Dolphins played in the tail waves as the Kilo Moana floated out to our destination, about eight miles south of Carpenteria. I saw three jump at once, all in a line, Sea World style.I walk around with my camera bag and voice recorder, talking to the very friendly scientists about what it is they're doing. They're doing some cool stuff! Using very sophisticated instrumentation, they're taking advanced measurements that really only specialists can understand, but I'm going to try to make it discernible to the layperson.
My most difficult task, I fear, will be taking the overload of information and synthesizing it into a concise, understandable, yet interesting document.
Tonight I interviewed the head scientist, Tommy Dickey of the University of California at Santa Barbara, who gave me a crash course in what's going on and told me about his background in oceanography. All in all it took about two hours, and to be honest, I still don't quite understand it, but I reckon that's the reason these guys have post doctorates while I'm finishing my undergrad in liberal arts. (Hey, liberal arts are important too!)
Tommy Dickey has a full head of (one might say fluffy) hair and rocks back in his chair as he talks to me. Born in Farmland, Indiana, he dreamed of being a farmer as a child, but the Vietnam War took him elsewhere. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in physics, he knew that he was going to be drafted - so he joined the Coast Guard to do a humanitarian service for his country. As it turned out, oceanography was his passion, and he now deals with complicated (but cool!) things like ocean optics. There's more to the story than that, but I'll have to listen to my tape recorder first in order to synthesize it all.
CROSS POSTED ON SPILLED COFFEE
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