TAGS AWAY! Wahoo! (Written on Jan 09, 2014)
An Antarctic scene, “Wobble” and “Flat Top” cruise the near freezing water.
The Photo credit M. Jenner
Wow, it has been the most amazing day! Everyone has been busier than “one armed wall-paper hangers”. It started yesterday… Around 9pm and just reaching the ‘P’ in my 1-2-3-S-L-E-E-P regime, Curt popped his head in our door and simply uttered “Whales”. Dressing quickly, it was immediately evident that the whales we had spent the day with, easily recognisable by their dorsal fins and flukes in the twilight, were now feeding with great flare and flourish! Rolling at the surface, lunging side-ways, rotating pectoral fins and even peduncle slaps and fluke slaps – we witnessed a wide variety of behaviours! In the drizzling rain, Russ and I hid under the cover of the Portuguese bridge, trying to get photos of the whales playing with their food! “This is why they are here!” Curt noted, the krill on the depth sounder showed as a huge mass, solid red targets from the surface to 40 m. As the rain fell more convincingly, we decided it was more suitable to video and thus GoPros were gathered and at least five crew moved to the bow, to film the whales’ antics close-up! We marvelled at the rolling and sideways fluke-ups and especially that it was night-time and we could still play with whales! Three pods surrounded Whale Song, four whales over there, another three to our stern and five jostling together at 2 o’clock. Eventually, the bow crew decided if we were to be working with whales tomorrow, we would need to get some rest. At 1030, I tried for a fourth time to go to bed, determined to not get distracted again!
The whales were relocated by 0730 am and by 0805 we were in business with the first pod of the day. We followed Pod 1 for a short time, “Round” and Triangle”. They were milling, not going anywhere particular and just mooching along. “Round” swam near the starboard bow, this was going to be a good position – Russ encouraged the whale to keep swimming “push through, push through” he urged, below us the huge back visible, Russ fired – and there it was seated nicely near the whales’ dorsal fin! TAG AWAY! The whole crew exploded in yahoos of joy and relief!
Two satellite-tags were deployed today, one on “Round” from Pod 1 and “Wobbles” from Pod 2, whom was swimming with two other animals. Wahoo! This was very exciting! I know someone heard me in your part of the world! I was very, very excited – believe you me!
Five biopsy samples were collected from “Round”, ”Wobbles”, “Flat Top”, “Son of a Breacher” and “Curve”, all humpback whales. These whales appeared to be were remaining, (at least over the last couple of days that we have observed them in this area) in tight, close-knit associations. “Wobbles”, “Flat Top” and “Curve”, as well as the others observed seemed to have formed bonded groups. If you tagged multiple animals in a pod, you could see just how long they remain together. Imagine this data!
These are the details of our physical data at noon.
Noon Observations Jan 09, 2014
The WAVES team onboard ‘Whale Song’, Curt and Resty with whales in their sights!
Photo credit M. Jenner
Lat/Long: 640 11.7 S 1370 17.0 E
Dry Bulb Temp: sorry, distracted with whales!
Wet Bulb Temp: sorry, distracted with whales!
SST (Sea Surface Temp): 0.60C
COG (Course Over the Ground): 2820
SOG (Speed Over the Ground): 5.7 knots
Barometer: 988 Hp
Beaufort SS (Sea State): 2
WS (Wind Speed): 5-10 knots, fog, sunshine, light rain, heavy rain, snow flurries and snow
WD (Wind Direction): NW
Swell: SW 1.5 m
Wildlife: Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Cape petrel and 10-12 Humpback whales! 2 sat-tags deployed, 5 biopsies collected and 8 photo-ids
WT: PN – 8
Antarctic Fact: With growing demand for krill used in aquaculture, and with new interest from pharmaceutical companies, it has been estimated that krill stocks may have declined by 80% over the last 35 years.
Antarctic Slang: frost smoke – condensed water vapour that that forms a mist over open water in cold weather.
Our day was a terribly pleasant blur of activity, working with four pods (8 whales) with another 3-5 lurking just beyond these animals. Steam fog was only 100m from Whale Song at the start of the day, next we enjoyed some sunshine (as shown with the glow on everyones’ faces!) next we had some more fog, driving rain, then drizzle and even some snow flurries! A full day of whales and weather! The non-stop action on the fore-deck was only mildly broken by one museli bar brought to me at 9am, two pieces of French toast kindly made by Resty (which I consumed on the double at 1130) and one bowl of tomato soup drunk like tea! Taking notes and transcribing, checking two cards of photos for id’s and marrying all the information regarding the tag up-links and the Biosonics data has kept everyone scribbling notes and furiously tapping away on computers throughout the day.
A LIMPET satellite tag perfectly positioned behind “Wobble’s” dorsal fin has already provided many location fixes and dive profiles!
Photo credit M. Jenner
The last pod of the day was in fact our first pod. We returned to Pod 1 take a biopsy sample from “Round” to complete the data set collection so that “Round” had been sat-tagged, biopsied and photo-id’d! It was interesting to see the two whales getting more active and really “playing in the chocolate milk!” as the early evening approached and the krill began moving towards the surface. This movement is known as vertical migration, undertaken by many marine creatures. Perhaps, with a night of feeding on the krill at or near the surface, the whales have full bellies and thus during the day are fairly mellow digesting and just milling together before the next “all you can eat buffet” the next evening! This is a drive-by krilling”.
Using fantastic technology we have been able to collect a most interesting dataset. Working closely with the individuals in the pods gathering photo-id data and biopsy samples while sat-tagging, then by following those animals we captured their real-time depth dive profiles in relation to the real-time Bio Sonics krill biomass data. Unreal! Many new stories to be told!
Seated in the main saloon and while eating Restys’ delicious spring rolls with rice and chicken vegetable curry, we were dining with dining humpback whales! It was as though we were in the dinner carriage of a train and the view out the windows just happened to be in the Antarctic of feeding and frolicking humpback whales! Insane! Wahoo!
As we travelled along slowly, passing a beautiful wedge/pinnacle iceberg, one that we thought the other day to resemble Whale Song, the grins are getting bigger and the excitement building regarding what we will see tomorrow! We are all thoroughly exhausted – this is my favourite sort of exhausted! I will sleep very soundly – happy that we are oh-so lucky to be studying beautiful whales in terribly, interesting locales!
With snow falling gently,
Mich
The excitement is infectious. Your WAVES blog is the FIRST thing I need to read everyday. I’m there with you. What wonderful research …. What a wonderful adventure.
Stay safe.
Pat