27 Dec 11. We (royal) began the planning today for the trip and realized that it was coming up faster than I would like and that there was still much to get done, including preparing some images for this daily show. In the process I came to two realizations, one of which was that I'd finish this year out with selections from the remaining 195 images I've had already prepared, and the other that this weeks submissions would be the end of the Daily Image mailings until we return from the trip which should be somewhere around the beginning of the 4th week of January. So roughly a three week hiatus at the start of the new year, 2012, but hopefully kicking things off with a lot of material from the trip upon our return! Meanwhile, while perusing the files available, I came upon today's selection of the Admiral practicing for the cruise although there was no cruise even being considered at the time. Nonetheless, the pose I do believe is indicative of what lies ahead, at least for a portion of the time. And even though it has a nautical foundation, the shot was taken last summer at the Lavender Festival in Sequim, WA. ISO 400; 1/800 sec @ f / 7.1.
28 Dec 11. A big break today from tradition in sending people pictures back to back, and three images no less. Lately there has been much ado about having Orcas (Killer Whales, actually not whales but the largest of the dolphins) in captivity and ill conceived efforts to free them, as well as groups out here taking credit for their single handed saving of the Orca populations. The ignorance of these folks borders on the appalling. Up until the very early 70s, the killing of the Orcas by fishermen was common place, based on the argument that the dolphins were eating their (fisherman's) salmon and needed to be killed off. After the initial capture of a Killer Whale, named Shamu, off Vancouver IS, B.C, people became interested in this magnificent creature and Sea World hired a group of folks here in Seattle to capture some for their aquaria. I got to be a part of that operation working on the rehabilitation end and had an opportunity to work with many Orcas over a 4 year period. At that time I was building a hyperbaric lab in Providence Hospital, and was a member of a small research facility, The Institute of Environmental Medicine and Physiology, which was involved in the development of ultrasonic devices of our own design for use in measuring blood flow (velocity) in human and animal patients. One offshoot of that work is the ultrasonic devices of today used in many medical procedures, most common of which is sonograms. Nothing was known about Killer Whales at the time we captured them, and all of our work was the first of its kind. We learned a lot about their physiology from our initial blood work and Doppler ultrasonic recordings, and shared all this with Sea World as well as the placing it into the general science. As we progressed with our efforts, showing the world what these magnificent animals were really like, interest in their safety grew and hunting them became outlawed. Significantly more was learned from the work of the vets at Sea world, and as a result of these combined efforts, the Orcas are now enjoying a protected life style. Today's 3 images come from the early 70s and show me getting some early Doppler blood flow velocity data over the cervical-spinal reti, with two others in the image I can't remember; plus another with me and Dr T A Gornell, D.V.M., a marine mammal specialist and close friend, recording some respiratory data, and the third of me with Dr. Gornell (TAG) drawing blood for some early studies on the O2 saturation of diving mammals. It was an exciting and fascinating time, and a period of my life that I truly loved.
