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The Wrap Up...

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Contrary to what the title of the post may lead you to believe, this  may  not be the  last  post I will make to this blog. While this season in Panama has come to a close, it is likely that there will be future trips there, (or maybe elsewhere??) which may call on me to restart this blog.  On the second to last week of the trip, my ASU advisor and another of the project advisors/consultants (in charge of the social science/economic surveys), came down to Panama to visit the field site and to workshop the project plans. Together with my main project advisor, his intern, A.A and I all stayed out on the island of Contadora for a week (6 total). We spent the days going out to search for whales with one of the local fishermen, editing and test-driving the surveys some more and brainstorming/discussing the next steps of the project. We finally got to see some really awesome whale behavior. including fluke and pectoral fin slaps, some breaching, spy hops and lots of great tail-up dive
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Pedasi

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Hi guys. As promised here is the second post of the week! Currently writing this in the Atlanta airport on the way back to Boston. There's a part of me that is very sad and confused to leave, but I also am really looking forward to being home (at least for a few days...) seeing my noodle-dog and my parents and friends again. Without any ado - this post is about A.A and my trip to Pedasi, which is a small fishing town about 5 hours from Panama City. We decided to travel here primarily as a scouting-mission, the intention being that in the future this would be a good place for us to study whale behavior as well as survey whale-watching tourists. Pedasi is closer to the western shores of the country, where the islands of Coiba are located, which is still a relatively undisturbed part of the country (due to its remote location). In other words, the whale watching/tourism industry are still in their relatively nascent stages and Coiba could potentially represent the "control"
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Surrey-Bergmans in Panama

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Hey everyone, Due to my negligence in posting as regularly as I promised myself, I am going to make it up by posting twice this week. That's right - two for the price of one! :) (However I'm going to cheat a bit as this first post is mainly going to be photos - but I know that's what most people want to see anyway)... So my parents came down to visit me for a few days. They had never been to Panama before, so they had a good time seeing the sights - they arranged for a tour of the famous Panama Canal locks, Casco Viejo (old city) and I took them to see my office, meet my advisor and also to visit Gamboa, the small town located along the canal that is about an hour outside the city and is where I did my ASU-STRI program back in January. We took an aerial tram that is located about 15 minutes from the property, which includes an audio tour (like the ones they have in art museums) that gives a very informative and thorough background on the ecology of region as well as
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