Melinda Fowler from San Nicolas Island, CA -- Being a field researcher can be incredibly challenging.  We are still here on San Nicolas Island, attempting to catch the 10 sea lions we deployed satellite tags on back in November.  So far, its been a great success - we've caught 6 of the 10 with a week left to go!  Still, at times it can be frustrating.  

Sara Maxwell at UCSC Long Marine Lab, CA -- Back to San Nicolas Island where Melinda Fowler and her crew are still working hard to catch the sea lions that were satellite tagged last November.  In the last blog, I told you how to find your sea lion.

So once you've found the sea lion you are looking for, how do you actually catch it? 

Sara Maxwell at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--I've just arrived back from a week as part of the first field crew on San Nicolas Island where we were attempting to recapture sea lions satellite tagged back in November. So how do you catch a sea lion?  Not unlike how you tag an elephant seal - very carefully!  

Melinda Fowler at San Nicholas Island, CA--It's elephant seal madness at Ano Nuevo, but a small subset of the UCSC TOPP researchers left the craziness to retreat to the island paradise of San Nicolas Island.  Our goal while soaking up the island's sun is to recapture the 10 sea lions that we deployed satellite and GPS tags on in November.  San Nicolas is a beautiful island, and we had some sunny days, but our work is not a vacation.  We scan for the VHF frequencies everyday, hoping to catch one of the sea lions home from her foraging trip.

Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab--Accountants have tax season, teachers... back to school, malls have the holidays: TOPP biologists are busy now...when many species are ready for tags, all at once! TOPP biologists are busy deploying satellite tags on five species....and that's just today!

Hello from San Nicolas Island!

The sea lion team from Dan Costa's lab arrived on San Nicolas Island this morning to begin recovering instruments attached to California sea lions.