Gearing up for sea

Mar 30, 2016

Gearing up for seaWe are gearing up for sea. Had to tweak travel a bit as there are no flights into San Felipe and car rental is only round trip.  So team member James Wise will fly with us to Sand Diego and drop us off in San Felipe and then drive the car back to San Deigo - 4 hours each way!  Also, had to tweak budget plan as the university funds cannot be used for non-university personnel. Thus, we will use university funds for analysis and hydrophone and use Experiment funds for airfare.  Trying to ship crossbows now - frenetic time!

Laura C. Savery, Ph.D., Angelica, and 7 others like this.

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Kunchong ShiBacker

Best wishes with this important adventure!!!! We will look forward to the results to compare with human studies that showed a continuous increase in metal levels. You know China has about 60 millions acres of farm land polluted with heavy metals and somehow the pollutants will leak into the rivers and eventually to the oceans and been picked up by all kinds of human friends living in the sea! Good bye and good luck!!!!!

Apr 20, 20160

Priscilla DoucetteBacker

We are looking forward to pictures and blog about the trip and Mark's crossbow skills.

Mar 30, 20161

Nancy EricksonBacker

Great !!! Hope all goes well.

Mar 30, 20161

Melissa CholgerBacker

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to following this experiment.

Mar 30, 20161

About This Project

Are Pollutant Levels Changing in Marine Life? A Case Study of Metal Levels in Whales in the Sea of Cortez

Wise Laboratory Field Research Program, a project of The Ocean Foundation

Metal pollution in the ocean is a worldwide concern. We study the impact of metals, such as mercury, chromium and lead, on whales. Metals can accumulate in whale tissues, but its poorly understood how these metal levels change over time. In 2000, we analyzed metal levels in whales from the Sea of Cortez. Now, 16 years later we plan to return to the Sea of Cortez to measure how whale metal levels have changed. These data will help in the conservation and protection of these important animals.