They're on a Boat Part 2: Life as a Marine Mammal Observer on NOAA's Research Vessel

In this episode of Wildly Curious (formerly For the Love of Nature), co-host Katy Reiss introduces part two of the mini-series featuring Allison Black aboard a NOAA research vessel. In this episode, Allison interviews Heidi Malicia, a marine mammal scientific observer, who shares the highs and lows of working at sea. From breaching great white sharks to adorable whale calves, Heidi’s job is filled with unforgettable moments. Learn how she tracks marine mammals using high-powered binoculars and why working on a research vessel is unlike any other job.

Perfect for marine biology enthusiasts, ocean lovers, and anyone fascinated by marine mammal research.

Transcript

Katy: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to For The Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. Today is part two of our little mini-series in our season break where we join Allison Black and her guests on NOAA's ship as they're counting things like birds and other sea life. A little disclaimer, two guys, they are out on the ship right now, whenever they're recording this. So some of the audio you'll hear it kind of shift and kind of do some crazy things, but they're on a boat. So a big boat, so you can be a little bit noisy. We did the best we could to fix the audio, but just bear with us and hope you guys enjoy. 

Allison: Okay. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell me what your name is and what your job is here on the ship? 

Heidi: My name 

is Heidi Malicia, and I am one of the marine mammal scientific observers. 

Allison: Heidi, what does a 

typical day on the ship look like for you? 

Heidi: We [00:01:00] generally start doing survey operations shortly after sunrise, and we go until right around sunset. So right now we are working from seven in the morning until seven 30 at night. And there are eight of us who are doing visual operations and four of us are surveying at one time. And so we generally work about one hour on, one hour off. And so throughout the day I'm rotating, looking through the big eyes.

Allison: What are big eyes while you're talking about them? 

Heidi: Big eyes are mounted binoculars that have extreme magnifications. We can see, from the top observation stand, we can see over five nautical miles from the lower observation stand we can see right at five nautical miles. And so we are scanning as our ship runs, transect lines.

We're scanning [00:02:00] the front 180 degrees of the ship. And when we say something that we think might be a marine mammal or perhaps a sea turtle, we will send in a queue. So we radio down to our data recorder and we tell that data recorder where our queue is located. So we give a bearing and a radical reading.

Allison: What's a radical just. 

To help clarify 

Heidi: radicals, help to tell the distance in your field, so in your field of view. So for instance, if I say my cue, which could be a splash, it could be a marine mammal blow, it could be a dolphin that I see leaping. I will look through the big eye binoculars and I will get a bearing reading.

So I'm gonna say it is 30 degrees to the left. So that means from our track line, which is zero, you go 30 degrees to the left, and then I set my red, which is vertical up and down in my field of view and through my [00:03:00] big eye binoculars, and I put zero on the horizon and count down in tick marks until I get to my sighting.

So if I say it's that radical one, we have, a distance recording for how far radical one is. And I, of course can't remember off the top of my head, but it gets entered into our data program and then our program can map based on our gps and those two readings, the radical and the bearing, exactly where the potential animal is.

So then I have a person who is working with me at all times. One of us is looking to the port side of the ship, one of us is looking to the right, and when we potentially see something, we will both start looking at it to decipher what species of marine mammal is, and then we count it. So this project is really based on abundance estimates.

Allison: What is 

this project that you're working on now? 

Heidi: It is the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for protected species. To [00:04:00] put it very simply, we are looking for protected species, birds, cetaceans, which are whales and dolphins and turtles, and we are identifying them and counting them. And so that's what I do pretty much from sunrise to sunset.

Allison: That's great. 

Thank you, Heidi. How long have you been doing this? 

Heidi: I have been working in some form of marine mammal research. Or fieldwork since 2013. I have been working offshore since 2014 and I've been working as a contractor on NOAA Project since 2016. 

Allison: Great. Okay. 

So Heidi, what's your favorite aspect of your job?

Heidi: That's really hard. I think I have several. I can't just pick one. I think the excitement of every day I never know what I'm gonna see. Some days I see absolutely nothing and I'm bored out of my mind. And then other days it'll be so exciting, you'll have a humpback [00:05:00] breaches. I recently saw a white shark breach three times, which was just completely unexpected and it felt very special to see something so rare.

And I think it's also having the they already told us. Okay. I think the other really big thing that I love about this job is I get to see things that the average person will never get to experience, and I get to see animals in their natural habitat. For instance, a beak whale. Most people don't even know what a beak whale is and on my first NOAA Cruise, I saw a COE's Big Dwell breaching, which is just extremely rare. And to be able to be there in that moment and have that experience was huge. And to see it from the water, I think that's another [00:06:00] thing is I've done aerial surveys, I've done small boat surveys, I've done land surveys, and there's something about being on the water and kind of at the same level or close to these animals and experiencing it, naturally in their habitat. It's just, it's, there's nothing like it. 

Allison: That's a great point. I totally agree with you. What are some of your least favorite aspects of your job, if there are any at all? 

Heidi: I've had jobs in the past that, aren't really necessarily contributing to science, and so this one working with NOAA, this specific project, we are doing science. We are contributing to multiple different types of projects and so I think there are definitely negative aspects to this job, but at the end of the day, that's just a reminder and it makes you just wanna wake up for the next. But I will say we are currently working in the Atlantic and we started in January [00:07:00] off the east coast of the United States and the weather has been horrible. There's a couple days, if you're familiar with the Boer Sea Scale. We had a BO six and the swell was close to 10 feet. And I'm trying to look through big eye binoculars that are moving up and down and up and down and your body is being thrown left and right, and it gets very, very tiring.

And you're also not likely to see things in those conditions. So, At the end of those days, I'm not enjoying my job. But then, you remember what you're doing it for, and then you're excited to see what's gonna happen the next day. 

Allison: That's a really good point. Okay, two more questions for you.

What has been the highlight of this trip so far for you? 

Heidi: Oh my goodness. Okay. 

Allison: Was it the breaching white shark that you mentioned? 

Heidi: The breaching white shark was pretty spectacular for several reasons. 

Allison: It was a great white shark, right? 

Heidi: Yes. A great white shark. I have to talk about it more. So a couple things that were really exciting is it breached three [00:08:00] times. I saw it through the big eye, so I got a really great look. It was the first time I ever had a confirmed sighting of a white shark. And also I don't really know many cases of them breaching. Over here. In the area that we were. So that was really exciting. I also saw some sperm, whale calves. I got really good looks at them through the big eyes and that was super exciting.

When whales and dolphins too are really small, they really come to throw their head out of the water to get a big breath. And there was a very small sperm small calf that was throwing his head up trying to get some air. And it was really, I hate to say cute, but it was really cute. We also saw a teeny tiny pilot, whale calf, which was really special.

And then the other day we had false killer whales, bow riding on our ship, which, is also a very kind of rare and intimate experience that was really exciting. 

Allison: That's great. Okay. Last question for you. What do you think [00:09:00] people would be most surprised to find out about what life is like on a ship? 

Heidi: I think when I speak to my friends and family back home, people think two things. They either think you're basically on a cruise ship mm-hmm. Living life, or they think that you're on this tiny ship that has no amenities and life must be so hard. And it's kind of, it's in, it's in between. You know, this isn't a fancy boat by any means, but we have a gym. We have. An amazing cook.

We have a movie lounge, and so we have fast internet now too, it's really not that different from normal life. The other thing I would say is people never seem to understand kind of the connection you make with your coworkers. We are living together and we are working together. We are together 24 7 for weeks, sometimes months at a time. And I always say a week. Or a day with somebody offshore is equal [00:10:00] to a week in real life. And so 

Allison: that's a great saying. 

Heidi: It's really hard when you get so close to people out here and then you guys all go back to normal life, all it. So, it's hard to explain to my friends and family at home just how close I am to all my coworkers.

Allison: Yeah. That's great. Well, thank you so much for interviewing with me, Heidi. I appreciate it. 

Heidi: Thanks for having me.