Field Notes8 min read
Drifter Nine Goes Quiet: Finding a Lost Robot at Sea
Drifter Nine stopped phoning home mid-survey off Mendocino. Field notes on the search, the recovery at sea and what the fault log told us afterward.
Jack Callum ·
#mendocino
13 articles
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: Mapping the Mendocino Canopy by Drone
A week flying multispectral drone surveys over Mendocino's recovering bull kelp: fog windows, canopy maths, and where the map still needs divers.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes: The Sonar Anomaly We Mapped at Mendocino
A routine Drifter survey off Mendocino returned a signature that matched no chart: hard reef where the map said sand. Field notes on what we found below.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Field Notes9 min read
Field Notes: The Storm Damage Report We Didn't Want to Write
A February storm took eleven of sixty seeded lines off the Mendocino coast. This is the honest write-up: what failed, what it cost, and what changes.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes8 min read
Field Notes, Mendocino: Diving the Urchin Barrens
A Tidewright field note from California's north coast: two weeks inside a purple urchin barren, counting what kelp loss looks like and planning its way back.
Jack Callum ·
Field Notes9 min read
Field Notes: The Settlement Plates We Bolted to a Barren
What settles on an urchin barren, and what survives? We bolted ceramic settlement plates to Mendocino reef to find out — before and after seeding.
Jack Callum ·
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 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 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
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 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
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 ·