Keith Rittmaster’s Fabulous Presentations

Written by Keith_Rittmaster. Posted in Bonehenge; Cetacean rearticulation, Cape Lookout Studies Program, Education

GO-Science
The first one on, Monday evening, September 26, was sponsored by Go-Science’s Science Cafe at McCurdy’s  Restaurant on the Atlantic Beach Causeway.What a great crowd !!! His presentation was about Bonehenge (our sperm whale skeleton re-articulation project) and even though  some of us had heard a presentation about Bonehenge several times, it was still fascinating. He always adds  new pictures and information to each presentation, so I go as often as I can. It was an over flow crowd. The excitement  of moving towards the final 6 months before the display moves to the NC Maritime Museum is amazing when we look back at the whole process.For great information about the sperm whale from the stranding at Cape Lookout January 2004 to its skeleton now hanging in a beautifully dynamic dive in the bonehenge barn click here.bonehenge

 
The second presentation was Friday evening September 30 at the NC Maritime Museum. It was about his NOAA marine mammal survey cruise this past summer. (There is lots of info about this in  previous posts on this blog). It was so mesmerizing that no one got up to leave when it was over, we just asked questions and kept Keith talking. We learned what ship board life was like; how incredibly good the food was; the science of deep water acoustics; how different data was collected; how funny they looked in their safety suits; the differences inside and outside the under water canyon and much more.What a gift Keith is to our Beaufort community  !!

UPDATES

Written by Keith_Rittmaster. Posted in Bonehenge; Cetacean rearticulation, monofilament recycling

Not as exciting as Baja and whales, but here are the Cape Lookout Studies updates this month.

Bonehenge.
The skull is still in the jacuzzi releasing grease – this whale had an amazing amount of grease. Two huge limbs from the oak tree just above the jacuzzi almost smashed the skull in a snow storm. Pierre-Henry Fontaine from Quebec visited Bonehenge (and our sperm whale) and offered sage advice. Starting with the tail, we’ve begun fabricating intervertebral discs, and we’re drilling through vertebrae and mounting them on 3/8″ stainless allthread. Dominic Brown, from Channel 12,ran a news story about Bonehenge, which portrayed his, and our, excitement about this project.

Central NC Marine Mammal Strandings.
At the annual NC Marine Mammal Stranding Network Conference in February, Keith requested an entire adult right whale skeleton should one happen to come ashore at a convenient location and time. Keith also agreed to develop a form to be used by anyone for formally requesting specimens, data, samples, photos, analysis etc. from stranded marine mammals in NC.
Vicky Thayer will present North Carolina delphinid stranding diversity from 1992-2009 at the SEAMAMMS Conference March 26-28 in Virginia Beach.

Our web sites and blog, have been wonderfully busy.

Bottlenose dolphin photo ID
Even with really tough weather conditions, we got out 5 days, had 11 sightings and have dorsal fin photos of 85 dolphins. We continue to see Manteo and Virginia Beach dolphins plus a few freeze brands.

The ‘Protect Wild Dolphin’ License Plate quarterly check was $3,180.This money really helps support our research. If you live in NC, please consider joining our group of dolphin plate people.
Click here for license plate information.

NC Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program
Two little used bins were removed from Emerald Isle beaches. One new outdoor bin went to Sarah Falkowski of Outer banks Center for Wildlife Education for use in Currituck County. One outdoor bin and one indoor box went to Allen Fitz of Network for Endangered Sea Turtles for use in Dare County.

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT – HELP

Written by Keith_Rittmaster. Posted in Bonehenge; Cetacean rearticulation, Donate

We only have 3 days left to take advantage of a matching funds offer. (Sounds like NPR).
southernfriedscience.com is offering to match any funds donated to Bonehenge for the next 3 daysIf you scroll down on their site, you will come to an image on the right of a Sperm Whale skeleton that says ‘donate now’. There is a link to Bonehenge.org but don’t click the link because you will only get the matching funds by donating on his southernfriedscience site. Take a look at the Bonehenge.org site though, it is really interesting and worth donating to. A sperm whale skeleton is being re-articulated here in Beaufort, NC in a building built just for this project. There are some state of the art procedures being used such as x-rays of one of the flippers that was frozen at the time of stranding to assure accuracy in arranging the complex flipper bones, comparisons to human bones of the same approximate age, analysis of stomach contents and bone degreasing. We are learning from what has and has not worked in the past.
Thanks !