This is Daniela Maldini and Thomas Jefferson. They are both marine mammal biologists and the principal investigators on the Earthwatch project. We are down at the coastline getting a bird's eye view of Monterey Bay where all of our field work will take place. We will be splitting the team in half each day to divide up the tasks. Tomorrow my task will be to collect data on sea otters including gender, age, behavior, and population. The field work will take place in the Elkhorn Slough, a location in the middle of the bay where a giant canyon runs underwater and meets the shoreline. The canyon is called Monterey Canyon.
Here are some challenge questions for all students following the expedition.

1. How deep is the Monterey Canyon?
2. Where is there another canyon this large?
3. How did it form?
4. How does the canyon's proximity to the shoreline affect the type of marine mammals that reside in the area?

How is your research going? Here is a great website to help.
http://montereybay.com/creagus/MtyBay.html