IFAW – Cathartic Releasing

5D and a Whale of a Time

Dead juvenile humpback whale on Chatham Light Beach 9-11-10

The juvenile humpback was tethered to two trucks further up the beach to insure that it wouldn't wash away in the night.

Saturday September 11th was a gorgeous day, historic national events aside, and the second to last Saturday of summer. I had no plans other than cleaning out the shed. Cleaning out the shed is one of those standing plans, the kind I always have but never really get around to. It’s been on my agenda for over a year I suppose, so you could say that I had no plans at all really. That’s why when I got the call from work to go to Chatham to handle media relations for the Marine Mammal Rescue and Release team, it was no actual sacrifice. My cluttered shed would wait as patiently as ever.

A dead juvenile humpback whale had been spotted floating off of Stellwagen Bank on Thursday. By Saturday, it had drifted with the tides down to Chatham and lodged on a sandbar a quarter mile from Chatham Light Beach. The MMRR team, who had been tracking the whale, were called into action and the Chatham Harbor Master towed the the animal up onto the beach where the team would have easy access to it.

As any event like this is always a spectacle, the MMRR team wanted someone there to help them manage any media that might show up. A small documentary crew was already there. They were working on a show for the Discovery Channel about the Great White Shark population that have been inhabiting the waters around Chatham for the past few seasons. Weather kept them ashore so they hung around and advantageously shot the whale. They had no intent to use the footage. It was just too fascinating not to shoot. Turns out that the shooter was Nick Caloyianis, one of only 2 Nat-Geo cinemaphotographers to have ever survived a shark attack. You can check his story out here. He told it to me while we were hanging out and it’s amazing!

When I got there on Saturday, two members from the MMRR team, CT and Jane, were already on site and had just finished tying up the whale, securing it so it wouldn’t wash away in the hight tied overnight. They would have to wait until Sunday for the heavy equipment to arrive before they could engage in dispatching the animal.

On my way to the site Saturday, I stopped by work and grabbed the 5D Mark II kit as it was ready to go, light and at hand. We had recently received all of the components for the 5D field kit that we needed to do this kind of field production and I was eager to put it through its paces. We’ve had the base 5D kit for some time but had just received the rest of the components to make it usable for this kid of run-and-gun production. The kit includes the 5D with the Canon 24-70mm glass, a Red Rock microShoulder mount with the micoRiser offset, microFollow Focus, the Zacuto Z-finder, and a JuicedLink lined in to a Sennehiser ME66.

On Saturday, I went in light because I didn’t know what the situation was. I configured the camera hand-held with the 5D on the short rods with the follow focus and z-finder only– no shoulder rig or sound set up. It was a hike up the beach to the site so this configuration worked out well. There wasn’t much going on other than securing the whale and answering questions to passers by and it was good not to be encumbered with the full rig.

I had intended to get IFAW’s full EX1 package on my way back home Saturday evening in preparation to shoot the events Sunday, but a situation with the locks on the doors at headquaters prevented me from being able to get in that night. I had plans for all sorts of zooming, moving, fluid coverage. Being locked out, I was stuck with the 5D kit I already had on hand. I was a little freaked by the situation as it’s limiting to shoot with the 5D. But it turned out to be a great opportunity. I had to limit how I covered the event– old school style. No zoom and the various limits of shooting the 5D meant that I had to really think about the coverage and shot/sequence composition. I haven’t had to think that much about how I shot since the last time I shot film, and that was a long, long time ago. It was actually a lot of fun and I am really pleased with the results.

The necropsy process happened first thing Sunday morning. It took a few hors for the team to do all of the necessary documentation and to get the animal further up the beach before any cutting could happened. There was a bevy of extra personal and volunteers, all of them biologists, teachers, retired teaches, or other like minded peoples, and I couldn’t help but notice a certain excitement and gleam in their eyes. They all took to the work like a 5 year old opening presents on Christmas day. Granted, I get it. This kind of event happens once or twice a year at best. And when it comes, it’s exciting– monumental. But to the uninitiated, this is quite a dramatic process. I was good until the knives came out. Once the cutting started in force, I had to take a step back. I think that’s reflected in the video.

The other factor is the smell. Obvious right? It was fine until they punctured the body cavity and “de-gassed” the beast. After that, if you were down-wind and a neophyte, you wanted to go running home to Momma. The Pros didn’t bat a nostril. In fact, I think they liked it.

The video speaks for itself I think. Please have a look and comment as you see fit. This is my first shoot using only the Canon 5D Mark II and I think I’ve proved to myself that it can be used in this sort of ENG situation. As for my shed? It still waits, patiently, for the attention it deserves.

Cheers
–R.

IFAW Whale Necropsy from Rich Moos on Vimeo.

My first all-5D shoot.

5DMK2
Z-Finder
Redrock microShoulderMount Deluxe Bundle w/ offset and follow focus
Juicedlink
Sennhiser ME66
Cut in FCP 7
Graded in Color

More deets at cathartic.com/5d-and-a-whale-of-a-time

Earth Day Video Update – Long Overdue

I’ve been meaning to post this for several moths now. Clearly I’m not very good at the blog thing yet. Anyway, as promised in April, here is the companion video to the Whale Rally/Kristin Bauer piece. This video encompasses the the rest of the events that we covered on our trip to DC.

In this piece, IFAW’s CEO and President Fred O’Regan recounts his experience attending the Earth Day Network’s Climate Change Rally and what it was like to tell some 200,ooo people about the Obama administrations efforts to legalize whaling. Afterwards, Fred was fond of telling people that he opened for Sting.

Since I’m so late with this update, there is good news to report. The IWC conference has come and gone and the proposal was indeed defeated. Good news for IFAW and great news for whales. The bad news is that Japan, Norway, and Iceland will continue with whaling business as usual in defiance of the whaling moratorium. Lot’s more work to be done.

Here’s more info on the proposal’s failure.

IFAW’s Earth Day Whale Rally

Rich talks with Kristin before the shoot

So I spent the last week in our Nation’s Capital celebrating Earth Day with IFAW. OK, maybe celebrating isn’t exactly right since IFAW is protesting the Obama Administration’s position on commercial whaling.

Turns out that the US is the strong arm behind a secret push to re-institute, (read legalize), commercial whaling in the 21st century.

To be fair to the administration, they inherited the agenda. At least that’s what I hear. But it looks like they are in full support of a measure that would end the moratorium on whaling and allow Japan, Norway, and Iceland to continue to “legally” hunt whales. There’s lots more I could say about this, but far more educated people than I have illuminated the subject. Here’s a few links.

ifaw.org
ifaw.org/whales

More coming
–R.

Saving Dolphins in Wellfleet

On March 11th and 12th, I had the opportunity to document the efforts of IFAW’s Marine Mammal Rescue team while they attempted to rescue and release a reported 16 dolphins in two separate locations from the nastiest, deepest, quicksand-like mud I have ever stepped in. I have to say, I don’t want their job. Let me set the scene.

Thursday morning a call came in around 5 AM from a home owner in Wellfleet stating that he had seen a number of dolphins swimming in the cove off his house. The tide was going out and it looked like these animals were disoriented and confused.

When IFAW’s Marine Mammal Rescue team arrived at low tide, around 10 AM, they observed a number of animals stuck in the mud. It turns out that there were 8 white-sided dolphins stranded in Drummer Cove and another 6 to 8 at Lt. Island.

A pelagic species, the Atlantic white-sided dolphin is accustomed to open water. Apparently the dolphins get trapped by the unusual topography of the Cape. They follow their food in around the hook of the outer Cape. The coves of Wellfleet are like a hook within a hook. The dolphins swim in following the fish they feed on but can’t find their way out. They strand when the tide goes out from under them, leaving them stuck in the mud on the bottom.

This was the first time I’ve been out on a dolphin stranding. I’m acustomed to chalenging working cinditions, but this was unique, even for the experienced MMR team. The responders were literally in the mud up to their chest. And this wasn’t ordinary mud. This was a tar like suck-you-in-and-keep-you-forever type of substance. Mind you, I didn’t wade out in the stuff myself, it was too dangerous for anyone but a few responders to slog out to the animals that could be reached. But even the muck I stood in closer to shore was threatening to give way at any moment. At one point a soft spot pulled me in over my ankle and sucked the wadder right off my foot.

Only 2 of this group of eight could be reached safely. The other six had to be left. The hope was that they would be able to free themselves at the next high tide.

At Lieutenant Island another six were stranded. When we arrived to join the team already on site, two of the dolphins were already dead, but the team as able to save the other four.

With all of the rescued animals loaded into the trailers, we headed off to Herring Cove beach outside of Provincetown, the eastern most part of the Cape. As night fell, all six rescued dolphins were released back to the open waters of the Atlantic.

The following day at first light, the team headed back out to see what could be done about the animals that had been left the day before. But that’s a story for another post.

IFAW Dolphin Rescue – 3/11/10 from Rich Moos on Vimeo.

IFAW’s Marine Mammal Rescue team attempts to rescue a reported 16 dolphins stranded in various parts or Wellfleet MA.