Nathaniels Diary

What do baby dolphins and old men have in common? They both have whiskers!

How do I know this?

Because my previous teacher at Central School told me about a science programme that was going to be on TV, called QTV. So I watched it to see what it was about. The first episode was about Microbial Forensics, so it had maggots eating dead pigs. The other episodes were about other things like sound, endangered species, tsunamis, volcanoes and heaps more. At the end of the show it asked "Do you want to spend a week with a marine biologist who studies dolphins. If yes, go to our website and do this week's quiz". There were thirteen episodes, each with 3-4 questions. I filled out all the questions. In about the middle of March this year Glenis Giles, the producer of the programme, phoned and told me that I had won the prize, which was being sponsored by the Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary Club.

So on the 12th of June I took time off school to go, with my mum, to work with Kirsty Russell, up in Russell, Bay of Islands. On Monday I didn't do much except sit round at Auckland Airport because of bad weather. Our flight ended up being cancelled so we took the shuttle up to Paihia, driving through Auckland during a black out.

On Tuesday morning we went out on commercial dolphin watching boat Tutunui. It took two hours before we found any dolphins. We were going to swim with them except we weren't allowed to because there were calves in the group. We saw a pod of about twenty dolphins, all of them bottlenose. They were busy feeding and one dolphin was playing with his food, throwing and chasing a flounder! In the afternoon we went to DOC and watched a DVD and learnt heaps about Russell's history. Afterwards we went on the Russell Mini tour and saw things like Flag staff hill and Long Beach.

On Wednesday we spent time in Kirsty's office trying to identify 4 of the dolphins we'd seen on Tuesday. Kirsty had taken close-up photos of dorsal fins on some of the dolphins we had seen. They identify them just by looking at their dorsal fins. No two dolphins' dorsal fins are the same because of their shape, size, marks and scratches. The only one of the four dolphins we identified was Takitau, first seen March 1994. After that, Kirsty talked about what she does with Maui dolphins out on the west coast. Maui dolphins can't be identified by their dorsal fins because the fins don't damage easily and don't get marked. Instead they use DNA to identify them by taking skin samples. They get the skin by firing a small needle at them. The needle collects a piece of skin from the dolphin. The needle is joined on to a floatation device so the scientist can pick it up easily. In the afternoon we went to the Russell museum and saw all the old whaling gear and a model of Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour, 1/5 of its real size. We were going to go to Pompalier house but they were closed so we explored the rock pools. That night we went down to the wharf to see the boats come in from the fishing competition. There was also a TV crew there. We saw a Yellow Tailed Kingfish and a shark but then went home. A hammerhead shark had been caught earlier in the day but we never saw it.

Thursday was my favourite day. Firstly, I talked to a class at the Russell Primary School. It had years 0-8 and only had about a hundred and ten students. I talked to room 2, a year 5&6 class. They were pretty interested about my trip and asked lots of questions. We spent the rest of the day out on the DOC research boat. We found some dolphins straight away (unlike on Tuesday). They were a pod of about eight bottlenose dolphins. Kirsty gave me her camera to take pictures of the dolphins. The pod was asleep so they were moving slowly, meaning it was easier to take pictures of them, unlike the dolphins on Tuesday, who were jumping up and down full of energy. We soon left them to give them a break. We then headed out towards The Hole in The Rock, a great big hole in a great big rock you can drive through. On the way there we saw a little blue penguin that looked like a duckling that had got lost. We turned the boat around so we could have another look but he dived under the water and swam away. We came to the Hole in the Rock and rode through it and had lunch right beside the rock. We then headed out to see the seals on Bird Rock. I was the first to spot one. They were hard to see because the rock they were on was a similar colour to them. We stopped by one who was lying on his back asleep so Kirsty asked who had the whistle on their lifejacket. I did so I blew on it hard. The seal lifted his head but then put his head back down. I blew again and this time he lifted his head rolled side to side. He then rolled onto his side, raised his flipper and waved at us. Just when we were about to leave I blew it again and he looked up. Another seal also popped up his head from inside a small dip in the rock. We stopped on Urupuka Island, in Otehei Bay, where the water is so clear you can see the sea floor a couple of metres down. When we were about to leave we saw two sting rays swimming round and a fish that kept jumping out of the water about a metre high on the other side of the bay. Afterwards the other DOC boat, used to transport vehicles onto other islands, called us and told us they'd found a pod of dolphins. We soon found them not far from where we were. They were a pod of about twenty five bottlenose dolphins with some calves. They were all in a playful mood, so they were all leaping out of the water. Two calves were even chasing each other and play fighting. Above us were two gannets, flying round looking for fish. When they saw a fish they dropped head first into the water. Kirsty said that if they'd caught a fish they'd float on the water and if they hadn't they'd fly away. We spent the rest of the time watching the dolphins until it started to rain.
That night we drove down to Auckland. It was dark and what made it worst was there was heaps of fog. At one point you could only see a couple of metres in front of you. We finally arrived at Auckland and checked into our hotel.

Friday morning we had to get up early in the morning because I had to be at the Ellerslie Sunrise Rotary Club by 7:00. We had breakfast there and talked with everyone. I talked all about my trip and showed some photos. After the talk we were going to go to Kelly Tarltons Underwater World but they were closed because of the Monday power cut. Instead we had a look at the science museum at Auckland University and saw a narwhal tusk. We left Kirsty there because she had a meeting so we walked up to the Auckland Museum. There we looked mainly at the second floor because that was the only one that sounded interesting. We also walked along Queen Street until we needed to go to the Airport. We waited at the airport for nearly an hour because our flight was delayed but we finally ended up flying home.

What I've learnt

• Baby dolphins have whiskers
• Calves and young dolphins can get punished by being bitten or pushed under the water while having its blowhole covered up
• The best way the public can help dolphins, whales and other marine life is by cleaning up the beach and making sure no chemicals or heavy metals go down storm water drains
• One whale sucks up jelly fish
• Because plastic bags floating in the water can look like a jelly fish the whale could eat them
• Dolphins play with their food like a cat plays with a mouse
• Teenage dolphins make their own pods and are usually the most playful
• Killer Whales and pilot whales have a matriarch for a leader, like a grandmother
• A seal swallows its fish head first so in their stomachs all the fish are perfectly lined up like a whole lot of fish packed into a bag
• There are five groups of marine mammals, cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), pennipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), manatees, sea otters, and polar bears
• Dolphins can only give birth to one calve at a time
• Humans are the main threat for the dolphins because of pollution (exhaust fumes from cars/ industry), sewerage, fishing nets
• Individual whales/dolphins strand them selves if sick
• Sonar testing can confuse dolphins and cause them to strand
• The Sugar Loaves in Taranaki are the most northern seal breeding ground in New Zealand
• You are allowed to swim with dolphins as long as there aren't any babies or juveniles
• You can also swim with seals but it isn't a good idea when there are baby seals around because they can attract sharks
• Scientists are not always people who spend all day doing boring things like looking through a microscope, they actually do a whole lot of fun things every day that most people would never get to do
• Part of Kirsty's job is to make sure people obey the rules so marine mammals are kept safe
• There have been sightings of Maui dolphins of the Taranaki coast but none of them have been confirmed
  

QTV Prize Winners