MAIACETUS: January 2010 After 32 days of no sightings...a sperm whale sighting 2 days before heading home

I was starting to doubt whether there were any marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico but finally after 32 days of looking at the water we had a sperm whale sighting. It was mid-morning and I was sitting on the starboard bridge wing on watch and listening to a podcast when suddenly the MMO from the port side came over yelling at me that there was a whale. We felt a little bit scattered as having not seen anything for quite a while we were a little out practice on our sightings procedures!

I ran over to her side and she pointed out to where she had seen the last surfacing approximately 1 km off our port bow. I immediately called the Harrier's instrument room on the radio to let the seismic crew know that we may have to call for a shut down of the airguns if the whale came within 500 meters of them. Then I spoke with the MMOs on the ships off our port and starboard sides to let them know we had seen the whale so they knew to keep there eyes open for the possibility that they would have to shut down.

The whale's next surfacing was between us and one of the other ships about 700 meters off our port side. It surfaced about 3 times and then went for a deep dive and that was the last we saw of it. It was my first really good look at a sperm whale and I was able to get some distant photographs of the whale's dorsal hump (sperm whales don't have a distinct dorsal fin) and the tail fluke as it dove. Following are some photographs from this sighitng and some photos from the last couple of days before I went home after 5 weeks at sea.

Following 3 photos: the sperm whale that surfaced between the two ships. It's a bit tough to see but it is in line a bit astern of the other ship.

Approaching a rig for a close pass

Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Such strange looking things...especially at night!

Rig flare during a close pass in the early morning

The Harrier Explorer, my home for the past 5 weeks, with the crew boat that transferred us off for our crew change...homeward bound!

The work boat that took us to shore...six hours of nice seas and sun!

A very poor shot of a group of bottlenose dolphins we saw on the way back to shore. This was our third group of dolphins we saw on the way in. We also saw a couple of Risso's dolphins and a mother/calf spotted dolphin pair that were bowriding for a few minutes. Very nice way to end the trip :-)