Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Day 78: Fish food

We had our last night of Rhinoceros Auklet netting tonight.  That means we also processed our last fish. Rhinos bring in these fish to feed their chicks and we collect a sample of them to identify, measure and weigh. The species they bring back change every year and, in addition to the Murre and Guillemot diet data, gives us a good idea of what fish are available in the ocean in a given year. This year, Rhino's started out eating a lot of juvenile rockfish, a favorite seabird food, but then switched to Pacific Saury like the one Jen is measuring here. We have also seen a fair amount of squid.

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