Journey North Manatee Spring 2004

Manatee Migration Update: March 10, 2004

Today's Report Includes:

This Week's Manatee Migration Update
The Blue Spring Challenge! Discussion of CQ #9
My New Paddling Partners--You Made the Team!
Aerial Manatee Count: Discussion of CQ#10
What Do the Counts Really Mean? Discussion of CQ# 11
Ask the Expert Closes Friday
Reading/Writing Connections AND Instructional Strategies
What's Next? Coming Next Week

This Week's Manatee Migration Update
This "CQ" Update discusses last week's Challenge Questions, and your answers too. Watch for these CQ Updates every other week.

The Blue Spring Challenge! Discussion of CQ #9
Last week Ranger Wayne asked you: "Who do you see in the Run today? Can you identify each Manatee in the photos?"

Ranger Wayne sent this message to you:

Nice work Kids! Great job on the Roll Call. It's not easy to identify Manatees, but you all made a great effort. Now, this is the moment you've all been waiting for. Did you correctly identify the manatees?

(You can even hear me paddling!)

Listen to me
from the canoe,
telling you who's who!

My New Paddling Partners--You Made the Team!
If I ever need any help identifying the manatees at Blue Spring, I know I now have the team to do it!

Ferrisburgh Central School third graders Jack, Andrew, Charles, Kris, Jennifer, Mary and Ashley; and also Iselin Middle School seventh graders Fawad, Michael M, Hiral, Amin, Tiffany, Indrajit, Perry, Allison, Nikhar, Morli, Shanela, Smriti, and Kiran all were careful observers and correctly identified all of the manatees!

Nice work everyone!

Aerial Manatee Count Notes: Discussion of CQ#10
In this Question, we asked you to compare weather maps for three years:
"How do the weather conditions in the highest count years of 2001 and 2003 compare to 2004, a lower count year? Explain how you think the different weather conditions affected the counts each year?"


2001	2003	2004
Click on Maps to enlarge Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Congratulations to Seth from Mrs. Erdmann's 5th grade TAG class, who explained that for doing aerial manatee counts,

"The temperature and weather was better/colder in 2001 and 2003 than in 2004."

The maps showed that in 2001 and 2003 there were very cold temperatures(more blue colors surrounding Florida) at the count times, which push the cold-sensitive manatees into warm water gathering areas, making it easier to count them. This is in contrast to 2004, when temperatures were not as cold (very little blue colors), and so the count was lower.

A second factor affecting manatee counting conditions is visibility. The two photos give an idea of the difference that water surface can play in visibility. Can you see the manatees?

There's a lot to learn from just these two photos Link to Photo Study

What Do the Manatee Counts Really Mean? Discussion of CQ# 11
In this Challenge Question, we asked: "What conclusions can you draw about the size of the Florida manatee population from the fact that this year's count is lower than last year's high count? What if this year's count had been higher than last year?"

This year's lower counts do not necessarily reflect any significant decrease in the Manatee population. Rather they show only that visibility for counting was better due to the weather conditions. As you know, the counts can be highly variable due to weather conditions, which can work both ways. For example, very cold conditions in 2001 and 2003 contributed very high manatee counts those years.

Ask the Expert Closes This Friday
Don't miss the deadline to send your manatee questions for Nancy--she's eager to hear from you! Be sure to send them by March 12, 2004 (noon central time.)

Keep those Questions coming!

Reading and Writing Connections AND Instructional Strategies

Journey North is offering Reading and Writing Connections that utilize research-based instructional strategies to help students develop essential skills as they delve deeply into their understanding of the world through texts with real people, events, and issues.

Learn more about these resources

What's This? Looking Ahead
You've now identified manatees from a canoe, but think you can count them by air?

All aboard next week!

The Next Manatee Migration Update Will Be Posted on March 17, 2004.