365 Project, Day 135
Here is my day 135 submission to my 365Project:
Yesterday, even though I didn't post any photos I had a couple of sightings...but, as seems to be consistent for this time of year in this area, they were frustratingly brief and/or distant. In the morning it was almost glass, flat calm and, just as we were turning in the shallower end (at ~200m) of our survey prospect I spotted the blow, back and dorsal fin of a dark coloured baleen whale (which my best guess would've been a Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni, given the location and size) surfacing about 2 km ahead of us and swimming right at us. I quickly jumped up from my seat to mark a waypoint and grab my camera thinking it would be a great sighting and photographic opportunity...but, even after I called the officer on watch and my co-MMO to help me look for it, I never saw the whale again! It's amazing how difficult it can be at times to track these animals...even when the conditions are great! Such is the life of an MMO!
The rest of the day was fairly quiet...until, once again while we were on a turn in the deep end of the prospect, I spotted a fairly low, bushy blow on the horizon near the glare of the setting sun. Fortunately, I was able to see the blows more than once but, being that it was about 6 km offshore of us, I couldn't make out enough details to identify what type of whale it was. The blow did appear to be much like that of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) whose blows tend to go sideways and to their left because of the angle of their single blowhole (being a toothed whale). The slant of a sperm whale's blow is usually a very good identification feature, even at a distance, and although it appeared a couple of these blows might be that of a sperm whale, something did not quite fit and I was not convinced enough to report it as such and was recorded as an unidentified large whale. Anyways, there is life around...just not close enough for us to get photos or positive IDs.
Today, all was quiet and the only shots I took were of these towering cumulonimbus clouds at sunset:
Fun fact of the Day:
Cumulonimbus type clouds are tall, dense and involved in thunderstorms and other intense weather so are the result of atmospheric instability. The name cumulonimbus originates from latin: cumulus = 'accumulated' and nimbus = 'rain'.
Read more about Cumulonimbus clouds at this princeton.edu webpage.
Yesterday, even though I didn't post any photos I had a couple of sightings...but, as seems to be consistent for this time of year in this area, they were frustratingly brief and/or distant. In the morning it was almost glass, flat calm and, just as we were turning in the shallower end (at ~200m) of our survey prospect I spotted the blow, back and dorsal fin of a dark coloured baleen whale (which my best guess would've been a Bryde's whale, Balaenoptera edeni, given the location and size) surfacing about 2 km ahead of us and swimming right at us. I quickly jumped up from my seat to mark a waypoint and grab my camera thinking it would be a great sighting and photographic opportunity...but, even after I called the officer on watch and my co-MMO to help me look for it, I never saw the whale again! It's amazing how difficult it can be at times to track these animals...even when the conditions are great! Such is the life of an MMO!
The rest of the day was fairly quiet...until, once again while we were on a turn in the deep end of the prospect, I spotted a fairly low, bushy blow on the horizon near the glare of the setting sun. Fortunately, I was able to see the blows more than once but, being that it was about 6 km offshore of us, I couldn't make out enough details to identify what type of whale it was. The blow did appear to be much like that of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) whose blows tend to go sideways and to their left because of the angle of their single blowhole (being a toothed whale). The slant of a sperm whale's blow is usually a very good identification feature, even at a distance, and although it appeared a couple of these blows might be that of a sperm whale, something did not quite fit and I was not convinced enough to report it as such and was recorded as an unidentified large whale. Anyways, there is life around...just not close enough for us to get photos or positive IDs.
Today, all was quiet and the only shots I took were of these towering cumulonimbus clouds at sunset:
Fun fact of the Day:
Cumulonimbus type clouds are tall, dense and involved in thunderstorms and other intense weather so are the result of atmospheric instability. The name cumulonimbus originates from latin: cumulus = 'accumulated' and nimbus = 'rain'.
Read more about Cumulonimbus clouds at this princeton.edu webpage.
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