On a heat winter afternoon as I unpacked my tools onto a small picket boat, one in every of my curious assistants approached me asking what was the purple torch that I used to be holding. “It is not a torch,” I mentioned swiftly, checking if my survey sheet was in place. “It’s a depth meter… umm… Depth dekhar jonno… (to take a look at the depth).”
Maybe overwhelmed by my sense of urgency he moved again and let me proceed my work. Quickly, I jumped onto the boat, and was on my first survey of the River Ganga, at Farakka in West Bengal. Farakka, a small city in central Bengal, sits apart from NH34, bustling with heavy motion of site visitors and other people all day lengthy. It’s maybe the final place a layman would think about a wildlife researcher to be in. But there I used to be, on a motored picket boat in the midst of the huge Ganga, consistently dipping my depth meter within the water, recording its studying and searching for Ganges river dolphins on the identical time.
‘What are you writing?’ requested the curious man once more as our boat – barely large enough for 5 folks – rocked on crashing waves.
“Depth. Goirahi.” I informed him.
“Hmm… goirahi ki kore deikhen?” he requested and instantly I had realised the subtleties of talking a non-native language. He needed to understand how I used to be ‘trying’ on the depth.
I slowly defined to him that it isn’t gentle that the system makes use of, however sound. Sound – too excessive in frequency for us to listen to – is emitted by one finish of the depth meter and its reflection from the underside of the river is obtained by an acoustic sensor on the identical finish. For the reason that pace of sound in water is understood, the time elapsed between emitting this sound and sensing its reflection is translated into the gap travelled or depth – goirahi.
A Hawkeye handheld depth meter used to measure the water stage
Picture Credit score: Imran Samad
He seemed confused by the small print, however shunned asking any following questions.
As a pupil of curiosity, I really like its different disciples. Subsequently, on our journey forward, I took to explaining him one thing a little bit easier – a handheld GPS system. A tool becoming in my palm, housing a uninteresting colored 2.2-inch TFT display screen alongside a tiny joystick to navigate its menu.
It’s a pretty frequent system utilized by every kind of individuals all around the world to report their positions, navigate landscapes and a lot extra. It really works identical to the GPS on a smartphone utilized by functions like Google Maps, however is designed to work in harsher and extra rugged environments, additionally providing loads of battery backup. After I had defined it to my assistant, he would usually take a look at the odometer at show on it, and scream atop the engine noise in regards to the distance that we had travelled to date. His pals on the rear finish of the boat had been equally glad to obtain the information. Maybe it was a brand new method of trying on the river — that they’d grown up round — that stuffed them with fascination.
On the survey’s finish, as we stood on the dock discussing future plans, my assistants had been calm and glad. They by now may higher visualise the river in a 3rd dimension, fairly precisely.
A couple of days after some consecutive surveys, I had grow to be good pals with my assistants. I informed them to be prepared on the Ghaat on a chilly December morning; I used to be bringing the CPOD with me.
Surveys are essential to know the place dolphins are at a cut-off date, however it’s inconceivable to understand how they transfer all all through the day. Do they keep in shut proximity to 1 spot? Or do they transfer so much? To know this, one must sit on a nonetheless boat for the entire day, and report dolphins as they floor to breathe. This after all could be a tiring job! However that is precisely what the CPOD does, with minimal issues and biases.
A CPOD deployed underwater
Picture Credit score: VLIZ
A Cetacean – POrpoise Detector information the parameters of the vocal sign of a dolphin.
Simply as we communicate in sentences made up of phrases, river dolphins talk in lengthy trains made up of clicks, which have sure properties like frequency, SPL (loudness) and so forth. A CPOD information these parameters together with time. Subsequently, in impact it turns into like a watchman who’s all the time on alert for dolphins. Since it’s a passive logger, it doesn’t have an effect on the animals.
Identical to this, a lot of what researchers do is straightforward conceptually. It’s the translation of their ideas into actuality that’s complicated. How precisely do you utilize a watchman underwater? In truth, the standard of analysis one does is contingent on the standard of this translation, the tools employed and the strategies used. Rising expertise and regular entry to it’s steadily reworking the best way we take a look at our environment.
In truth, there are a lot of attention-grabbing units that researchers use to look at and perceive the world. One such system that excited my assistants greater than ever was the Chart-plotter. It really works on the identical precept because the depth meter and is used to ‘see’ underwater, identical to how a paediatrician ‘sees’ and assesses a foetus inside a womb. With this, river qualities like its form, presence of fish and so forth will be higher understood.
Enhancing applied sciences are closely empowering analysis, but one should all the time keep in mind that any gadget used is just nearly as good as its consumer. With correct logic and motivation, you could find new methods to take a look at the identical previous issues. So all the time keep curious; your observations could sometime change the world.
Imran Samad is an engineer turned wildlife biologist who’s fascinated by the character of nature. He’s at the moment enrolled within the M.Sc. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at NCBS, Bangalore, the place he’s finding out cetaceans. He additionally loves to write down poetry on his blog.
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