Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Mendocino, Second Season
Two growing seasons after the barren survey: the first bull kelp fronds are up, the urchins are walking back in, and the blocks are holding. A field note.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes
Dispatches from Tidewright’s own restoration sites — what the crew saw, measured and learned on the water. (Tidewright’s own stories; fictional.)
85 articles
Field Notes8 min read
Second Season in Kushiro: What Year One Taught Us
Kushiro's second kombu seeding season changed almost everything from year one: timing, donors, dive inspections and the local farmers' verdict. A field log from Hokkaido.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Reading the Winter Swell on Mendocino's Barren Edge
A Tidewright field dispatch from Mendocino's winter monitoring season: working the barren-edge transects in the windows between storms.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
The Site We Left Alone: Why We Don't Seed Every Reef
A Tasmania survey block scored high on every restoration metric and we still walked away. On suitable habitat, restraint, and the reefs that don't need us.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
The Storm That Ate Line Twelve: Salvage, Lessons and a Better Anchor at Mendocino
Of eleven lines the February storm took at Mendocino, Line Twelve earned its own note: a two-day salvage, a pinnacle that adopted it, and the anchor that came next.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
When the Canopy Came Back in Summer
A field note from the Mendocino coast: the morning sonar and diver eyes confirmed bull kelp canopy over our first seeded corridor, and what that number means.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Counting Otters at Catalina: A Dawn Colony-Watch and What the Numbers Told Us
Sea otters are strangers at Catalina — so when one appeared over Tidewright's restoration block, we built a dawn count around him. What the survey found.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Field Notes9 min read
Spore Season: Collecting Two Weeks of a Forest's Future
A field note from our Tasmanian nursery: two autumn weeks diving for fertile giant kelp blades, racing spores to tanks, and banking a forest's next generation.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
The Genetics Drawer: Inside Tidewright's Gametophyte Bank
A Tidewright field note from the coldest corner of our hatchery: the gametophyte bank, where microscopic kelp cultures wait in the dark for the reefs that will need them.
Dr. Elias Brandt ·
Field Notes9 min read
Training the New Dive Crew: A Fortnight with the Kudjela Rangers
Two weeks in Tasmania building the Kudjela Rangers' dive survey crew: skills assessments, safety drills, and the moment a new surveyor out-dove her instructor.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes5 min read
Drone vs Diver: A Week of Matched Canopy Counts
For one week at Tinderbox we counted the same kelp canopy twice — once by drone, once by diver. Here's what each method caught, missed and taught us.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Wintering Over in Lofoten: Seedstock in the Dark
Wintering over at Tidewright's Lofoten hatchery means seedstock care in the polar night: light discipline, cold rooms, slow work and a culture lab that never sleeps.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Field Notes8 min read
Hatchery in a Hailstorm: Saving a Season of Seedstock at Triabunna
A Tidewright field note from our Triabunna hatchery: when a freak hailstorm killed the power mid-season, the crew had eleven hours to save a year of kelp seedstock.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
The Long Fog: Summer Operations in Mendocino
A field note from three fog-bound months on California's north coast: working around the marine layer, and why the fog and the kelp are the same story.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
Field Notes: A Week with the Kudjela Sea Country Rangers
Five days on sea country with the Kudjela Rangers off Tasmania's east coast: eDNA sampling, seasonal calendars, and what genuine co-management looks like on the water.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Counting the Neighbourhood Inside a Holdfast
Inside a kelp holdfast census at Tinderbox: bagging, sieving and counting the hundreds of small animals that tell us whether a restored reef is alive.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Field Notes8 min read
The First Transect After the Storm: Notes from a Mendocino Monitoring Dive
After the February storm that took eleven seeded lines at Mendocino, the first formal belt transect told a calmer, stranger story. Notes from the dive.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Line Fourteen Tangles: A Storm Lesson in Line Design
A southerly storm wrapped two Holdfast lines into each other off Tasmania. The dive to untangle them — and the line-spacing rule that came out of it — from the field log.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Sounding the Edge of a Barren
A Tidewright field dispatch: transecting the moving edge of an urchin barren by Drifter sonar and drop camera, and deciding where next season's Holdfast lines go.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: The Long Swim — Monitoring a Forest on Fin Power
Why Tidewright's sharpest fish census is a diver swimming 400 metres at dawn on fin power alone. A field note on roving-diver surveys off Tasmania.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Field Notes9 min read
Field Notes: Midnight Satellite Pass — Verification Night at Canopy Ledger
Once a season, Tidewright's canopy maps get their night of judgment. Field ops lead Jack Callum logs a verification night inside the Canopy Ledger.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
The Battery Swap: Powering a Survey Fleet by Hand
On Tidewright's solar-electric survey vessels, the battery pack is payload and lifeline at once. A field log of at-sea battery swaps — and what they taught the design team.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes5 min read
The Urchin Weigh-In: Three Tonnes and a Turning Point
Every autumn we weigh the urchins culled from the barren edge at Boomer Bay. This year the scales told a different story — and changed next year's plan.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
Training for the Dark Months: Sea-Ice and Low-Light Operations at Our Lofoten Site
Before Tidewright's second Lofoten winter, the crew trained for sea ice, four-hour twilight and frozen shackles. Field notes from the course we built.
Jack Callum ·