Bubbles in the Bathtub

So I received notice earlier today that our tags had arrived at the Bald Head Island ferry landing. I let Melissa Hedges, the island naturalist at the Bald Head Island Conservancy, know so that she could help guide them the rest of the way in.

Unfortunately, when she called to check on the package later in the day they said they couldn't find it!!! Argh!

Fortunately everything turned out ok. Apparently, despite the fact that I received a tracking number from DHL, there was an Airborne Express sticker on the box. So there was a bit of confusion as to whether it was the right box. I have no idea which company really delivered it (Just don't use TNT!).

In any case, we quickly set to work getting the tags ready for deployment. The first thing we did was put some anti-fouling paint on the tags (being careful not to paint over the contact label, LED and salt-water switches). I say we, but it was Matthew that painted the tags:

I just checked the satellite pass predictor to see when we will have satellites overhead. Looks like NOAA-14 will be overhead between 9 and 10pm, so we'll turn the tags on then so the Argos system knows the tags aren't in New Zealand anymore.

With any luck we will have at least one turtle nest tonight and can deploy our first tag.