Back to the mainland

Aloha!  Yep, I had to say hello and goodbye Maui.  Wow !  What an amazing experience.  I learned so much that I can carry forward with me.  I think one of the most important thins I learned was that I LOVE doing field research.  Whether it is rain or shine, windy, hot or chilly, I will take it - bring it on :)  I suspected this would be the case, but after 3 weeks of being outside every day for at least 4 hours each day, I got a confirmation.  Here are a couple of pictures of me in action:



Working with the theodolyte.  This piece
of equipment has 30x magnification, so
one we found a pod, we could track them
more closely through this. 



Here I am on a rainy day, sitting
on a rock, tracking a pod of
whales.  High powered horizontal
binoculars take some practice. 

Here's a summary of how my time was spent: approx 4 hours in the field tracking whales, approx 4 hours to reconcile the data collected in the field to prepare for turn in.  About 2-3 hours in class at night.  Also in the three weeks we were there, we read a text book and nearly 100 articles, in addition to exams and papers due so spent ALOT of time studying.  Which is great (honestly) beause I learned so much!  We had a few guest speakers in class including: Kalasara Setaysha, David Mattila, David Rothenberg, and Mike Moran.  We also got to attend a benefit concert for the WhaleSong in the beautiful city of Paia.  In my free time, I ate, slept and ran.  Also, we were able to go on a whale friendly whale watching tour.  Here are a couple of pictures from that - I really saw this with my own eyes!:

We were very lucky to see some whales up close and it was amazing, for sure. 

All in all, it was an awesome experience.  I learned so much and came away with some new perspectives!  Here is a picture of the team:

From left to right: Carly, Laura (our team leader), Jenny, (me), Jillian & Chloe
Awesome Team #2!!

If I get the opportunity to do this kind of research again, I will gladly jump on it.   If you have any questions or want to know more about my experience, just ask!