Vaquita: Research Techniques

Summary: Scientific research into the natural history of animals is incredibly important. Join Kiersten as she talks about the ways we are researching the vaquita.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: 

Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez by Brooke Bessesen

Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp

Vaquita Conservation Organizations

porpoise.org

 

Transcript

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

 

This episode continues the vaquita and the fourth thing I like about the vaquita is how we are researching them!

 

There are two incredibly important ways we are researching vaquitas. If you’ve listened to the preceding episodes you know that vaquitas are very shy animals. They are notoriously hard to spot when looking for them from boats, but visual observation is one of the best ways we have of studying them. 

 

Researchers with a lot of patience, have actually compiled an identification guide using the dorsal fins of the vaquitas. Each dorsal fin is unique unto its owner. They have a particular curve, a notch or scar from some injury or encounter in its life that makes them easy to recognize. The dorsal fin always breaches the surface each time a vaquita needs to breath, so it makes them the perfect identification tool.  

 

To study an animal that lives in the water you need a boat or a ship that can get you where you need to go. Most researchers can’t afford to buy a boat or even rent a boat when they need to gather data, and some research institutions do not have their own boats either, but luckily, there are non-profit conservation organizations that are often willing to save a seat for a scientist. 

 

The Sea Shepard is one of those organizations. The Sea Shepherd’s main goal is to protect marine wildlife all over the world. Since the time we have determined that the vaquitas population is declining, the Sea Shepherd Organization has been involved. I’m going to discuss the vaquita conservation efforts this organization is helping with in the next podcast, but they are always happy to provide spotting opportunities to researchers. 

 

The Sea Shepherd organization has several ships of different sizes that they pilot for the various missions they are involved in. Some of these ships have been used in the Sea of Cortez for both conservation efforts and research opportunities. These ships are often staffed by volunteers that help scan the horizon for animal activity in the water. High-powered military binoculars called Big Eyes are mounted to the deck of most of their ships and are capable of swiveling to search the horizon easily. These binoculars have a magnification power of 25x150 which allows for visual clarity at exceptional distances helping scientists see activity clearly up to a mile away. Which is a good thing because the shy tendencies of the vaquita make it hard to approach too closely.

 

Volunteers and scientists will also use their own personal binoculars, as well ,increasing the chances of spotting vaquita activity. Since the Sea of Cortez is one of the most biologically diverse bodies of water on the planet, many variety of animals are often spotted and each sighting is documented and rejoiced no matter what species it is. Visual sightings are only one way we are currently studying the vaquita, though.

 

The second way we are researching the vaquita has to do with sound, but it’s not sound that we can hear. All porpoises use echolocation to hunt for food. The vaquita does this too. Using special equipment, researchers can use their echolocation calls to find the vaquitas.

 

Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, also known as INECC, is using devices called c-pods to “listen” for vaquitas in the Sea of Cortez. Brooke Bessesen, in her book Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez, describes c-pods as “self-contained ultrasound monitors that select tonal clicks and record the time, duration and other features of each click to 5-microseconds resolution.” These devices are essentially recording the echolocation calls of the vaquita.

 

Okay, how exactly do they work? These are water proof devices that run on batteries and record data onto memory cards that can be removed to access the data later. They are deposited throughout a chosen range within the Sea of Cortez, specifically within the Vaquita Refuge area. Passive acoustic monitoring technology, also known as PAM, is loaded on these devices. This technology triggers the recording function whenever it detects the sounds of vaquita echolocation clicks. The c-pods used by INECC can run for up to five months recording every encounter the whole time.

 

The c-pod can record vaquita clicks up to 1300 feet away and  also documents time, duration, center frequency, intensity, bandwidth, and can even extrapolate a frequency trend. When analyzing the data, researchers need to focus on individual clicks and the number of clicks emitted by vaquita to obtain the most precise analysis of the data. These c-pod excel at this type of recording. 

 

C-pods are typically deployed from mid-June to mid-September. This is the off season for fisherman. This time of year is chosen because there is much less traffic on the water which decreases the odds of these expensive research devices being accidentally, or purposely, caught up and carried away by fisherman. 

 

To make sure the incredibly important data these devices record can be used, precise maps must be kept as to where the c-pods are positioned in the water. Each device is attached to a rope with a buoy on the end to mark where it has been dropped. Every few weeks employees of INECC with the help of local fisherman employed during the off season will retrieve the c-pods and replace them with fresh units. The c-pods will be placed in different areas throughout the Sea of Cortez. Moving them around has provided us with a more accurate idea of how much of this area is used by the vaquitas. It has also offered us a more reliable count of how many vaquitas are living in the Sea of Cortez.

 

I find it interesting sounds that we cannot hear have given us the most accurate count of an animal that is so difficult for us to see!

 

Thank you for joining me on this journey into how we are researching the vaquita it is my fourth favorite thing about the vaquita. 

 

Please visit porpoise.org to find out even more about the vaquita and to discover what you can do to help this unique animal.

 

Join me next week for an in-depth look at the conservation status of the vaquita and the efforts we are taking to ensure the survival of this mysterious porpoise. 

 

(Piano Music plays) 

This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.