Violet chose to do a study of Orca whales that are native in our Pacific waters and did a marvelous job compiling information and sharing it with us all!! She even enlisted her littlest brother as her presentation assistant, a role he took very seriously ;-)
Her goal was to research and discover information about the J-Pod who are the Southern residents of Puget Sound. What she discovered was exciting and has prompted her to want to go whale watching at our earliest convenience (yeah, me too!! Hopefully soon). She shared information about the population diversity of the pod:
Birth and death statistics over tha past 11 years or so:
The routes which they travel in and around the San Juan Islands and the Puget Sound:
And probably the most interesting and unique information was about how the orcas are classified and identified ~ by their "Saddle patches" behind their dorsal fins: (Here she is showing her trusty assistant so he can show the audience:)
They eagerly awaited their viewing:
She did a fantastic job compiling her work and presenting it to us, and what a fun study to boot!!
She also finished up her lab report today, the first one ever for her, and is very proud of her efforts and discoveries! Thank you Theresa for making this such a fun and exciting year of Marine Biologly and Oceanography, we are enthralled!!
Beautiful!!! I wish I could have been there to see and hear it with you!
Posted by: Theresa | November 03, 2009 at 09:43 PM
What a cool project! She obviously put a lot of work into it. Good job Violet!
Posted by: Syndi | November 10, 2009 at 05:43 PM