"Call Me Katie" - My Adventures with Humpback Whales in Panama

Hey everyone. I'm posting this a day late, but wanted to fill you all in on the activities of our first "real" field day. A.A and I met our advisor Hector, an undergrad intern he has working for him and Carlos, another assistant in his lab, at 6:30 on the docks outside the laboratories (Naos). Hector wanted to take us out into the Las Perlas islands so we could see the area we would be doing our field work. We also visited Contadora, one of the populated islands in the archipelago, so we could get a feel for the neighborhood and scope out the hotel/hostel rates as we may be staying on the island one or two nights during the season. The first step of the process was to load the boat into the water. Due to the high volume of rain and storms during the wet season, many boat owners opt to keep their boats out of the water in marinas when not in use. There are several boats that get sunk every storm due to the high waves and you can see several masts sticking out of the wat...

Passport - check Camera - check Phone (the mandatory first Harry Potter book on tape) - check Rainjacket - check More clothes than I'll probably need for a month and a half - big check Long airport layover in a thunderstorm- check....  Hello all! It's been a little while since I posted about my activities. I'm currently sitting in the Atlanta Airport en route to Panama City, where I will be for the next month and a half. But I guess I should back up and give a quick readers-digest-version update of what I've been up to since the last time I posted..... Last fall I started a PhD program at Arizona State University (ASU) for Conservation and Animal Behavior. The degree is officially called Biology and Society and additionally I am also part of the 4E Academic Center, which stands for "Ecology, Economics and Ethics of the Environment." As the name implies, the focus of the center is to educate students on all aspects of conservation, not just the traditi...