Sperm Whales By Night, Killer Whales By Day
Day 8 (Feb 07, 2016)
I struggled to know where to look. A breath-taking inky back sky with a WA cache of sparkling celestial diamonds or the sperm whale click trains (13 per 6 seconds) in 5cm lines pouring across the computer screen next to the nav chart. I realised I could hear as well as see the sound of the sperm whales, so for a little while, the sky won. In the pleasant conditions having the door open, for once, I felt I could have my cake and eat it too!
Sperm Whale Clicks. Squid beware!
Wow, what a racket! By 2am, the clicks were coming at 243/minute. There was a lot of seeking, hunting and eating going down and after 6 hours of continuous action there would be a lot less squid by sunup, of this I was certain! Thus far we have recorded several long hunting periods by sperm whales on the towed array but without sightings during the day. If we stayed with these hunting pods we would be in for a treat at sunrise since after these all night active sessions, extended periods of resting is often on the cards. By doing these survey transects while moving from a to b for specific purposes, such as hauling out in Port Lincoln thus travelling to/from Fremantle, sadly we can’t stop to stay with sperm whales but we can retrieve the night by listening to hunting creatures and utilise the day for visual encounters. Those sperm whales on the scoreboard! We have really upped the ante by looking/listening in the day and listening during the night too thus still noting presence of cetacean species.
Incoming calf beside its’ mother. They made three passes beneath Whale Song!
Today was all about retrieving one of Rob’s long-term acoustic loggers that has been in situ recording the happenings of the Bremer Canyon for just over 12 months. We had a slightly early lunch to have everyone fed and watered for the afternoons’ activities ahead. By 1300 we were on site and within an hour and half, all the gear was neatly sitting on deck and we were on the loose looking for killer whales in the Bremer Canyon! After a brief chat with Daughter #1 on the regular telephone (20 nm offshore-go figure!), Curt spied a bushy blow one nm away. We are in business. Right at their magical spot, there was a pod of beautifully patterned black/white killer whales. Over the course of the next three hours we saw quite a range of behaviours from pods travelling together, pods disaffiliating, animals fiercely “defending and guarding ” their patch but not making any kills, close investigating by a cow/calf pair, pods affiliating and travelling in small groups and then a line-up of approximately 30 individuals, perhaps an evening “super-pod”. As the sunset waned and the inky sky returned, killer whale whistles, pod cohesion calls, filled the wheelhouse. No hunting was occurring, they were not in stealth mode and thus quiet, they were socialising and maintaining their social structure by communicating and just “keeping in touch”.
Afternoon in Bremer. Killer whales in their magical hotspot!
Trifecta. Male with tall dorsal fin in foreground, females or juvenile males beyond.
What a treat! After a few hours in the slightly cool wind making my eyes water too much, it was fun to come inside to download the cards and relive the excitement of killer whales in Bremer Canyon!
With a killer whale grin!
Mich
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