Voyage of the Odyssey - Seychelles: August 2002 - December 2002

Relive the experiences of the scientists and crew on this very successful research leg.
Click on each image to see a larger photo and the written transcript of the log.

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January 7, 2003 'Seychelles Video Report' "The crew reflect on the highlights of the Seychelles research leg." Read more >> Watch the Odyssey report: Real Audio -  >56k  >200k

December 30, 2002 'Bowriding Humpback Whales' "Days like today remind all of us onboard why we joined the Voyage of the Odyssey - to witness and study events at sea that most people on the planet will never get to experience in their lifetimes." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

December 25, 2002 'A Holiday Message from the Odyssey' "Christmas this year for the Odyssey crew is being spent almost 600 miles from the nearest port, where half of the view is sky, the other half ocean. As we are travelling to the Maldives, we are reminded once again that the open sea can be overwhelming. It is a world traditionally alien to us bipeds, and here we are the visitors rather than the residents." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

December 20, 2002 'Besieged by Blacktip Reef Sharks' "To see any shark in its natural habitat is exhilarating, but to see so many in one of the most unspoiled locations in the world is humbling." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

December 16, 2002 'A Night with a Nesting Green Turtle' "Last night we were very lucky to see a green turtle come ashore on Picard Island to lay her eggs. By the time we arrived, she had just hauled herself up onto the sand and had begun to dig her nest above the high tide mark - this prevents the nest being swamped by the ocean." Read more >> Watch the Odyssey video log: Real Video -  >56k  >200k

December 11, 2002 'Land of the Lumbering Giants - The Giant Tortoise of Aldabra' "With legs like an elephant, a long retractable neck and an enormous scaled shell, the lumbering giant tortoise is the undisputed 'King' of Aldabra. But how did they reach such a remote place?" Read more >> Watch the Odyssey video log: Real Video -  >56k  >200k

December 7, 2002 'Aldabra - A Living Eden' "Aldabra is over 1100 kilometers from Mahe. It is actually closer to Madagascar (at 400 kilometers) and Africa (at 640 kilometers) than it is to it's own capitol - a pristine land, where plants and animals of every persuasion exist in a natural but fragile equilibrium in the almost complete absence of man." Read more >> Watch the Odyssey video log: Real Video -  >56k  >200k

December 1, 2002 'Tracking Whales Around Aldabra' "The Odyssey crew is heading for Aldabra, an isolated atoll at the extreme southwest limit of the Seychelles island group. It is said to be a rugged, remote and arid atoll, where sharp, jagged limestone terrain and impenetrable vegetation dominate a landscape that rises abruptly from the ocean floor some 3 kilometers below. Why on earth would we be inclined to travel 600 nautical miles southwest from Mahe to survey such an area?" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 24, 2002 'Experiences with Humpback Whales' "I was thrilled to see humpback whales in the Seychelles. Hearing the whale singing live underneath the boat and spotting the blow of the tiny calf next to its mother was incredible. Even last night we heard the faint sound of a humpback whale on the acoustic array, the underwater microphone we tow behind the Odyssey." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 19, 2002 'The Threats to Whale Sharks' "David Rowat of the Marine Conservation Society of Seychelles (MCS) is concerned that humans may be adversely effecting the population before anyone has had a chance to learn more about them. In the second part of our interview with David, he discusses why we need to learn more about the population as a whole and what he believes are the current human, as well as the natural threats to whale sharks." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 15, 2002 'Studying Whale Sharks Using Satellite Tags' "How do researchers in the Seychelles study the largest fish in the sea? Find out how satellite tags are used to gather important information about whale sharks in the Indian Ocean." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 10, 2002 'SUBIOS Underwater Festival' "The Odyssey crew was recently in port for SUBIOS (Sub Indian Ocean Seychelles), an annual festival celebrating the rich and diverse marine life in Seychelles waters. It has since grown to become an annual, week-long festival that runs free activities and presentations around the country. In the year leading up to the festival, the Ministries of Environment and Education encourage curriculum-based activities aimed directly at school children, as well as ocean awareness campaigns that target the local community." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 6, 2002 'Working in Productive Waters' "Over the past few days, we have encountered several groups of whales, both large and small, and as I write this we have an energetic group of Bottlenose dolphins riding the Odyssey's bow wave - their shrieks and whistles resonating throughout the pilothouse via the speakers that broadcast everything our underwater microphones hear." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

November 3, 2002 'Moby Dick of the Seychelles' "After five days at sea, we have barely travelled more than 10 nautical miles, for the density of sperm whales in this area is incredibly thick. So far, the clusters of five to ten animals have consisted mainly of adult females and sub-adult males and females, as well as a few scattered young bulls. However, today was a different story!" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

October 30, 2002 'Surrounded by Whales and Dolphins' "We are currently working in deep ocean water north of Mahe island, between Denis and Bird islands. The fast flowing current between these two islands combined with the upwelling of nutrients along the steeply rising wall of the bank, makes this an ideal feeding area for sperm whales and a number of other marine species." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

October 21, 2002 'Creatures of the Intertidal Zone' "Imagine that your home was underwater half the day, being pounded by surf-all of your possessions washed away as you struggled to cling to the rocks or the sand. Now imagine that during the other half of the day you were exposed to the heat of the sun, dehydrating on that same rocky surface or sandy floor-not an easy life. Yet in this intertidal world where space is at a premium, a staggering variety of life forms has evolved. So who is it that lives here, and how do they survive?" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

October 15, 2002 'The Ocean's Elaborate Composers' "It is hard to believe that we have towed our underwater microphone across more than 37,000 miles of the Pacific and Indian Ocean's without ever hearing the haunting, mournful song of the male humpback whale. Until today that is!" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

October 8, 2002 'Protecting the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary' "The Seychellois are rightfully proud of their past environmental achievements and are probably most highly respected for their strong anti-whaling stance and commitment to the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The sanctuary was initially declared in 1979 after meetings hosted and led by the Seychelles." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

October 3, 2002 'Indentifying Cetcean Species' "It seems as though the weather may finally have taken a turn for the better. With clear skies and a relatively calm sea, we spent several days this week tracking a large group of sperm whales. Although our research is focused primarily on data collection from that species, we do in fact collect data from every kind of cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) we encounter." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 27, 2002 'Challenges of Tracking Whales at Night' "Throughout the day, we are able to visually spot the whales by looking for their blows when they come to the surface. However, at night, we have to rely solely on sound in finding and tracking sperm whales, this can be a far greater challenge." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 24, 2002 'Tides' "Tides are the response of ocean water to the pull of gravity of the moon, and to a lesser extent the sun, on the earth as it spins around on its axis once every 24 hours. Tides are a predictable, repetitive rising and falling of the water along the ocean’s shore. Every day the ocean washes up onto the shore until it reaches a certain point (the high tide mark), then it begins to recede, reaching it’s lowest point (the low tide mark)." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 20, 2002 'Gentle Giants' "After experiencing miserable and even violent weather for the last two days that eventually culminated in an unusually strong tropical storm, the Odyssey crew took shelter inside Anse a la Mouche. Ronny Alcindor, our Seychelles observer from the Ministry of Environment, informed us that it is currently whale shark season here - the time of year when plankton blooms are most abundant in the area, which in turn attracts many whale sharks. Because these animals are known to feed along the exterior of the reef, it was an ideal opportunity to try and find them." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 17, 2002 'The Lives of Sea Turtles - Part 3 - Threats' "Sea Turtles have survived on our planet for more than 150 million years, however, they now require only but a nudge to be propelled forever into oblivion. Due to the increase in human pressures around the world, extinction is a serious possibility for most sea turtle populations. What can you do to help?" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 13, 2002 'The Lives of Sea Turtles - Part 2 - Lifecycle' "In the last Odyssey log, Dr. Jeanne Mortimer discussed how sea turtles come to land in order to breed. Today, we learn more about the life cycle of sea turtles explore how they survive in the open ocean, where they go, and how long they stay at sea before returning to land." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k  >64k

September 10, 2002 'The Lives of Sea Turtles - Part 1 - Breeding' "The crew has spent months researching the waters of the Indian Ocean between Western Australia and the Seychelles Archipelago where we often encountered marine turtles, both inshore and in the open ocean. Today we spoke with Dr. Jeanne Mortimer, a sea turtle ecologist working in the Seychelles." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k  >64k

September 6, 2002 'Waves' "Most of us are familiar with ocean waves by having experienced them at the beach, or while surfing (or being seasick on a rolling boat). So what are they; how are they formed; where do they come from; and where are they headed?" Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

September 2, 2002 'Reflections from the Odyssey' "The Ocean Alliance encourages its board members to periodically join the R.V. Odyssey. This allows them to experience first hand how their hard work back on land directly contributes to the success of our five-year, ocean going global expedition." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k  >64k

August 28, 2002 'BOWCAM Returns' "Our opportunity came last night to test the new BOWCAM lens as we drifted on the moon lit waters of the Indian Ocean and the results were immediate. As we watched, a tight ball of small fish rose to the surface attracted by the halogen light we had placed over the bow; the squid were quick to follow." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

August 25, 2002 'Lost in the Indian Ocean' "Conflicts between humans and marine species, including endangered species like whales are bound to increase as our population continues to expand exponentially. Greed and competition for ocean resources is creating a 'tragedy of the commons', destroying that which we all share." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

August 20, 2002 'Wildlife Clubs of the Seychelles' "Conservation through education is a leading priority among the Seychelles community. What is most impressive is that school children, with the support of teachers, parents and community volunteers, initiate and undertake 'action orientated' projects around the archipelago. Today, students and teachers from the 'Wildlife Clubs of Seychelles' toured the R.V. Odyssey." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k    >64k

August 16, 2002 'Challenges to Conservation - The Magpie Robin' "Establishing the critically endangered Magpie Robin population is a remarkable accomplishment considering the fragility of species that are endemic to isolated oceanic islands. As the team from Nature Seychelles and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) learned, the road to recovery is fraught with major challenges and unpredictable setbacks." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k    >64k

August 13, 2002 'Magpie Robin Recovery Program' "Before humans arrived in the Seychelles 250 years ago, birds like the Magpie Robin were numerous and widespread. Part of the reason was that there were almost no predators that threatened them apart from the odd lizard or gecko that may have destroyed some eggs or even killed a few young chicks. Today, the Seychelles Magpie Robin is one of the world's most endangered species." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k    >64k

August 7, 2002 'Seychelles Arrival' "After sailing west over 1110 miles in the last forteen days, the Research Vessel Odyssey has arrived in the Seychelles, a spectacular cluster of islands east of the African continent situated between the northernmost tip of Madagascar and the equator." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k

August 1, 2002 'The Indian Ocean' "The best time to sail west across the tropical waters of the Southern Indian Ocean is during the months of June through September when the trade winds are most settled and steady. The Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans all experience trade winds at different times of year, north and south of the equator and along the tropical belt, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The southeast trade winds are formed by high-pressure systems that relentlessly move from west to east across the vastness of the Indian Ocean." Read more >> Listen to the Odyssey log: Real Audio -  >28k