Field Notes From a Cruise

By John Janovy, Jr

In 2004, with the goal of not only seeing, but touching, a whale, I boarded Searcher out of San Diego. This narrative was composed mostly on board and two weeks later, at the end, in the Cabo airport. And yes, I did touch a whale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Janovy, Jr
• Release date: Feb 3, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301991761

John Janovy, Jr

About the author:John Janovy, Jr. (PhD, University of Oklahoma, 1965) is the author of seventeen books and over ninety scientific papers and book chapters. These books range from textbooks to science fiction to essays on athletics. He is now retired, but when an active faculty member held the Paula and D. B. Varner Distinguished Professorship in Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research interest is parasitology. He has been Director of UNL’s Cedar Point Biological Station, Interim Director of the University of Nebraska State Museum, Assistant Dean of Arts and Sciences, and secretary-treasurer of the American Society of Parasitologists.His teaching experiences include large-enrollment freshman biology courses, Field Parasitology at the Cedar Point Biological Station, Invertebrate Zoology, Parasitology, Organismic Biology, and numerous honors seminars. He has supervised thirty-two graduate students, and approximately 50 undergraduate researchers, including ten Howard Hughes scholars.His honors include the University of Nebraska Distinguished Teaching Award, University Honors Program Master Lecturer, American Health Magazine book award (for Fields of Friendly Strife), State of Nebraska Pioneer Award, University of Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creativity Award, The Nature Conservancy Hero recognition, Nebraska Library Association Mari Sandoz Award, UNL Library Friend’s Hartley Burr Alexander Award, and the American Society of Parasitologists Clark P. Read Mentorship Award.

Book preview

Field Notes from a Cruise

Copyright ©2013 by John Janovy, Jr.

Smashwords Edition

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book is free and can be used for non-commercial purposes although any such use should be accompanied by a statement of credit and permission (see Copyright and Permissions at the end). Thank you for respecting the author’s copyrighted work. For any additional information, feel free to contact the author at [e-mail].

For information regarding Searcher tours, see the Searcher Contact Information link below.

Designed by John Janovy, Jr.

ISBN: 9781301991761

Contents:

Leaving

Liability

Courage and Idealism

The Classroom

Reality Check/Balthis Art

New Toys

Light

Whale Shit

The Assignment

Invertebrate Zoologists

Author Information and Books

Searcher Contact Information

Acknowledgements

Copyright and Permissions

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Return to Table of Contents

Leaving:

The March 2004, Searcher trip left Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego about 11:00PM on Tuesday evening the 16th and headed south toward Ensenada for clearance through Mexican customs. On board were 26 people, captain/owner Art Taylor and his six crew members, one naturalist, two naturalists-in-training, and sixteen passengers united mainly by their interest in natural history, their ability to avoid day jobs for a couple of weeks, and their willingness to pay room and board. There was a mist, or haze, in the air, and photographs of that morning in Ensenada show a gray and overcast sky, orange cranes and superstructures to support a Mexican fishing fleet, and three short, somewhat stocky, officials standing on a concrete pier. All had papers; one, wearing leather shoes, seemed strangely unfamiliar with marine matters; he needed help stepping onto Searcher. None of the three said buenos días, none nodded toward sleepy touristas, and none looked around the boat. They concluded their business in short order in the salon, struggled back to the gull-decorated pier, the one in leather shoes again needing help in the climb, and disappeared.

Art pushed slowly on the throttle, the engines’ gurgles increased in intensity, and passengers, fumbling for coffee cups, watched with only slight interest as the derricks, cranes, piles of trawls, and hauled-up tuna fleet disappeared into the haze. I remembered Ensenada as a place where a decade earlier, in bright sunshine, a vehicle began to fail, starting an adventure that told me more about transportation technology than I wanted to understand at the time.