Get Your Groove On

"There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good."

Above: Me and Khalil are in the middle, pretending to be mobsters in NYC on New Year's 2006

I talked to my mom the other day and she said she was picking out songs for grandma and grandpa's 50th party. The song I picked is called the "Cupid Shuffle." I learned the shuffle the first time when I was visiting Khalil, Mackey, and Farrah over the summer in Detroit. It's a pretty popular dance back on the eastside of Michigan and I figured I'd bring it to the 50th celebration. I didn't know mom's side of the family enjoyed dancing so much (must be where I get it from), and I think you all will really love this dance. It's really easy to learn and I think it'd be great if people practiced a bit before we got together and then we could all dance together. I'm really excited for everyone to try it. Please let me know how the practice sessions go!

How to do the Cupid Shuffle (everything is on a four count beat so it's super easy ~ everyone young and old could really boogie to it):

Four steps right
Four steps left
Four kicks to the front (beginning with the right, then alternating)
Then "walk it out" for 1/4 turn

Here is a video on YouTube where the dancers are doing it to the song... good to practice to (like I totally know Jen and Jo will do) before we all get together and can have fun with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExC1oGN5J28&feature=related

*** On a more serious note, I'm happy people enjoyed the sketches. I wanted to make them as elementary as possible because I'm not a skilled painter... yet. The more cartoonie the better! I'll be sure to post more pics as soon as I paint them. I'm glad Joelle enjoyed our phone call the other day. I've grown up without having much contact with my cousins, something I really wish would have been different. Many of my friends have family that lives much closer to them and their cousins are their best friends. I'm not bitter... I just have learned to appreciate the times that I'm able to talk with family and welcome all phone calls, preferably after 7pm Pacific Time so my phone bill isn't outrageous. I want all my family who's reading this to know that I love you all very much and appreciate your continued interest in and support of my dreams. I would like to dedicate the following quote by David Copperfield to my family, young and old alike: "I learned that there were two ways I could live my life: following my dreams or doing something else. Dreams aren't a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. When I dream, I believe I am rehearsing my future." I hope you all follow your dreams. It's never too late to start pursuing them!

Paint Me Local

"Life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it!" ~ Danny Kaye

I was so excited about beginning to paint that I sketched on each piece of canvas I bought. I bought two 8x10s and a 24x10 piece of canvas. The large canvas has a scene of J-pod with the mountains in the background. As I said before, it’s not going to be super realistic, but hopefully it will be good enough to put up in our living room. The smaller canvases have individual whales on them. One whale is swimming through bull kelp and the other is jumping out of the water. I’m going to use the smaller ones for practice. I’ll probably find paint at the drug store after my mom deposits my check. I thought it was difficult to sketch on the canvas because erase marks show up and don’t fully get rid of the pencil lines. I will just have to paint over what I erased. For example, if you look at the kelp picture you can see the word “orca,” in the top left corner. I was going to paint animals and put their names in the top like in a kid’s room. However, I thought that looked too juvenile and got rid of it. The word is still a bit visible and I can’t wait to paint it away. Hopefully once I paint them they will look better, not worse. I haven’t taken an art class since my sophomore year of high school and I hope this project isn’t a waste of time.

I also have begun reading one of the books I brought. It's called Letters from a Skeptic by Dr. Gregory Boyd. It's a compilation of letters between a father and son in which they debate the ideas of God, Religion, and truth of the Bible. The father, a 70-year-old atheist, debates with his Christian son, Dr. Boyd, by asking the questions we all want to know. The questions I focused on in my last reading were about why Christianity has done so much harm (i.e. the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition) and how come a "loving God" allows so much suffering in the world. I was happy the father asked such good questions because I often find myself wondering the same things. How could a loving God who is "all powerful" allow such terrible things like wars, famine, and rape to occur? I was happy with how Dr. Boyd responded to his father's questions. He said, "If God is going to give free wills to His creatures, He has to allow the possibility of them misusing that freedom, even if it means hurting others. A freedom that is prevented from being exercised whenever it was going to be misused simply wouldn't be freedom." If you give someone five dollars, and stepped in every time they were going to spend the money unwisely, is it really their money? Did you really give them anything? The answer is quite simply, no. The next question is, "Is the risk of freedom worth all the suffering?" Of course to the people suffering, I'm sure it is not. However, with the ability to experience great pain comes the ability to experience great love. "To refuse to create a world where love was possible because the risk was too great seems beneath us. Love is really the only reason worth creating. It's not freedom for the sake of freedom - it's risked for love. " There are many more valid points in the book that I won't go into for the sake of time... I need to be back to work at noon for a tour, but I highly recommend this book so far and think it does a great job to capture the dialog between faith and its skeptics. No matter what you believe, it is an interesting read and worth looking into.

I consider myself becoming more "local" everyday. I'm starting to paint, I read, I'm going to be riding my bike to work, and I love discussing environmental issues. What's gotten into me? hahaha. It must be the whales...

Driftwood

"What is life? Is it the flash of a firefly at night? Is it the breath of a buffalo in the winter time? Is it the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset?"

~ Crowfoot Indians ~

I know I said I wasn’t going to talk too much about the trips on this blog, but I can’t help but talk about what we saw yesterday. Although we didn’t see orca, we had an amazing encounter with the Dall’s Porpoises in Haro Strait. The Dall’s are pretty playful and love to approach the boats and ride in the bow wave. Although it doesn’t happen often, they swam right up to us and rode in our wake. It was so incredible to see them up close. From a distance, they look pretty small (especially compared to the orca), but when you see them up close, you realize just how big they truly are. They were about 6.5 feet long and weigh a few hundred pounds. They’re a pretty stocky porpoise with a blunt face and great coloring. Many people first thought they were baby orca because their black and white markings. However, to a seasoned eye, which I consider myself to be becoming, the difference is obvious. Dall’s have short little dorsals and their color pattern is completely different.

I wish there was a way to thank the porpoises because they saved the day. People really get let down when we don’t see orca, so their close encounter took our guests’ minds off our lack of whales. One of the porpoises who came close was a hybrid between the Dall’s and the Harbor Porpoises, which was easy to tell due to its dull and mottled coloring. As I said in the previous post, this is due to the male Harbor Porpoises’ strong sex drive. They’ll mate with not only their own females, but porpoises of other species. We also got to see a male Steller Sea Lion tearing a salmon apart in the water. In order to eat the fish, Stellers grab it in their mouths and bash it against the top of the water. This makes pieces of fish fly and the gulls go nuts, which put on a really great show. The Stellers are so big that when they take a breath after a dive, it sounds just like a whale surfacing. I’m really pleased with this job. It’s everything I hoped it would be. Every day we’re on the water is different. Each new animal behavior I see rekindles my excitement for wildlife. I can’t wait until our next trip!

I decided that I’m going to take on painting while I’m on the island. They sell canvas here for pretty cheap and I picked some up earlier today. I’ve been sketching out orca scenes and I’d like to paint them in a more whimsical manner, mostly because I’m not skilled enough to make them look real. We’ll see how it turns out and I’ll take pics and post them when I’m done. But I really want to take my time and make it look decent, so it might be awhile before you see it. I’ve also been writing parts of a story, we’ll see if I remain interested in it or if it perpetually remains a work in progress. I want to develop some hobbies while I’m here so I’m not just watching TV until it warms up.

I went to Jackson Beach last night, which is just a mile from our cottage. All the beaches here are pretty rocky and have tons of driftwood on them. They’re not good for getting a tan, but great for getting good pictures. I initially went to the beach to take home some driftwood for decorating purposes. I hate that our walls and mantle seem so bare, so I thought driftwood would suffice for some new décor. Thankfully I brought my camera, and I was able to take some pretty cool shots of the shoreline and sunset. If you look closely in the background of some of the pics, you can see the Olympic Peninsula Mountain Range in the background. The island that you see in the distance is part of Orcas Island, another member of the San Juan chain. There was a dog running around with its owner and I thought it looked like a wolf, so I took some pictures making it appear wild. I think they turned out quite nicely. My favorite is the one of the sunlight behind the charred piece of driftwood at the top of the blog. You can click on the smaller pictures to make them larger to see all the great detail.

Well, that’s all for now. I have to wake up early tomorrow to be at a Captain’s meeting by 8 a.m. so we can all go over the “Be Whale Wise” guidelines that lay out the rules for whale watch vessels. We have to be super cautious around the whales now that they are an Endangered Species and protected by the Federal Government. They want me to participate in the meeting so I can explain why the boat cannot approach the whales too closely. Remember that all of you can call me anytime. I’d love to chat and share info about what I’m up to. Hopefully I’ll have service if you call because I don’t get great reception while at home. I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather that comes with spring. Thanks for your wonderful comments and continued interest with what’s going on in my life.

Captain Megan

"My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger."

~ Aldous Huxley ~

Hey everyone! I'm so glad that my blog is helping to educate you about the whales and other wildlife that need our help. I really am leaning more toward Environmental Law, but I think that also fits into Corporate Law quite nicely so we shall see.

As for work lately...

Yesterday we went on a tour and saw no orca (you can view details of the trips under "San Juan Safaris' Blog" in the Friends & Family bar to the right.) It's my job as the naturalist to blog about what happens each trip so you can go to that link and learn all about what we saw. The trips are much more difficult when we don't see orca, mostly because people come out mainly to see them so when they don't show up... the naturalist takes the brunt of the attention. I don't mind being center stage, but it's tough to keep people interested for 3.5 hours when there's only a small chance to see the whales. However, we saw over 20 Steller Sea Lions off Speiden Island on our way back. They were hauled out of the water, meaning on land, and were talking to each other on the rocks. Seeing them in the water pales to seeing them on land because they are so enormous! You really only see their heads when they're swimming, which gives an inaccurate portrayal of their size. Nancy thought it was rare to see seven or so on the last trip, but seeing over twenty together was a real treat. We also saw more Dall's Porpoises, which I think can be pretty entertaining.

Today I learned how to drive the boat and how to react if someone, God forbid, goes overboard. I'm really hoping this doesn't happen because the life rings are super hard to throw. They're really awkward and hard to get a good grip on. We all had trouble making it land more than 5ft from the boat, thank God the Coast Guard just encourages people to drop it over the side and let it float to the person. I steered pretty well and was able to speed up and slow down to rescue a person (in today's exercises a person was a red, inflatable seat cushion, but you get the picture). We even saw some Harbor Porpoises on our way back to the harbor. They are known to be shy and evasive, but we got a pretty good look at them. The males are also known to have quite the sex drive and mate with their own females as well as Dall's Porpoise females, resulting in a hybrid that I will call Darbor Porpoises. haha. So, I envision the Harbor Porpoises as the college-age males of the sound. Sad, but true. hahahahahaha.

I also talked to Bill recently about economic, political, and environmental issues in Puget Sound and what happens when they collide. This is especially interesting for me because I could see myself working with these issues in the future. I think Bill realizes this, so he always makes sure to fill me in with what's going on. I really enjoy my coworkers and look forward to working with them this summer. However, it will be nice when Nicole comes in May for some company more my age (no offense).

Please remember to check out San Juan Safaris' blog because from now on I will be including the individual trip information there. Don't worry though, I'll still write on my own blog, but these stories will just be more personal.

More Lessons from the Island:

• If you think groceries are bad on the mainland, try paying $180 for $100 worth of food. It sucks.

Free Lolita

You can read about whale captures and what happened to the pods in this area in the "Sound of Broken Promises" series. Many of the stories center around the whale named Granny, or J-2. She is a close relative of J-1, the most photographed whale in this area. Photos put her in the nets at the scene of the capture, but she was too old to take. However, many captors claim that she threatened to bite them as they neared the calves. She is the matriarch of J Pod and so her defensive behavior comes as no surprise. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/brokenpromises/288237_granny311.asp

I’ve almost been on the island for a week and I’ve learned the following valuable lessons:

• Don’t take cell phone reception for granted… constantly roaming really stinks.
• Water is a valuable resource and even more valuable on an island surrounded by salt water.
• The Internet is the best invention of all time (besides the printing press) and if you go for extended periods without it, it makes you go insane.
• Don’t park close to the main street. In small communities, where there’s basically no crime, tickets are given out like candy at a parade.
• If you’ve installed an alarm in your car, don’t show it off. Some people don’t know what it is and it attracts unnecessary attention.
• Some places in the world people don’t lock their homes. Weird.
• Wet seasons mean one thing: ants. Buy traps ASAP.
• Always box up leftovers… you never know when you’ll have the time or the desire to go grocery shopping.
• Sometimes we damage nature so much that when we try to fix it, we make it even worse. It's better to spend the money upfront to prevent disaster than it is to spend more money trying to recover from it.
• More Lessons from the Harbor to come…
  

This week was spent getting to know my new roomie, Mike. He’s going to be a captain for San Juan Safaris over the summer and his companionship is welcome. Living alone in a place with no Internet is extremely boring. The island itself is great, and there’s a lot to do… in the summer time. This time of year is still slow on the island because it relies on seasonal visitors and doesn’t become a happening place until mid-May. Mike seems pretty cool and has worked on the islands before as a captain for the BeamReach program that selects college students from around the country to monitor the orcas. He’s pretty familiar with the island and how to get around, so hopefully he can teach me how to recognize where I am on the water. There are so many islands around here that it’s difficult to recognize where you are at on the water.

I’m starting to miss home a little bit. I wouldn’t say I’m homesick, but I miss the people a lot. I watched American Idol last night and it was weird not to have my mom and dad to critique the performances with me. I talk to my family and Travis everyday. I miss Trav a lot too, especially right now because he gives really good back rubs and my back has been sore lately. My house is heated by a gas stove and it sometimes gets cold in the evening, so it’d be nice to have someone to cuddle with.

Yesterday, while I was at work, my boss Bill ran into the office and told me to come outside because a little river otter (below) was hunting in the muck around the harbor. It was about the size of a cat and was twirling around in the shallows searching for mollusks and small fish. I’m a bit starved for company since Mike left for a few days so I seriously considered taking the otter home with me. (I don’t know how my landlords or their dog, Moirah, would appreciate that though, so I left the little critter be.) Later that day I researched local wildlife so I could prepare for the tour we’re giving to Austrian travel agents tomorrow afternoon. In the process, I looked up info on otters and found they are a part of the weasel family. This brought my thoughts back home because dad refers to Lance as a little weasel.

I came across some unfortunate information in my research regarding orca captures in the Puget Sound area. Many people ask about whale captures on the tours and I want to know as much as I can so I can field their questions. I found that a member of L-Pod, specifically the L-12 subpod, Lolita, is the only living Southern Resident in captivity. Many whales died during the capture process and those that lived had a short lifespan in amusement parks. Now, since live captures were made illegal, amusement parks have a captive breeding program. However, Lolita, of the Miami Seaquarium came directly from our Southern Resident community and a current documentary, “Lolita Slave to Entertainment: She’s Dying to Amuse You,” has made headlines with its powerful examination of a whale who still recognizes her family. You can look at the documentary trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkloiwCLBmc. Lolita is in her thirties, one of the oldest whales in captivity, and still identifies the calls of her family and sings them back to a tape recorder when they are played. She was purchased by the aquarium to be a companion for Hugo, an adolescent male orca. Hugo also came from the Southern Resident community. The two whales were separated at night, to make sure they wouldn’t fight, and would call back and forth to each other all night long. Hugo eventually died of a brain aneurysm from bashing his head against the tank in attempt to get to Lolita. Although it was amusement parks that inspired my interest in marine life, there is a dark side to the practices. Many parks make efforts to keep their animals comfortable, but the large tanks pale in comparison to the 90+ miles that wild orcas travel in a day. The stories of the whales being chased into bays, drowning in their captors’ nets, and fighting desperately to protect their young made it difficult for me to bite back tears. I hope the stories of the plight of these whales will inspire people to take responsibility for their actions and make them take an active role in caring for their environment. I believe God gave us the important task of being stewards of his creation and it’s up to us to make the difference. The picture above was taken by a whale activist in the 70s of multiple members of J, K, and L Pods as they fought the nets of their captors. Many of the whales that fought back drowned in the harbor. Their bodies were cut open at night and rocks were put in them to make them sink to the bottom of the strait. Their bodies were "mysteriously" recovered weeks later when they were too decomposed to have the rocks and anchors hold them down.

For those of you who are wondering, I am not becoming a “tree hugger.” However, there’s nothing wrong with lending a hand to nature. Sometimes it takes an emotional eye opening experience to realize that doing nothing is just as damaging as partaking in the action yourself. I believe the quote is, "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." Will you do something?

First Trip of the Season

"No doubt the perception of these whales has changed from something to be feared and destroyed to something to be hugged. And now along comes too much hugging." ~ Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research. I got to meet him Monday night at a town meeting for the health of Puget Sound. It's cool to feel a part of something so big and special to so many people.

Yesterday was my first trip of the season with San Juan Safaris. I got to shadow Nancy as she gave me an idea of what it's like to be a Naturalist (not a Naturist, which apparently implies nudity). LOL. I was so excited when I went to work because Colleen got an e-mail from a friend saying she saw whales pass by her house early in the morning. That meant we might be able to catch them on our 1pm trip. We were a little nervous that it would rain, but the weather was on our side as we departed from the harbor with our 21 guests.

Captain Pete heard reports that J-pod (my favorite one) was in the area and heading lazily toward Canada. This meant that the whales were resting and we'd have time to check out some other wildlife on our way to intercept the whales. We headed towards Speiden Island in order to show our crew the exotic animals that inhabit it. The story of Speiden island is that two taxidermists out of Seattle bought the island in hopes of turning it into a game reserve for hunting animals like Mouflon Sheep and Sika Deer. The plan was foiled after the animals were imported and locals refused to sell the men food or supplies because they didn't appreciate them coming to the islands to hunt. The island was sold a few times and is currently owned by the CEO of Oakley Sunglasses. He left the animals as they were and now we can observe them from the boat. We got a great look at the sheep and deer and got a real treat when we saw Steller Sea Lions swimming by (left). There was a group of about eight adult males diving around in the water. They looked like bears swimming in the water and can reach upwards of 2,000 pounds! yikes! It's important to remember that seals and sea lions are quite different. One difference is that sea lions have external ears that look like little skin flaps, while seals have internal ears that look like little holes in their head. Another difference is that sea lions can use their hind flippers like legs, whereas seals have to flop around on their bellies like little sausages with hands. We stayed near Speiden for a while and then moved in the direction of the J-pod sightings.

On our way to observe J-pod we saw some Harbor Seals attempting to sun themselves on rocks, despite the clouds. They were so cute and reminded me of little Lancie back home: lazy, fat, and adorable. Our observations of the seals were interrupted by a few Dalls Porpoises (below) playing near the bow. They appeared to be doing somersaults underwater as they rolled effortlessly through the water. We heard that some Transient Orcas were in the area and Dalls become the prey of these orcas so Nancy and I wondered if they might be nearby and if we'd get to observe some hunting behaviors. Luckilly for the porpoises, we didn't see any Transients. However, we did hear more reports of J-pod and continued on our way.

Captain went full speed ahead in hopes of catching the whales before they moved to far into Canada for us to catch them. Everyone had their eyes peeled for spouts and dorsal fins. I had my eye out for one whale, J-1 (also known as Ruffles for his wavy dorsal fin). Then we saw it. Spout after spout just on the horizon. We approached slowly, so as not to disturb the resting whales. No sooner than I could ask where he was, Ruffles surfaced. His over six foot fin bobbled in the distance. I was interested to hear Nancy say that there is a juvenile male in L-pod (a fellow resident group of whales) that exhibits this curvy dorsal fin. The thought among many researchers is that he could be one of Ruffles' offspring. You can see the ruffles in his fin pretty clearly in the picture below. I began to get more comfortable with the guests and started sharing my knowledge of the whales. I talked about how they got their name, how we identify them, the affects of wild captures, and how toxins are affecting the babies. Unfortunately, the youngest member of J-pod hasn't been seen this year, leading many to believe it didn't make it through the winter. However, this was the only member of J-pod missing, which is actually a good thing. Granny, J-2 (the matriarch of the pod), and Mike, another adult bull, were easy to identify. Granny is a huge female that is estimated to be in her nineties and thought to be Ruffles aunt. The orcas travel in matriarchial societies and never leave their families. Mike was easy to see because his tall dorsal fin leans to the left. The other whales were a bit far away to identify and I strained to find Polaris, the baby I saw in 1994. She has been seen with males from other pods recently and could be pregnant, but their gestation period is 16 months, making it difficult to tell. The whales weren't too active and made their way slowly towards Active Pass in British Colombia. They've been around the islands the past few days and I hope I get to see them again soon.

On our way back to the island we saw a variety of birds, many of which I know nothing about and have difficulty identifying... something to work on in these next few weeks. I did however, recognize the bald eagles as they built their nests and taught juveniles from last year the proper way to hover. Apparently Bald Eagles don't exhibit their white feathers until they are five years old, making it difficult to tell the difference between juveniles and local vultures. I'm really excited to continue learning about the local wildlife. I feel pretty confident with talking about the whales, but there is always more to learn. I'll begin my safety training tomorrow, which includes calling the Coast Guard and learning how to steer the boat in case something happens to the captain. (Watch out local boaters.) Until then I will probably be practicing tying knots because I need to be able to secure the boat when we land. I hope you all enjoy hearing about my adventures. I look forward to family and friends visiting me so I can share all my experiences with them.

Welcome to the Island

Well everyone, I made it to the island safely (despite traffic in Seattle, a late ferry, and an unscheduled stop on Lopez Island). The staff at San Juan Safaris seems great and I will begin working tomorrow morning. The first expedition of the year will be tomorrow afternoon and I really look forward to seeing the local wildlife again. So far it's been chilly and overcast. As soon as the weather gets nicer I want to go to Lime Kiln Point and hang out. I've already unpacked all my stuff and was pleased to find that cable is included in our rent. My landlord Rob seems super sweet. I still haven't met my roomies yet, but Mike is supposed to come to the island this afternoon. There is also a lecture on the state of Puget Sound at the Whale Museum that I am going to attend this evening. So far I've been pretty busy and I can't wait to get on the water and see some whales. I've decided to post some pics of the house and island so you all can see what it's like here.

This is San Juan Island. I live just southwest of Friday Harbor.

Here is the cottage. It's very cozy and only about 1.5 miles from the harbor. (right)

And this is our living room. (left)

Our wonderful kitchen. It even has a dishwasher! (right)

Finally, my bedroom. It will have to change soon because Nicole is coming in May and we will share a room then. So this is the room until May. (below)