J Silberg

July 31 The wind came up over the last few days, preventing us from finding dolphins. We were setting up for a data catch up day yesterday, but got offered to go on a road trip instead. Data or road trip…hmmm. Guess what won out. We headed down the peninsula towards some of the other sites Shark Bay has to offer. Our first stop was at the aptly named Shell Beach, so named because it is covered by billions of tiny white cockle shells. Stark contrast to the bright blue sky and turquoise waters of L’Haridon Bight. From there we drove to Eagle Bluffs, a set of cliffs overlooking the bay. You can see all the way across to the salt mines at Useless Loop (where another dolphin project is set up). In the warmer months ... read more

Here is the first of what should hopefully be many blogs from Monkey Mia. As I said in my previous post I will write as often as I can but it is completely dependent on weather. Good weather = more dolphin watching = less blogging. I already have way more written down than I'll include in this first one, but I thought I'd start at the beginning...arriving at Monkey Mia. As for pictures, I'll do my best. I can post pictures from camp and the area that I take with my camera. I'll do that as often as I can but the internet connection is slow and the pics don't upload at a high quality. That being said a picture does say a thousand words (and I've heard from some these blogs run long sometimes :)) ... read more

Last I left off I think I was just coming back from a relaxing couple days on Rottnest Island. The next week was relatively mundane compared to my usual travels. As part of my requirements for my position in Shark Bay I had to take the Restricted Coxswain (pronounced cox-in) course for Western Australia. They don't like my Canadian boating certifications here apparently. Whitney (other research assistant from San Diego) and I spent the whole week in the classroom proving our first aid pre-requisites, filling out paperwork, tying knots, learning (or re-learning) the boating rules, and filling out more paperwork. Did I mention the paperwork? At least the teacher was entertaining, as most longtime captains are. Not a bad course but some of the days went long. The things I do to study dolphins...woe is me. ... read more

On Saturday morning five of us (Me, Kim and her friends Al, Jimmy, & Nikki) drove off for the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, about 3 hours from Wollongong. What would a trip be without a little adventure? We made it to Mount York to do some climbing and got all our gear out and ready. I was belaying Al on a route and Jimmy started another climb before we heard a large crash. Unfortunately, Jimmy had taken a ground fall trying to clip in his rope while lead climbing. He fell about 4 m and landed hard on a rock. I should say now that rock climbing is like any sport...not dangerous, but accidents do happen. Just to be cautious we decided he shouldn't walk out and called in an ambulance. Since it was pretty ... read more

Wollongong & My First Roo I made it out of Sydney feeling satisfied. I saw the major sites and experienced some of what the city has to offer. In other words, I'm not much of a city person. In contrast, Wollongong (~1.5 hour train ride south of Sydney) is a town of about 250,000 right along the coast that is much more to my liking. Still enough to do without the hecticness of a big city. I'm staying with my friend Kim here whom I was a resident adviser with at UVic in my second year. She's in medical school here but it was a long weekend in Australia for the Queen's birthday (we think Elizabeth?) so she had 3 days off. On Saturday afternoon we went up Mount Keira on the edge of town to ... read more