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2018 field work!

sharkman

sharkman

Master at Arms
I think most of you know I'm a marine biologist by trade and focus on shark research. Every January for 2 weeks though I head out to a little island off Nova Scotia called Sable Island to conduct some field research on grey seals ( always good to look at the prey species too!). A bit of a working vacation for me.

We typically travel out to the island by Canadian Coast Guard chopper (typically this has been on Messerschmidt Bo 105's, Bell 212's or Bell 429's) or by a Twin Otter. I just found out that we'll be taking a brand new Bell 412 this year. Should be fun!

:geek
 
Sable Island, that's cool. They have wild horses that were shipwrecked years ago don't they?
 
Lucky dog.

In a related note, I was surprised to hear about the Threshers washing up off of Cape Cod this past week. I thought seawater never got colder than 36 F to begin with (it rises as ice forms, but I may be confusing this with water at depth or even freshwater at depth) as well as the Gulf Stream and then the bit about ice forming on gills all took me by surprise.

Is this a common issue?
 
moon puppy said:
Sable Island, that's cool. They have wild horses that were shipwrecked years ago don't they?
Click to expand...

That's correct Bob, there are wild horses there but it is a common myth that they are descended from shipwrecked horses. The horses were brought there intentionally as they had a small settlement there for years to man several life saving stations to helped shipwrecked sailors and to try to recover cargos and materials from the ships.
 
ausf said:
Lucky dog.

In a related note, I was surprised to hear about the Threshers washing up off of Cape Cod this past week. I thought seawater never got colder than 36 F to begin with (it rises as ice forms, but I may be confusing this with water at depth or even freshwater at depth) as well as the Gulf Stream and then the bit about ice forming on gills all took me by surprise.

Is this a common issue?
Click to expand...

I just checked out the news article because this was the first I heard of it. Looks like the White Shark Conservancy on Cape Cod and my colleagues in MA checked them out. They said they likely had suffered from cold shock.

Threshers are a "warm water" species, generally migrating in waters and staying in the 15-20 C range (60 - 70 F). I believe they can tolerate waters as low as 10 C (48 F) but that is rare. The waters off the Cape are typically around 38 F this time of year so if they happened to come in off a warm eddy from the Gulf Stream and they strayed into the cooler waters it would have been too much of a shock for them.

The ice probably formed on the gills after they were beached and sea water doesn't freeze until a few degrees below freezing because of the salt content. I've seen it as low as 34 F. I'd have to check with an oceanographer about what happens at depth, water can do a. lot of weird things at depth!
 
sharkman said:
moon puppy said:
Sable Island, that's cool. They have wild horses that were shipwrecked years ago don't they?
Click to expand...

That's correct Bob, there are wild horses there but it is a common myth that they are descended from shipwrecked horses. The horses were brought there intentionally as they had a small settlement there for years to man several life saving stations to helped shipwrecked sailors and to try to recover cargos and materials from the ships.
Click to expand...

Ahhh..thanks, I might be thinking of another colony of wild horses off NC coast.
 
sharkman said:
ausf said:
Lucky dog.

In a related note, I was surprised to hear about the Threshers washing up off of Cape Cod this past week. I thought seawater never got colder than 36 F to begin with (it rises as ice forms, but I may be confusing this with water at depth or even freshwater at depth) as well as the Gulf Stream and then the bit about ice forming on gills all took me by surprise.

Is this a common issue?
Click to expand...

I just checked out the news article because this was the first I heard of it. Looks like the White Shark Conservancy on Cape Cod and my colleagues in MA checked them out. They said they likely had suffered from cold shock.

Threshers are a "warm water" species, generally migrating in waters and staying in the 15-20 C range (60 - 70 F). I believe they can tolerate waters as low as 10 C (48 F) but that is rare. The waters off the Cape are typically around 38 F this time of year so if they happened to come in off a warm eddy from the Gulf Stream and they strayed into the cooler waters it would have been too much of a shock for them.

The ice probably formed on the gills after they were beached and sea water doesn't freeze until a few degrees below freezing because of the salt content. I've seen it as low as 34 F. I'd have to check with an oceanographer about what happens at depth, water can do a. lot of weird things at depth!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

What I had in me head was from dive training. I know I've read 36 on a gauge at around 100 feet and was told any cooler and it starts to rise, that 36 was the threshold, but again, it might be freshwater as I most of my cold water diving was fresh and the beginning of the training season was in March, so no thermoclines, brutal from the surface on down.

Years ago (may still be there), there was a chain link cage setup off the Rockaways in NYC that divers could go and sit in the fall/early winter months and watch the parade of all these tropicals on their one way Gulf Stream trip to the North Atlantic. I never went to it, I prefer my tropical watching to happen in nice bath water temps where all I need is a BC. I never got comfortable in dry suits, always felt too much of my life depends on a zipper, I'd almost always prefer shorter dives wet in a quarter inch suit.
 
Just a reminder shark city is where the great whites go to play with theyr food

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFgyFLbLejE
 
So, back from another trip! We were successful in following our marked females and the pups they had this year, plus we tagged a bunch of females with satellite tags to track where they go. These are grey seals we are working with.

On the flight out
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The west tip of the island. You can see how narrow it is here. All the black/dark blobs are seals or horses. the island is shaped like a crescent moon, about 1 km wide and about 44 km long
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Coming in for a landing. you can see the house/field camp we use for the field season on the right.
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A mom and pup pair. She's sporting her new satellite tag on her head. the females weigh about 150-180 kg (~350-400 lbs)
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The old Bren gun carrier out there is slowly being consumed by the island
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A pup feeding with a big male in the background
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The old west light tower during a sunrise
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lastly, one of the new Canadian coast guard Bell 412 to take us home! This new one with the 4 blade rotor and auto pilot was a much smoother ride than the old 212 with the twin blades.
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B)
 
sharkman said:
lastly, one of the new Canadian coast guard Bell 412 to take us home! This new one with the 4 blade rotor and auto pilot was a much smoother ride than the old 212 with the twin blades.
h4a28995.JPG


B)
Click to expand...

The 412 (CH146 for us) is a much nicer ride than the 212 (former CH135) especially when they have the airline seats in place of the troop seats. Many years ago I flew from Cold Lake to Winnipeg in a CH135 with troop seats and a hockey sock of test gear in the cabin with us. I think we were all vibrating for a couple of days after we got there. We felt slightly better when we stopped to refuel in Yorkton, Sk and met a Kiowa crew on day 3 of their trip from Valcartier, Qc to Wainwright, Ab.

Cheers,
Rich
 
Fantastic pics Warren! Looks like you had a blast while working. It's great to see places like this and others all over. Thanks for posting all this; it was fun traveling with you vicariously.
 
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