By-the-way, those of you 'tweets' who found that little paragraph embedded in
the 11/14/97 post: *El Nino / California seabirds, orcas, Oct '97* about "Orca
Spermicide" intriguing may be interested and/or amused to know that we have
more pc-tastefully retitled our little write-up: "Physeter: Breakfast of
Champions". Physeter, being the genus of the Sperm Whale (_Physeter
macrocephalus_); the champions of course being those oh so ruthless orcas or
Killer Whales (_Orcinus orca_). ((-:|:-))

So, if you bird watchers think that us whale watchers aren't out there having
a good time (for me doubly so as a 'bi-watcher'), consider this: In our Sperm
Whale studies, we enter all of our field data directly in real time into a
computer base, cutting edge latest little notebooks all set up on the flying
bridge observation area, all linked and interfaced with real time GPS and to
instruments recording various oceanographic parameters. Impressively
sophisticated actually. Amongst our armament of specially designed software
created by some pretty sophisticated and playful programers at NOAA's
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, are special programs
dealing with the Sperm Whale research among everything else we dream up. One
of those programs which deals with recording respiratory rates, dive times,
and other behavioral notes of interest is called 'sperm count'. This 'cute'
little program is complete with a point and click icon with those little
spermies (not the whales!) swimming around. Another program even allows us to
track one or several groups of animals by predicting almost exactly where an
animal or group that disappeared 30, 60, 90 minutes ago will likely surface,
...and more often than not, it does so, precisely where anticipated!
Outstanding when it comes to the elusive, quiet, shy, and long-diving beaked
whales (Ziphiidae).

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA USA)
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God was my co-pilot,
but when we crashed in the mountains,
I had to eat him :-))
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