shirts for their cause.

When Tif and I returned from San Diego the fuel line for the research boat finally came in and we were able to install it. We launched the boat on September 17th. We were very excited. Since the ocean conditions were not real favorable we just did safety drills. The next day we were able to get out but had to come in early as the winds picked up. Due to the ocean conditions we did not get where there was a killer whale report. But we did find 6 different sightings of balloons, which we did pick up.

Balloons are a pet peeve of Marine Life Studies as they are very detrimental to marine life. Balloons can mean death to turtles, whales, dolphins, seals and other marine life. They may ingest it innocently believing it is food such as a jellyfish or squid. Please do not release balloons outside. Please dispose of them properly by puncturing them and throwing them in the trash.  See www.savethewhales.org/balloon.html for alternatives to balloons for celebrations such as birthdays, grand openings, birth of a child, etc.


The weather conditions on the ocean were finally good so the weekend of September 23rd we got all the equipment ready to go out. Howard from the Elkhorn Yacht Club called as he noticed the boat sitting low in the water. The boat had been in the slip for 5 days and there was a lot of water in the boat. Had to bilge out the boat and checked it over. Let it set overnight thinking we had the problem solved but there was some water in the boat the next day. Decided not to go out but instead to pull the boat out of the water. There was a slow leak where one of the ground wires ran through the stern. So we will be doing some repairs. That is how it is sometimes in the life of a research team.


blog from Earthrace Captain Pete Bethune...

"After San Francisco we had a series of great promotions. Monterey, Morro Bay and Ventura were all awesome, with lots of people through the boat and plenty of media. We met a few more people who're now helping us. We also made stops in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. Peggy Stap, alias the Pegster, took us all under her wing."


August 28, 2006

I want to thank all of you that came over for the greet and meet pot luck. It was so nice to meet all of you. We are very fortunate to have such nice and enthusiastic people on our team.

Just wanted to update you to where we are at with the boat. Someone had vandalized the boat trying to steal the fuel from it and damaged the fuel line. Sarah ordered the fuel line and will be in this week so will update you as to when we will be able to get the boat in the water.

It was a very exciting weekend in Monterey. Sarah gave me a call and said I had to check this boat out down at the wharf called Earthrace which was a "green" boat run 100% on Biodiesel from New Zealand and chat with them. It was great. Talked with John Allen, one of the crew as well as the one in charge of looking for sponsors. They were going to take a sponsor out that evening and asked about where to find the whales. Gave a call to one of our Captain friends and he gave me the coordinates for the Earthrace Team. Then he invited myself and Sarah to help them sight the whales and be the "Naturalists" on board. Plus they were looking to find a hotel that might sponsor them at a discounted rate. Told him if I had some lead time I probably could of set it up but finding a place mid-afternoon on a Saturday in Monterey is nearly impossible. So I offered them to stay with me. So Saturday night the whole crew of 5 stayed (plus a couple gals from the Netherlands). So check out their website. They will be in Santa Cruz on Thurs and Fri of this week.

This weekend we are having a garage sale in Monterey on Sat & Sun (Sept 2nd & 3rd) to raise money for our project. If anyone has anything they want to donate please give me a call at 831-901-3833 (and if anyone would like to give us a hand at the garage sale we would appreciate it). While manning the garage sale we are going to put together the display boards for Whale Fest which is on Sept 9th and 10th.

Aloha,
Peggy

Some photos taken under National Marine Fisheries Service Research Permits #1094 & #782.

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