Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/16/2008 - 11:05
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Drake Passage Opening

What other info can you give us about the whales?size?gender?noises? color?Hannah and Kyleigh and Mila

Why is the island named Elephant island?Sam

have you seen any seals,sharks,dolphins or other large mammals?Eli

Why is it called the otter trawl?Liam

What are the scientists going to do if the otter trawl doesn't pick up enough corals?Manoa

Thank You Mrs. Pena! Weare looking forward to hearing your stories when you return! Ms. Brosko

 

 

Mon, 05/19/2008 - 09:03

Katie Pena

Hi Ms. Brosko's class! Thanks for your great questions!
Hannah, Kyleigh, and Mila, we saw both Humpback and Fin whales. They were both about 10 meters in length and mostly blackish in color. The Humpback had a really cool blow hole. It was 2-3 meters high with a V-shape and really bushy. The whales also were very active, doing flipper- slapping and lobtailing. We could not hear any noises on the ship, but we did have a sonobuoy in the water, which did hear the whales making noise-- it was very cool.
Sam, I have been waiting for this question-- Elephant Island was named because of the many Elephant Seals that live there. We unfortunately did not get to see any, bummer.
Eli, the only large mammals that we have seen so far are whales.
Liam, the otter trawl is named because of the way it moves along the seafloor-- like a big otter swimming along. The Blake trawl was named after the person who created it.
Manoa, the otter trawl is not really designed for this type of seafloor because its net can get very easily destroyed by all the big dropstones that lie on top of the sediment. The Blake trawl was perfect because the big metal part had a bar in the front that blocked all the big rocks from getting into the net and it also was designed to dig into the sediment, which is great for collect both living and fossilized corals. It is very sad that we no longer have it available. The good news is that we have created a new and improved box dredge! A net was created to put inside the box dredge that helped protect and gather the corals much better. Also, extra weight was added to the frame of the box dredge that allows it to dig further into the sediment. The best news of all is that it worked!! We collected a good amount of fossilized corals with this new design! Scientists have to be very creative sometimes, so many things can change and are very unknown out here! Hopefully it continues to work!
I am also looking forward to sharing even more of my adventure when I get home!
Mrs. Pena