• Main Authors: R. W. Davis, T. M. Williams, G. L. Kooyman
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Weddell; Blue whale; Weddell Seals
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.363.3581; http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/cs726/2002fa/papers/loots2000.pdf

Nuevo Point, CA, and released offshore in Monterey Bay. After release, the seals returned to instrumentation sites where the data and videos were retrieved. 18. The experimental setup and instrumentation for the dolphin studies are described in (25). The instrument pack was neutrally buoyant and weighed 8 kg in air. Twenty experimental dives from 50 to 110 m were conducted in open water. 19. Blue whale studies used CRITTERCAM instrumentation (36) attached with a low-profile silicon suction cup (22 cm diameter). The cup released after a predetermined interval through the dissolution of a corrosible magnesium plug. The blue whale (length � 22 to 25 m) had been individually identified photographically during 1990–98 along the California coast. It was considered an adult of at least 10 years in age. 20. Gliding was defined as periods exceeding 3 to 12 s in which no locomotor movements occurred and flippers or flukes were aligned along the body axis. Deployments involving forward-facing cameras on Weddell seals also used a tail-mounted �2-g, single-axis accelerometer (Ultramarine Instruments, Galveston, TX) to assess stroking activity. Head movements of the blue whale were considered indicative of stroke activity because of counter movements of the head and tail in swimming cetaceans (25, 37). Videotapes were reviewed at normal speed, except for the blue whale; R EPORTS cycling rate was increased sevenfold to facilitate analyses of the exceptionally slow movements of the whale.