A Chance of Fog and Whales! (Written on Jan 08, 2014)
We are in the mix – these Humpback whales are feeding in icy waters of the Antarctic!
Photo credit M. Jenner
Waking before my watch and realising that Curt hadn’t even arrived, got me a tad confused – especially with the lightness of the sky. “Now this time, how long have I slept in? Am I actually sleeping in the day?” A myriad of questions ran though my mind but shortly thereafter, when the door opened, all was much clearer. Curt had just stayed up late chatting with Russ about the tags – all fine. I put my head back down and slept another hour until Simons knock at 12.
I think you could safely say white-out conditions prevailed. Heavy fog enveloped Whale Song as we were only able to see 300-500m ahead and around the vessel for our ‘night’ watches. Checking the RADARs constantly for larger icebergs, Simon stood at the wheel ready to change course if a Bergie bit or a Growler, not detectable by the RADAR, were to pop up in front of us. I did the midnight weather obs and in the process of checking the thermometers on the fly-bridge, moved around very carefully on the icy deck. Both thermometers (dry and wet bulb) recorded -0.50C but with the SST at 0.10C, thus warmer, this was the catalyst for the formation of fog.
While quickly doing my midnight chores on deck, (weather obs and sonobuoy deployment), I took some snaps with my Coolpix and remarkably the images captured the fog! The moist air-born particles of steam fog can be seen as evaporation occurs, due to the water surface being warmer than the air.
As the morning wore on, the lume of the sun moving slowly in the fog increased to a cream hue rather than grey glow. Together with the poor visibility and the chance of small ice pieces, it was at once exhilarating and terrifying. I think perhaps the latter was winning! Simon and I had our eyes glued to the windows, not daring to take our eyes off the small patch of ocean visible, a usual Antarctic stance. At 0130 when Sam joined us, we had three pairs of beady eyes peering into the fog. Having done two watches, Simon was totally exhausted and relieved when Dale came up the stairs at 3am to take over.
The fog had nicely cleared as I woke at 715am. Yes, this would be another great start to the day! The usual teams rotated through the visual observations and we marvelled at the three, then five icebergs visible in our view from the top deck. The usual 1120 whales came by for Tas and Inday on the fly-bridge which were interestingly preceded by an increase of Light-mantled Sooty Albatross ducking and weaving. “We have blows, there are three pods – they look like humpback blows!” came the call on the uhf radios! Yahoo, we are in the mix again! Twenty-five to thirty albatross circled, beneath which familiar blows and bodies of humpback whales surged at the surface. Here we were with at least four pods, three sighted by Tas! All team personnel assembled on deck, cued by Whale Songs’ change of motor speed and direction. For over an hour we travelled slowly towing the Biosonics echo-sounder to assess the krill biomass in this area, and as well deployed a sonobuoy to capture any calls. From each deck, the crew enjoyed many close passes of pairs/threes and then sometimes seven whales swirling and lunge-feeding together at the surface. Cameras clicked away madly and film rolled (Inday and Tas) as the animals blew loudly and lifted their flukes high clear of the water in frequent, but shallow dives. As the whales were milling while surface-feeding, they presented several views of both sides of their bodies, thus allowing me to get full photo-ids on at least 6 of the twelve animals present within 1.5 nm. This was insane, we were in Downtown Whale Soup, lots of whales and we had arrived at the “kitchen” to observe them here! The whales were dynamic in their short-term associations, mostly staying with particular individuals but often switching for a surfacing. It will be absolutely unreal to search for these flukes and dorsal fins in our WA humpback Whale Photo-ID catalogue. “Have we seen you before?” Imagine!
Noon Observations Jan 08, 2014
Lat/Long: 640 03.8 S 1370 24.2 E
Dry Bulb Temp: sorry, distracted with whales!
Wet Bulb Temp: sorry, distracted with whales!
SST (Sea Surface Temp): 0.10C
COG (Course Over the Ground): with humpback whales! YAHOO!
SOG (Speed Over the Ground): 3-5 knots with humpback whales! YIPPEE!
Barometer: 995 Hp
Beaufort SS (Sea State): 3, 4
WS (Wind Speed): 7-10 knots, 11-16, light rain then heavy rain
WD (Wind Direction): NW
Swell: SW 1.5 m
Wildlife: Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Balck-browed Albatross, Cape petrel and 12 Humpback whales!
WT: PJS – 8
Antarctic Fact: In 1772-75 James Cook circumnavigated Antarctica crossing the Antarctic Circle three times.
Antarctic Slang: hardwater sailing – slang term for icebreaking.
With the whale sighting at 1120, we walked the decks with the whales while still monitoring the krill density with the Biosonix, towed on the portside of Whale Song. So we could engage with the whales, the Biosonix was lifted on deck and upon returning to the whales, (in fact they were still in the same location), unfortunately, heavy rain hampered our plans for the next work opportunities. We ‘gave it a go’, for now without luck on the biopsy or sat-tagging front, but still emerged with wonderful photo-ids and valuable data. The Bollinger, however, will remain in the fridge.
Monitoring the sounds of the sea using acoustics, Rob deploys a sonobuoy.
Photo credit M. Jenner
With our ship-keeping watches and now the acoustic monitoring at all hours, we tend to keep fairly routine meal-times. Naturally, these are slightly altered of course, if we are with whales! Resty called the troops for lunch, some more distracted than others, and the hot chicken and pasta soup as well as tomato soup with baguette and tasty hot quiche with salad, was readily gobbled and thoroughly enjoyed.
After ‘breaking contact’ with the humpbacks and back in the main saloon processing the information, Inday giggled “Hey, Mich, we are actually in the Antarctic!” While downloading the film clips from the various cameras of our humpback encounter today, it was still hard to comprehend we were actually here! Indeed, the realty is fantastic, and this sighting presented an excellent opportunity to assess with the Biosonix echo-sounder the krill density where humpback whales were present and surface-feeding.
Travelling away from the soft ice-edge we plan to slowly mooch in the area of the Dumont Deville Sea for the next couple of days. The large low-pressure system (with a central pressure of 956 Hp, as mentioned previously) continues to predominate the region, extending from Tasmania to the ice-edge (it’s a whopper!) and will influence our weather conditions and activities for the next 2-3 days.
The delicious smells of roast lamb overtook the main saloon and we were hungry beyond words and relieved when the call for dinner came! You see we like two calls, the one about whales and the ones regarding meal-times! Easy to please, really!
With rain and steam fog enveloping Whale Song again, the wind/sea and swell increased before dinner, becoming sloppy. We are in a seaway again, but with only 20 knots and 1.5 m swell.
Tonight I shall dream of all the whales that are nearby! We are at the cafe! Russ wondered how I could get so excited about seeing whales after 25 years. I thought about it for a moment and noted it was a genuine “from the bottom of my toes” yahoo that wells up, but this exuberance comes from the knowledge that each sighting represents great effort, which in the long run has always been worth it! Yep, you guessed it! I had a few hoots and hollers with these whales today! Did you hear them?
Knowing it is always worth it!
Mich
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