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South Dakota Tech Grad Student Finds Rare Whale
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| Title | South Dakota Tech Grad Student Finds Rare Whale |
| Transcript | South Dakota Tech News 501 E. Saint Joseph Street • Rapid City, SD 57701-3995 Phone: (605) 394-6082/2554 • Fax: (605) 394-6177 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 26, 2004 Contact: Steve Buchholz, Public Information Manager, 394-6082 South Dakota Tech Grad Student Finds Rare Whale Maggie Hart, a South Dakota Tech paleontology student, recently found a rare, beaked whale that washed ashore on St. Catherine's Island off the coast of Georgia. At the time of her discovery on July 29, Hart, a master's degree candidate from Brea, Calif., was working on the St. Catherine's Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program. In her studies of sea turtles, Hart is collaborating with Mike Knell of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Knell also is a Tech paleontology graduate student. Their work augments studies of fossil sea turtles found in South Dakota. Hart measured the 13-foot whale, photographed it and collected its skull for identification by Dr. James Mead at The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. He identified it as a Sowerby's beaked whale, probably a yearling female. The Smithsonian will retain the whale's skull for confirmation and to serve as a voucher specimen for this rare species' distribution. Almost nothing is known about the natural history of the Sowerby's beaked whale. They reach a length of approximately 18 feet long, travel in pods of up to 10 and presumably eat small fish and squid. Sowerbys are the most northerly distributed beaked whale, living in the North Atlantic, from Massachusetts to Labrador, eastward to Iceland, the British Isles and western Europe. This is only the thirteenth Sowerby's stranding documented in the western Atlantic. Prior to this, a stranding on the Gulf Coast of Florida was the only sighting in the temperate western Atlantic. The St. Catherine's Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program is an example of Tech students combining classroom and real-world experiences to add to the body of scientific knowledge. #30# |
| Creator | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. University Relations; |
| Subject | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; |
| Local Subject | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
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| Digital Publisher | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Devereaux Library
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| Contributors | Buchholz, Steve; |
| Date | 2004-08-26 |
| Type | Text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Language | eng |
| Relation | Is part of Office of University Relations SDSM&T News Collection |
| Rights | The work from which this copy was made did not include a formal copyright notice. This work may be protected by U. S. copyright law (Title 17, United States Code), which governs reproduction, distribution, public display, and other uses of protected works. Uses may be allowed with permission from the copyright holder, if the copyright on the work has expired, or if the use is fair use or within another legal exemption. The user of this work is responsible for compliance with the law. |
| Submitting Institution | Devereaux Library. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. |
| Date Digital | 2009 |
| CONTENTdm number | 6562 |
| CONTENTdm file name | 7525.pdf |
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