MAIACETUS

Re-cap of 2010: My first international job in Africa!!

2011-01-02T07:57:00.001-08:00

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitor job, Mozambique, August 2010

After completing my contract as MMO on the Seajade survey with Natural Resources Canada (see previous post) there was a bit of time until I secured my next contract. I was fine with this though because we were moving into the most beautiful part of summer around Victoria and Vancouver Island. During this time I still managed to keep myself busy: I went out on a couple whale watching trips with Five Star Charters (who I worked with as a naturalist for many seasons) and saw our local resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) and a gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) on July 10th, 21st and 23rd, I went kayaking around Victoria Harbour with my good friend, Jacklyn, on July 16th and I visited my good friend Barb and her mom on Saltspring Island July 17th.

L41 a 33 year old male 'Resident' fish eating killer whale (Orcinus orca), July 10

Paddling under the dock at Ship Point in Victoria Harbour, July 16

Jacklyn and I saw this funky sea star with regeneration of what looks like a new sea star attached at the end of one of the legs!

Jacklyn - happily paddling!

And me, happily paddling :)

The awesome view of the Gulf Islands from Mount Maxwell on Saltspring Island, July 17

And another awesome view of the boats at anchor below, July 17

Following two photos: Myself, Barb and her mom taking in the sun on Mount Maxwell, Saltspring, July 17

Female 'Resident' fish eating killer whale (Orcinus orca) swimming towards us, July 21

Following two photos: A gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) was spending a lot of time off the Victoria waterfront and we had a chance to see this hungry critter feeding in the waters around Victoria, July 21

Oh and one of our lovely juvenile 'sprouting' male 'Resident' fish eating killer whales (Orcinus orca), July 23

...and a couple of females from his family traveling near Speiden Island, WA, July 23

Although I was enjoying the beautiful Vancouver Island summer I was also busy spending time securing my next contract. Initially, I was offered a contract with LGL off the east coast of Canada returning to the Harrier Explorer, which I worked on in the Gulf of Mexico this past winter, but that fell through because the Seajade survey was too soon before it. Instead, LGL decided to try to send me on a different job because they were afraid of possible delays with the first survey.

In the end I was offered a contract in Greenland with LGL and a contract in the Beaufort Sea with Stantec. I decided to take the contract with Stantec because it was supposed to be with my good friend and good MMO, Jacklyn Barrs. Also, when I was offered the position in Greenland I was asked if I would be comfortable 'being exposed to the Arctic elements for hours at a time'; the ship's bridge did not want the MMOs working inside! Of course, I took the option to work in the Beaufort Sea where I'd likely be warmer, with the opportunity to escape the elements occasionally on the bridge, and to work with an MMO I knew would do a good job!

So it was decided I would be headed to the Arctic...or so I thought! After spending a great amount of time preparing for this contract i.e. shopping for wool long underwear and socks and cold weather outerwear, we found out the contract had changed and only one of us was required.

In the end we were asked to decide which of us would go, a very difficult decision indeed! Fortunately, the day prior to hearing this I was asked about my availability to work a contract in Mozambique and, although I'd replied by email that I was unavailable that night, I immediately contacted the company in the UK and informed them that I would be interested in that position. Luckily my email had not been read yet and I was now to be headed to Mozambique! One minute I was purchasing clothing for work in the Arctic, the next minute I was purchasing suncream, hats and clothing to work off the southeast coast of Africa! Although I had been excited at the prospect of working in a new region in the Arctic I was also happy to be returning to Africa because I hadn't been back since I'd left Kenya in 2007.

Soon I was on the l-o-o-ong journey to Mozambique and five flights later, YYJ (Victoria) to YVR (Vancouver) to LHR (London-Heathrow) to JNB (Johannesburg) to MPM (Maputo) to POL (Pemba)!, I was on the Osprey Explorer in the port of Pemba, Mozambique. After meeting with the first pair of MMO/PAM operators for a handover and spending a couple of nights in port we were on our way out to the Petronas-Carigali survey site in the offshore waters of Mozambique. I was quite excited about this job but also a bit anxious because this was my first job in which I would deploying and bringing in the hydrophone gear. The PAM operators who were on before us had some difficulty with our hydrophone cable entangling with the ship's gear, due to the strong current in the Mozambique Channel, so we were anticipating this could be an issue for us as well.

In the end we were lucky and had no problems with entanglements during our relatively short, three week, rotation. In total there were 42 sightings and no acoustic detections over the course of the 2.5 month survey; the majority of the sightings during my rotation were humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) but other species included false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris). One of the most striking results of this survey was the amount of data collected on the number of humpback whales utilising the waters off Mozambique consisting of 90% of our sightings. It was very common to observe many blows on the horizon during our visual watches!

Following two photos: at the Yotel in London-Heathrow terminal 4 - a great place to refresh and catch up on sleep between flights en route to Mozambique

En route to Mozambique from Johannesburg, South Africa

The little airport at Pemba in Northern Mozambique

Traveling to the ship, the Osprey Explorer, which was anchored in the harbour off Pemba, Mozambique - can just spot it through the trees

Team MMO: Heather and Christy, the talented MMOs who started the job, and Ryan and I coming to finish the job

At the port where we stayed before departing to the survey site offshore of Mozambique

Night time view from my cabin in port, was trying to fall asleep but the jet lag (with a 10 hour time difference from Victoria!) kept me up so I snapped some photos

Alongside awaiting departure to the survey site with our chase boat

Local sailing dhow cruising past us

View of the Pemba shore from the ship

My cozy cabin on the Osprey; being the only woman on board I got my own cabin, lucky me!

Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) sighting during our survey

Following four photos: And sometimes the humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) swim a little closer to us...fortunately we weren't under production, i.e. no airguns were turned on, at this time

View on the deck by the bridge...the chair by the rail was my starboard side 'office' :)

The bridge of the Osprey Explorer

Fortunately the captain on the ship liked to have many plants on the bridge...actually not a very common thing to see!

View forward from the helideck of the Osprey Explorer

On our way back to shore - Ryan and I waiting for the FRC to launch and take us back to shore

After completing the survey I decided to stay on and see a bit of what Pemba has to offer. A view of some of the local homes.

I spent a few nights at the Pemba Dive and Bush Camp which was a lovely place with a very 'interesting' person running it, quite a character!

Following 7 photos: views around the Dive and Bush Camp

My accomodation...rustic but comfortable!

The view of the Osprey Explorer, post-survey and preparing to go to it's next site, from the Dive and Bush camp

Mangrove beaches at the dive and bush camp

Places to chill at the dive and bush camp - this was a great spot to hang out at night and watch the stars...especially since I'd come off night shift so was wide awake at 2 am!

The sunrises were beautiful with silhouettes of palm trees

Mangrove boat

Of course, staying at a Dive and Bush camp meant I should do some diving! Beautiful Wimbi Beach - from where we headed out to our dive sites

Pemba Dive dive shop - such a cute little shop on this beautiful white sandy beach

The road to the Pemba Dive and Bush Camp - nice view of the surrounding area of Pemba

2010 re-cap: 178 sightings and >700 animals...in 6 days!

2011-01-02T07:56:00.001-08:00

MMO work on CCGS J.P. Tully earthquake survey July 2010

Wow, it's been a lo-o-o-ong time since I've blogged! It's amazing how the time flew by in 2011. I was hoping to re-cap 2010 last January but, as is obvious, I never got around to it. I had another amazing year in 2011 having worked consistently on Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) and Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) contracts in Africa. In addition to this I finally committed myself to working as a research assitant on the Humpback whale and dolphin research project in Zanzibar, Tanzania. It was a great year, but first...time to catch up on 2010!!

2010 was my first full year working as an MMO/PAM operator. I finished my first contract of the year in the Gulf of Mexico in June and, fortunately, shortly after I completed that contract I was offered a position as an MMO on the Canadian Coast Guard vessel the J.P. Tully. The Tully was heading to the offshore waters of Vancouver Island for the Seajade survey which was a joint survey collecting both passive and active seismic data off Vancouver Island. The expedition operated in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada (Public Safety Geoscience Program and Gas Hydrate Program), the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and the United States (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey).

The end goal of the research project was to fill a critical knowledge gap in the assessment of earthquake hazard due to the Cascadia subduction fault. The survey area was on the continental slope, roughly from the entry point of Juan de Fuca Strait to the Nootka Fault Zone located off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

During the survey us three MMOs conducted visual observations during all daylight hours; we were there to ensure the crew conducting the survey operated under guidelines created to minimise acoustic disturbance to marine mammals and we certainly were busy!

Over the six days we conducted our visual surveys we observed over 700 individuals in 178 sightings of which half of these were Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli). Other species we observed included: 6 Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), 1 harbour seal (Phoca vitulina), 36 humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), 29 killer whales (Orcinus orca), 1 minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), 17 northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus), 3 northern right whale dolphins (Lissodelphis borealis), 122 Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhychus obliquidens), 11 sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and 1 Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus).

This was an amazing survey for us and it reminded us of just how rich the marine wildlife off the coast of Vancouver Island and BC is, something we must try to keep in mind when we are back onshore conducting our normal day to day activities!

Following 6 photos: Pacific white sided dolphins (Lagenorhychus obliquidens) coming to bow ride alongside the J.P. Tully

One of the members of the survey crew preparing to deploy an Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) which will be used to record seismic activity from the seabed floor ~2000 m below us

Crew retrieving the OBS once it returned to the surface...with an ever present Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) coming along to check things out!

Following three photos: Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) who stuck around the boat for a while and played with this piece of bull kelp...very entertaining to watch indeed and certainly didn't seemed concerned about our presence!

Approaching Ucluelet, to pick up a part, on a beautiful sunny day

My co-MMOs enjoying our arrival in Ucluelet: although we weren't out very long we still appreciated the return to shore and some time to wander around town, enjoy the sun and check out the Ucluelet Aquarium

Following two photos: the very comfortable J.P. Tully - our home and survey platform for the duration the survey

Taking a breather on the transit back to the Institute of Oceans Sciences, Sidney where, sadly, we would be disembarking

Photo of the survey team with Natural Resources Canada, JAMSTEC survey crew and us MMOs

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) spotted on the way back to port

The amazing shore off the west coast of Vancouver Island...look at all the trees!

Oh, and of course... the sunsets :)

Post dedicated to the marine animals of the Gulf of Mexico

2011-01-02T07:52:00.004-08:00

It’s been a while since I’ve written any blogposts but recently I felt I should to start again. This period of absence is a result of some personal conflict I’ve had as a result of the Gulf Of Mexico oil disaster and just plain busy-ness in life.

So why would I stop writing a blog because of an oil spill? Does it not seem a little counter-intuitive that somebody concerned with the environment and who has worked near the disaster location would stop writing about it? Well, I must be honest and say that it is because I was trying to get my head around the largest environmental disaster in the US and possibly the world and the fact that I have been working most of the past year as a Marine Mammal Observer (MMO) for seismic exploration in the Oil and Gas industry.

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) on the helideck

Before 2009 most of my work was in whale watching and volunteering in marine mammal research (with the occasional paid job when I was lucky!). Since 1996 I have been involved in marine mammal activities in Canada and around the world as much as I possibly could afford or make time for. When I finally finished my my masters in 2008 and realized that I had been pushing my financial limits for years and I decided it was time I move into a different area of marine mammal work; I began working on seismic survey ships as an MMO and finally I was earning enough money to start paying down debt accumulated for marine mammal studies and years of travel and volunteering to work on various marine mammal projects!

Then on April 20th the Deep Horizon oil rig was destroyed in the Gulf Of Mexico; where I had been working as an MMO since December and where I had really started to appreciate the marine animals of the area. Suddenly I had moral questions about my work and the fact that I was benefiting by working in this industry.

Juvenile Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

I’ve thought long and hard about my role as an MMO, the reasons for this disaster and whether I should feel guilty for working in the industry. I have taken comfort in the fact that, at least, by working as an MMO I am on the environmental side of the business and do the best job I can to aid the industry to use practices to minimise impacts to wildlife and the environment. Unfortunately, I cannot claim to be innocent in this disaster and none of us really can. This disaster is connected to our consumption of fossil fuels and we can help prevent disasters like this one by reducing our dependence on these fuels. Every one of us makes consumer choices everyday and we must remember that these choices, whether it be about how we get from point A to point B or whether our food comes from the other side of the world, give us some say on how our natural world is impacted.

Although the spill was finally capped in July, research in the region has found that the Gulf of Mexico is still being impacted and will be impacted for many years. The following links have some fairly detailed information about these findings:

National Geographic: Gulf Oil Spill News
Seaweb Marine Science Review: Oil and Oil Spills Gulf of Mexico

Although I've let life sweep me months beyond the last time I blogged I have decided I would like to do a little catch-up blogging to summarize the last half of 2010 in my life as an MMO. Following are photos from my last trip working as an MMO in the Gulf of Mexico in May and June. It was an interesting trip for us MMOs with more sightings of marine mammals than my previous two rotations in the Gulf. These photographs show the amazing marine life in the region and the only thing we can hope now is that these animals, and most other marine wildlife, are able to avoid the worst impacts of this disaster and that this is a wake-up call for all of us to think about how our lifestyle choices impact the natural world.

Above 5 photos: I had a great time photographing this brown pelican on the helideck

Storm clouds

Booby

Aw the sunsets!

My MMO companion hard at work

Above 2 photos: muster and survival suit drill

What can I say...hard not to photograph these sunsets

Above 2 photos: whale shark (Rhincodon typus) feeding

Ash throated flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens,I believe...still need some practice with my bird ID!)

Blue bottle or Portuguese Man-o-war (Physalia utriculus) jelly...not something to be touched!

Juvenile magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)

Above photos: short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Above 3 photos: Pan-tropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata)

Above 7 photos: bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Moonrise

Then, in May/June, it started to get HOT!

Pygmy killer whlaes (Feresa attenuata)

Brown pelican flying overhead in port at Galveston

Victoria Tourism Companies Join Forces for April 22, 2010 Earth Day and TLC!

2010-04-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Five Star Charters the whale watching company I have worked with in past years has joined forces with Adrena Line Zip Tours to donate their earnings on April 22, Earth Day 2010, to The Land Conservancy's Wild Hills and Beaches Campaigns help purchase Western Forest Products lands in the Jordan River and Sooke Hills area.

'Transient' mammal eating ecotype of killer whale off Sheringham Point, just down the coast from Jordan River, Vancouver Island

Five Star Charters will be running a special 'Earth Day' cruise at 2 pm this coming Thursday April 22nd and all the proceeds from that cruise will be donated to the TLC's campaign. In addition to donations from cruise earnings there will be a donation box in Five Star's office at 651 Humboldt Street (how to get there). Adrena Line Zip Tours will donate 20$ of each zip line sold on Earth Day.

'Transient' cartwheel just offshore of Southern Vancouver Island...the habitat offshore of areas like Jordan River is important for marine mammals and what we do onshore affects these animals

Links

TLC's announcement of this joint venture to fundraise money for their Wild Hills and Beaches campaign
To check out TLC's Wild Hills and Beaches campaign go here
Five Star Charter's blog post about their participation in this Earth Day fundraiser
To donate to TLC's campaign online go here or call 1-877-485-2422.
To contact Adrena Line Zip Tours phone: 250-642-1933 or toll-free: 1-866-947-9145

April 10 - 12: What better to do when not working as an MMO...get back on the water!

2010-04-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things about working as an MMO is that I don't work the typical 9 -5 Monday to Friday hours so I have the flexibility to travel, near and far, and I can pretty much go anytime during my weeks off. During my last break in February/March I went to the Yucatan in Mexico to take in the beach, carnaval and do some cenote diving. This break I decided to stick around British Columbia and last weekend I visited a friend living in Squamish, BC, near Whistler where this year's winter Olympics were held.

I headed up to Nanaimo, about 1.5 hours north of Victoria on Vancouver Island, and took the ferry across to Horseshoe Bay, a small town west of Vancouver. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had flat calm seas for the crossing; I spent a little time on the bow keeping my eyes open for marine mammals and saw a couple of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and another small group of Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides Dalli).

When I arrived on the mainland side my friend met me and we drove the Sea To Sky Highway to Squamish. I stayed in Squamish until Monday morning during which time we hiked along the Mamquam River, hiked up part of Shannon Falls and I sailed with her in my first Regatta at the Squamish Yacht Club and we checked out a couple of the local pubs (Watershed Grill,Howe Sound Inn Pub). This was my first regatta and the boat we were on came in first after two races! It was an awesome weekend and so great to see a part of British Columbia I hadn't been to for years!

Milo, my cat who now lives at my grandparent's in Nanaimo...stopped for a visit on the way to the ferry and caught him sitting in his trademark 'recliner' pose

Perfect conditions for looking for porpoise...and I saw some harbour and Dall's porpoise on the crossing

Coast Mountains near Squamish

An interesting vehicle parked in the town of Squamish. Looks like an old-fashioned snow plow!

View of Howe Sound

Our hiking partner, Snoopy, on the way up Shannon Falls

View from our hike up Shannon Falls

Shannon Falls

The Chief as seen from the Squamish Yacht Club

Heading out to start the regatta

Above 2 photos: flying the spinnaker

Doing my job...'rail bait'!

Happy crew...it got so sunny and warm!

Enjoying the sun!

Heading back to the dock

Squamish Yacht Club

Main street in Squamish

April 7, 2010 Out with Five Star Charters: T30s and dead gray whale at East Sooke

2010-04-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been so busy catching up visiting with friends in Victoria, Squamish and Saltpsring Island so I'm a little behind with this post but here's some photos from my trip out on Five Star Charters' Fastcat on April 7. The weather wasn't great and, although there had been a sighting of 'Transient' mammal eating killer whales earlier that day, by the time we got on the water a couple of hours had passed so it was difficult to re-find the group. Fortunately there were a few boats on the water so we spread out on a search. We travelled east across the Victoria waterfront towards Oak Bay and then headed south in the Strait of Juan De Fuca making a line towards Race Rocks Ecological Reserve.

Shortly after we arrived at Race Rocks to take a look at the sea lions and harbour seals we got a call that one of the other vessels had re-sighted the group. The five killer whales were milling around outside of Becher Bay, off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, with plenty of seagulls diving amongst them suggesting they were feeding. We observed the group of T30s and T172 for a short while and then headed over to the nearby coastline of East Sooke Park where a dead gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) had washed up a couple of days prior. The whale likely died of starvation; it is one of six gray whales that have died in Salish Sea waters recently (See Cascadia Research page reporting on five gray whales that died in Puget Sound). So today's group of whale watchers started out with a rough and cold search but their trip ended with a sighting of a group of Transient killer whales and a dead gray whale... an interesting day indeed!

T30B a female born in 1993

T30C a juvenile estimated to be born in 2005

T172, 21 year old female who often travels with the T30s

Tail fluke!

T30, the female matriarch of the T30s who is estimated to be born at least in 1967

T30A, a 24 year old male travelling with T30C his younger sibling

Transient chin!

T30B

T30A

T30C

Above 3 photos: the dead gray whale, with a curious crowd, that washed up on the beach at East Sooke Regional Park. We are seeing the underside of this whale, the jaw is to the left and tail to right

T30A

T30A's tail fluke: the tail flukes on mature males curl under as you can see here

T30C

T30A

Side flop!

Above 2 photos: milling transients

Above 2 photos: just as we were leaving a Bald Eagle flew overhead checking out the feeding group of whales

April 2010: Back from the Gulf of Mexico... more photos from life as an MMO

2010-04-16T18:06:00.001-07:00

I'm back in Victoria between rotations working as a Marine Mammal Observer on seismic survey ships in the Gulf Of Mexico. My last rotation was much more interesting biologically than our December/January rotation which was likely due to much better weather conditions and the fact that we were in some shallower waters. We had many more marine mammal and migrating bird sightings especially during the last couple of weeks. Some highlights of marine mammal sightings included: Atlantic Spotted dolphins (Stenalla frontalis), Pan-Tropical Spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata), Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus), Melon-headed whales (Pepanocephala electra) and Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris). One of the bird highlights of the trip included my first sighting of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus); a beautiful bird with a long forked tail and a pink belly. A very interesting sighting indeed!

Our ride to work

The Helicopter airport

Heading to the helicopter

Onboard and waiting to depart

View of the landing strip

Heading out to the Gulf from Galveston, TX

Galveston, TX

Flying over the Gulf of Mexico

Our lead MMO on the lookout for marine life en route

Helicopter Landing Officer coming to let us out after landing on the ship

Additional passengers often join us: a white winged dove (Zenaida asiatica)

Above 3 photos: sunset at sea

Starboard bridge wing

Welcome to my 'office'

Prothonotary warbler (Prothonotaria citrea)

Our CPR Annie hard at work!

Above 3 photos: Atlantic spotted dolphins, 16 joined us for 45 minutes one day

Hard at work! Actually, we were between watches so I took in some spring sun in the Gulf of Mexico

One of the chase boats coming to get some equpment from us

Spinner dolphin bowriding

Crew change day...the first helicopter landing on the helideck

Above 3 photos: then our helicopter landed and we were done our five weeks at sea!

Heading back into Galveston for breaktime!

January 26, 2010 T30s and T172 still in the Strait of Juan De Fuca today

2010-01-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

This morning I received a call from Mark that he spotted a group of killer whales in the Strait of Juan De Fuca again. Although he wasn't sure who the animals were he had a feeling it was the same group we saw yesterday and invited me join him for his 1 pm whale watching trip with Prince Of Whales.

We left Victoria harbour and headed south towards Race Rocks Ecological reserve and then west in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. It ended up being quite the search and we travelled mid-strait as far west as Sheringham Point on Vancouver Island. The conditions were good for spotting but we still had a bit of a tricky time finding the animals especially as it was over 2 hours since they were last seen from the Victoria waterfront. At one point in the trip I thought I saw a male dorsal fin going down but doubted myself because there were so many logs and other debris in the water. Shortly after we turned around in the strait to head back to the east Mark spotted blows to the south of us and they were roughly in the area where I thought I saw a male's dorsal fin.

We headed towards them and sure enough it was the T30s and T172 again and when we arrived we noticed they were lunging around a harbour seal. We were expecting to see the poor thing become lunch but after about 15 minutes of the females lunging around the seal they left and joined T30A who'd been travelling away from them to the west. That was a very lucky seal indeed! It was a great sighting and we were very lucky to see the group again despite especially since it took a while to find them!

T172 and one of the T30s in the Strait of Juan De Fuca

One of the T30s surfacing near the lucky harbour seal...they left it after pushing it around for about 10 or 15 minutes!

T172 a 21 year old female "Transient" mammal eating killer whale

T30B a 17 year old female with T172

The lucky harbour seal!

Two of the whales lunging under the water and pushing the seal around

T30B

Here you can see the seal behind the whale's head

T30B

T172

T30A the 24 year old male

Possibly T172 with T30A

T30A

T30B and T172

T30C the five year old younger sibling of T30A and T30B

December ' 09 to January '10 Random stuff from life on the Harrier Explorer

2010-01-29T12:56:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos from random events in daily life on the Harrier Explorer during seismic surveying offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The pictures show: bunkering (taking on fuel) procedures, a tern another MMO found on the helipad after we had some stormy weather, some rough seas, views from the helideck, receiving a delivery from another ship's workboat and firefighting drills to prepare for helicopter transfers. Enjoy!

The crew preparing to receive the tow and bunkering lines

The bunker ship comes ahead of us and releases a tow line back to our ship

Now the crew tries to recover the tow line to bring onboard and attach to one of our big ship's bollards

Bringing the tow line on board

The bunker ship

Bringing the bunkering nozzle onboard

Unfortunately the first time the nozzle was brought on board the line it was being winched onboard with snapped and then there was some trouble getting the nozzle over the cleat the second time

...but it finally got over!

Attaching the bunkering hose

On watch in the bridge

The Ramform Viking in some not so nice seas!

Poor tern!

Workboat coming to pick up a delivery from us to go to another ship

View to the bridge from the helideck

View astern from the helideck

Sending a delivery to the workboat

Ocean Explorer having a close pass with a rig

And the rig looks like it's on the Oceans' helideck!

Crew on the helideck practicing fire drills for crew transfer day

Christmas and New Years Eve 2009/2010 on the Harrier Explorer

2010-01-29T11:45:00.001-08:00

This was my first Christmas and New Years Eve at sea; we had the most amazing sunrise on Christmas day and the moon the morning of New Years Eve was also great!

The following 8 photos show the sunrise on Christmas morning. The rest of Christmas day was mostly a normal working day at sea with us MMOs doing our watch rotations. The galley crew did a great job decorating the mess room and we even had a Christmas tree. Christmas dinner was quite the spread and the galley cooked up: a whole pig, roast, ribs, salmon, crab, prawns, ham and calamari. Unfortunately for those of us who were more inclined to veggies there was very little selection but at least there were mashed potatoes! Of course there was lots of dessert too with loads of chocolate, cakes and Christmas pudding! Not too bad for my first Christmas at sea!

On New Years Eve we had a large meal which was similar to Christmas. Unfortunately for me it was quite a meat laden meal again but there was lots of chocolate to make up for it! On New Years Eve morning the moon was beautiful and although I got some pictures they don't nearly show how amazing it was. We also had a lovely sunrise but it was nothing like the sunrise on Christmas morning.

January 25, 2010 T30s and T172 in the Strait of Juan De Fuca

2010-01-26T09:37:00.003-08:00

Late this morning I was puttering around my apartment when I decided I should head to the Victoria waterfront for an hour or so to see if I could spot any killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Just as I was getting ready to head out the door I received a call from my fellow whale-nerd friend, Mark, to see if I would like to meet him for coffee or lunch. So I bailed out on the waterfront search and we made plans to meet. Fifteen minutes later he called to tell me he had decided to have a little scan along the waterfront before coming to meet me and, sure enough, spotted a group of killer whales off the Victoria waterfront. Our lunch plans quickly turned into plans for a boat ride to go photo-ID a group of killer whales. The weather was perfect...calm and slightly coudy. Mark coordinated with our shore-based 'crows nest' spotter, Gordon Rowles, to keep an eye on the animals while he went to grab his trailered boat.

Half an hour later we were headed south in the Strait of Juan De Fuca cruising over the smooth but slightly lumpy swell, a remnant from last nights winds, with Gordon guiding us via VHF radio to where he could still see the killer whales heading south in the strait. After a 30 - 45 minute drive we spotted the distant blows on the horizon and were caught up with the group of killer whales. Mark spends a lot of time tracking the 'Transient' mammal-eating ecotype of killer whales and he instantly recognized the group of animals as the T30 matriline which includes T30, a female born at least in 1967, T30A, 24 year old male, T30B, a 17 year old female and T30C, a five year old juvenile. Initially we thought there were only the four animals but Mark and I soon realized that there was another female in the group; T172 a 21 year old female.

It was a nice encounter but they were definitely all business; they travelled quickly on a south and westbound track over to the American side of the Strait of Juan De Fuca. At times it was a bit tricky to keep up with them as they did the typical Transient zig-zag behaviour. It was a great day on the water and just what I needed after a nice, but fairly marine mammal-free, five weeks working in the Gulf of Mexico!

T30A the 24 year old son of T30

Above 2 photos: T30A (24 years old) and T30C (5 years old)

T172 the 21 year old female who as travelling with the T30s

Above 2 photos: T30A with shipping traffic passing in the distance

T30 (the ~43 year old matriarch of the T30s), T172 and T30C

T172, T30A and T30 travelling quickly in a tight group

T172, T30A and T30

Head on shot of two females

T30A you can see how his dorsal fin curls a little to the left (as viewed from behind) at the top

T30A

T30B

T172, T30 and probably T30B

T30, T30B, T30C and T30A (you can just see the melon of T172 behind T30A)

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

2010-01-26T07:49:00.053-08:00

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 :-)

The following photos were taken during my flights from Houston to San Francisco and then on to Victoria

I loved this 'giant foot'

Nearly home...we flew over Port Angeles just before heading across the Strait of Juan De Fuca and on to Victoria

December 16, 2009 to January 23, 2010 First MMO rotation in the Gulf of Mexico

2010-01-25T08:23:00.000-08:00

On December 16 I flew from Victoria to Houston, Texas where I was to start my first five week rotation as a marine mammal observer on the Harrier Explorer, as seismic research vessel, in the Gulf of Mexico. I was pretty exhausted when I arrived as I was up at 3 am to fly from Victoria to Vancouver and then from Vancouver on to Houston. I wasn't nearly as tired as the rest of the ship's crew most of who flew either from the UK, Sweden, the Ukraine, Russia and the Phillipines. After we met at the airport we were bussed to our hotel in Houston where we were to stay the night before heading to the ship in Galveston the following morning. There was no rest for the wicked as after a brief meeting, dinner and a few drinks I had to head to bed for another early morning; our bus to take us to the ship anchored off Galveston would be departing at 4 am the next morning.

My hotel room in Houston...a little comfort before heading out to sea for 5 weeks

Our last opportunity for a drink before heading offshore...the bar/restaurant in the hotel

The following morning we were picked up for the hour and a half busride to Galveston. It was a very quiet bus ride as most of us were still sleepy from a seemingly too-short night's sleep (or too late with too many drinks!). Upon arriving at the port we were escorted to the awaiting transfer boat and then taken on the 20 minute ride out to the Harrier Explorer which was at anchor just outside the port. Normally the Harrier Explorer and the other vessels continue doing survey work, about 80 miles off the coast, while crew transfers occur via helicopter but the ship came in due to heavy seas so we did not go by helicopter this time. Once we were onboard we received our handover information from the crew we were replacing, which inlcuded my fellow whale nerd friend Jacklyn Barrs (we won't be seeing each other for about 6 months because we are on exactly opposite rotations for this job :-( , and received our cabin assignments. We had a ship's safety and orientation tour, during which I had a my first sighting...a group of bottlenose dolphins were swimming alongside the ship just as it was getting underway. We would not be arriving at the prospect until the next morning so myself and the other two MMOs had time to settle into our cabins, catch up on sleep and adjust to the motion of the ship.

During our transfer to the prospect we began ancillary MMO watches during which time our lead MMO spotted a group of pilot whales about 300 meters off the ship. Unfortunately myself and the other MMO reached the bridge too late to see the whales :-( After arriving on the prospect we began our full schedule of watches to: ensure no marine mammals were within 500 meters of the airguns during the half hour prior to their startup, to ensure the seismic crew use a soft start (gradaully increase their power) to reach full power for operations to begin, and to watch for marine mammals during all daylight hours to ensure none are within 500 meters of the guns while they are operating. Should a whale be sighted within 500 meters of the airguns under power our job was to inform the seismic crew to shut the guns down until half an hour after the animals are last seen. The guidelines we use to advise for seismic mitigation in the Gulf of Mexico are set by the United States Interior Minerals Management Service and is the Notice To Leasees (NTL) Implementation of Seismic Survey Mitigation Measures and Protected Species Observer Program.

Following are some photos from this survey. As you'll see the sky, sunrises and sunsets are quite spectacular offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and since we saw very few marine mammals I ended up taking many photos of the ships and skies.

This was an awesome cloud formation

The FRC on the Harrier Explorer

4 of the 7 ships operating in the survey

Oil rigs on the Gulf of Mexico horizon

Gorgeous sunset

Trying to get the green flash as the sun dropped below the horizon. No luck, but still very nice colours.

Sunrise skies

Another sunset

Helicopter transferring crew to and from one of the other ships

The clouds really add to the skies

On the starboard bridge wing...this is where we observed from during decent weather

Not so calm seas!

I was playing with contrast here...you can see the white blotch in the centre where a seaspout had started forming

My cabin, I got very lucky as it was a very comfortable size

And my cabin was quite sunny too...I even started growing a little plant on the porthole window sill!

Back from Scotland and Ireland and then yesterday...a sunny, calm day with Transients off the Victoria Waterfront

2009-12-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

So things have been quiet on Maiacetus lately...but that is because I was away for the past couple of months; I was travelling on the East coast of Canada and Scotland and Ireland. On October 9th I flew to Quebec City to attend the 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology Of Marine Mammals (see Whale Nerds Unite blog posts about the Whale Nerds whale watching in the St Lawrence and the conference).

After attending the conference I continued my travels in Eastern Canada by visiting family in New Brunswick and my sister who is studying at Concordia in Montreal. Then on November 2nd I flew from Montreal to Edinburgh, Scotland where I travelled, with my parents, from Edinburgh to St Andrews (where I did the Research Masters in Marine Mammal Science course in 2007/08) to Inverness to Plockton (near the Isle of Skye) to Glasgow and then on to Ireland where we visited Dublin and Ireland. It was a great trip and so nice to be enjoying Scotland without the stresses of the masters course!

On Loch Ness...searching for the Loch Ness Monster!

Beautiful Loch Ness lighting!

This coming Wednesday I will be off again to work as a Marine Mammal Observer for a seismic survey in the Gulf of Mexico. This will be a 5 week rotation and while onboard the ship I will be responsible for ensuring there are no marine mammals near the seismic airguns before they are turned on and while they are firing and to inform operators when they can turn them on again once whales have left the safety zone. Since I leave so soon again I was really hoping to see some killer whales, even from the Victoria shore, before departing and yesterday I was very lucky to do so!

Image showing how seismic surveys work (image source)

In the morning I received a report by Mark Malleson that some Transient "mammal eating' killer whales were approaching the Victoria waterfront. I quickly made my way to the shoreline where, along with some other keen whale watchers, I spent over an hour in the cold trying to track down the animals.

Unfortunately, we didn't see them from shore but Mark, who had sailed with his dad to fuel their sailboat in the Victoria Harbour, generously offered me to join them for the ride back to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. I quickly made my way to the fuel dock and we were soon on our way out of the harbour. Not even 20 minutes after we left the dock Mark spotted fins in the distance and the group of elusive Transients was found! In addition to re-sighting those animals another vessel was on the water and reported another group of Transients to the south of us. After a few looks at the first group we decided to head to the southerly group but picked up a third group en route! Shortly after we left the southerly group Ken Balcomb, of the Center For Whale Research (who both Mark and I have worked with) came out on the Center's vessel and proceeded to do some photo-ID under permit.

Above 2 photos: what a bad day to be out...sunny and calm!

Mark at the helm

(Photo Mark Malleson)

Transients with Victoria Waterfront in background (photo Ken Balcomb, Center For Whale Research)

(Photo Mark Malleson)

Transients passing south of Trial Island (Photo Mark Malleson)

Eastbound (photo Ken Balcomb, Center For Whale Research)

Interestingly one of the calves we sighted was gray/white and likely has Chediak-Higashi syndrome; an inherited syndrome resulting in partial albinism (learn more in Transients: mammal hunting killer whales, Ford and Ellis 1999) (photo Ken Balcomb, Center For Whale Research)

Above 2 photos: the awesome sunset (Mark Malleson)

Great winter lighting!

Mark and his dad deciding what to do next

Above 2 photos: more sunset shots!

Me, happy about such a great sighting!

Heading in to the yacht club for a hot drink!

It was a great day on the water! After looking at his photos at home (I didn't have my camera :-( Mark identified the T68s and T137A along with some others whose IDs have not been confirmed yet. How lucky to be out with so many Transients on a calm and sunny winter day!

October 11 to 16th, 2009 At the 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals

2009-10-24T08:49:00.170-07:00

Monday October 12 was the first official day of the 18th Biennial conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals at the Quebec conference centre…and myself and my Whale Nerds friends were very excited to be attending. There were many pre-conference workshops over the weekend and we all participated. I went to the workshop on Ecological Modelling for Marine Mammalogists and Mer, Nat and Jax went to the Global Warming and Arctic Marine Mammals workshop.

The welcoming sign at the conference in the Quebec Conference Centre

At the Ecological Modelling workshop there were talks on topics including: the basics of the ecological modelling of marine mammals, modelling with presence only data i.e. from ‘platforms of opportunity’ such as whale watching boats and ferries, recent work on movement studies using tags and the challenges associated with ecological modelling of marine mammals.

The following describes the workshop from the SMM website:

“There is tremendous interest in applying statistical modeling techniques to the quantitative assessment of marine mammal distribution and habitat use, and our workshop seeks to explore both traditional and the latest methodologies. Our goal is to bring together practitioners that can share their experience with various approaches to ecological modeling by addressing topics ranging from collecting data, selecting the appropriate model, evaluating the model's results, and applying those results in a management scenario.”

And Mer, Nat and Jax learned about the following at the Global Warming and Marine Mammals workshop:

“Knowing how polar ecosystems change with global warming will help to develop strategies for conservation and species management. A reference collection of samples from the complete food web is being developed to build a model of trophic interactions from marine mammals down to nutrients and phytoplankton.

This symposium is relevant to the Society of Marine Mammal Mammalogy's 18th biannual conference. Participants will present and review research results and progress from 2007 and 2008 field activities and discuss how to organize research findings into collaborative science capable of providing an adaptive assessment of climate change effects on Arctic marine ecosystems.”

Here we are at the conference: Me, Jax, Mer and Nat

After a weekend of workshops the conference began Monday October 12 and ran until Friday October 16th. There were many many talks on a variety of topics including: Biologging (tagging) and New Technology, Genetics, Communication, Ecology, Management and Law, Behavioral Ecology, Passive Acoustics, Evolution and Systematics, Conservation, Noise Effects, Physiology, Habitat preference, Genetics, Population Monitoring and Abundance, Distribution among many more.

Most days there were also plenary sessions which included the following talks:

“A purview of marine mammal molecular ecology and the prospects for conservation genomics in the 21st century” – David W. Coltman
“Combining evolutionary and ecological approaches to make sense of pelagic ecosystems from phytoplankton to whales” – by Victor Smatecek
“Big habitats, big studies: Lessons learned from international cooperative studies of wide-ranging large whales” – David Mattila
“The Calvin Project, Endangered Species Recovery Through Education” – William McWeeney, Meredith Houghton and Madison Koos
“F.G. Wood Award Winner: Determination of steroid hormones in whale blow: It is possible” – Carolyn Hogg

In addition to a multitude of talks during the week the daily poster sessions included over 800 posters of marine mammal research all over the world. We were all very inspired by this week full of thought provoking and inspiring presentations and it gave us many ideas to take home with us...I am now more motivated to pursue a PhD project over the next year!

During this week we also enjoyed some of the sights of Quebec City including a "ghost" tour of the Old Town (which is given by a ghost rather than being about ghosts!) a couple of nights at the pub (we enjoyed Saint Alexandre) and wandering around the Old Town.

Here are some pictures of highlights from our stay!

The lovely private room four of us shared at the Hostel International in Quebec City. It was only 500 m from the conference centre with great staff, facilities and breakfast included

Hotel in the old part of Quebec City

Above 2 photos: the Fairmont hotel, the Chateau Frontenac, where we went for hot chocolates after our 'ghost tour' of old Quebec

Night view in Quebec City

During our 'ghost tour' which consisted of historical stories of the Old Town

Cannons on the walls surrounding the Old Town

Playing with the light at night

Heading down the narrowest street in Canada

...and on through an alleyway

"Sous le Cap" the name of the alleyway

Ahh...the fall decorations!

More fun with lighting!

The church in the main square

At the end of our tour with our guide

And we had some pub time as well! (From left to right: Mer, Jax, Mallard and I)

And then we got joined by some more...the Washington State crowd!

Mark and the ladies (from left to right: me, Nat, Mark, Kari, Nick and Nic)

Me, Nat, and Mark

Jax and Rhonda looking cute

Sitting in the many talks

The poster session room

Jax taking in some poster info

Kyla checking out one of the 800 posters

On the wall surrounding the Old City

Nice sunny day

The wall for the Old City

Quebec City buildings

Local troublemakers...or budding photographic artists?

Some nice Quebec architecture

The beautiful plant covered planters. Don't worry we didn't crush any flowers!

The beautiful architecture at night!

The outdoor skating rink just outside the gates to the Old City

October 10, 2009 Pre-conference whale watching in Tadoussac...gray seals, minke whales, fin whales, beluga whales and...a BLUE WHALE!

2009-10-22T12:10:00.003-07:00

Prior to the start of the 18th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals myself and the the other whale nerds went to Tadousssac (map) to check out the whale watching in another part of Canada...the St. Lawrence waterway. It took us a couple of hours to drive there from Quebec City; we arrived just a few minutes before the 1330 big boat departure. We discussed going by zodiac but decided to go on the big boat with it's heated cabin and food...especially hot chocolate which is a necessity while whale watching anywhere in Canada in October!

Merina as navigator (check out her website here)

Jax (see her profile here)

Kyla (my site is here)

Our pilot Nat (see her site here)

Enjoying the east coast fall colours on the road to Tadoussac

'Signs' of whale activity!

On the ferry to Tadoussac

Coming into Tadoussac

Very happy because there was already a sighting of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the ferry!

Cool lighthouse in the St Lawrence

One of many Gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) we saw on our way to the whales

We were very lucky during this trip because we saw so many animals! we saw beluga whales (sorry it was too tricky to get photos), minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and...a BLUE whale (Balaenoptera musculus)! Blue whales are fairly common to see on a whale watching trip here but I have never seen them before so this was a notable sighting for me :-)

Above 3 photos: Blue whale surfacing

The blue whale swimming away from us

Above 2 photos: a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) kept popping up while we were waiting for the blue whale to surface

Above 4 photos: The scenery in the St Lawrence also made it worth coming whale watching

Having fun on the bow of the boat...it was VERY COLD!

The wind picked up as we were heading back towards the harbour. Fortunately we saw belugas earlier as they would've been more difficult to pick out of all the whitecaps!

Above 2 photos: coming back to the Tadoussac shore and the beautiful little village itself

When we returned to the harbour we tried to go to the marine mammal interpretive center (GREMM) in Tadoussac but were too late. We arrived just 10 minutes before closing so enjoyed the artwork in the parking lot outside and checked out the gift shop.

Whale painting on the parking lot outside GREMM

Nice painting in the entrance to the interpretive centre

OOOH and we got one good look at a beluga...just kidding! This is a photo of photo of a beluga at the centre. Gorgeous!

October 9, 2009 En route to the 18th Biennial Biology of Marine Mammals conference in Quebec City

2009-10-22T09:50:00.002-07:00

On October 9th I left Victoria, BC and flew to Quebec City, Quebec for the 18th Biennial conference on the biology of Marine Mammals. It was a gorgeous flight and I got some nice shots of the geography of Canadian geography as I flew from a bit of an ad for Westjet!

Flying over the islands around Vancouver Island

Gorgeous sunrise colours

A cloud front

Above 2 photos: flying Over the Coast mountains

Above 2 photos: Interior BC geography

And now for the Rockies...

Above 4 photos: more of the Rocky Mountains running along the BC and Alberta border

Above 2 photos: somewhere east of BC and Alberta! Just kidding...think this was Manitoba with all its lakes

River winding through a city...but I'm not sure which!

I think this was an area over Ontario

Another plane I saw pass above and behind ours...felt a little close for comfort! (But what do I know about air traffic control)

SEPTEMBER 11 to 21 RV Langseth MMO cruise: OBS pickup and transit back to Oregon

2009-10-07T11:01:00.060-07:00

September 11 was the first day after the seismic guns stopped firing and the crew started to recover the Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS); the techs send a signal to the OBSs, which are sitting on the seabed, to release them and they take about 30 minutes to drift up to the surface to be picked up. OBS pickup was done over the rest of the next week and for the rest of the survey we no longer monitored the PAM (Passive Acoustic Monitoring) station so our days were shorter.

The first day after the guns stopped firing just happened to be a perfect, flat calm day and when I came up to the tower to begin my morning visual observation shift the two MMOs on watch before me told me that they had seen a group of Dall’s porpoise (Phocoenoides Dalli) and a Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriaceae). I didn’t believe them at first but, sure enough, when I went to do my data entry I saw that the sightings had been entered into the spreadsheet. The principal investigators were lucky that these sightings were the day after the guns were turned off because had they occurred the day before we would’ve had to make them shut the guns down. It was such a gorgeous day with perfect spotting conditions that I decided to come up for more time than just my observation shifts. Later on that day we saw a few more Blue Sharks (Prionace glauca) swimming right at the surface near the ship and another couple of groups of Dall’s porpoise.

Above 3 photos: recovering a Woods Hole OBS

Above 3 photos: Dall's porpoise on a flat calm day

Rainbow as seen from the bridge during watch

I was also lucky to celebrate my birthday during this part of the survey. This was my first birthday at sea…and it was a pretty good one thanks to the other crew on board. Many people wished me happy birthday, one of the gunners gave me a nice orange, dark chocolate bar, and one of the Woods Hole techs gave me another chocolate bar. The best part was when I went up to the MMO tower and saw that somebody had decorated it! I found out later that one of the graduate students had gone on the tower after her OBS pickup shift finished at 4 am and decorated the MMO tower while the ship was rolling in the swell in the dark! I had another nice birthday surprise when, although I had wanted a birthday whale, I saw a big male elephant seal (Mirounga angustrirostris) in the water near the ship during one of my watches.

The MMO tower with the birthday decorations...a birthday sign (which you can't see so well because it was blowing in the wind!)

Then, the day after my birthday I got a late birthday present.. a sighting of a new species for me! I was heading up the MMO tower stairs for my morning watch when I spotted a blow off the starboard side of the ship. I saw the blow, which was fairly bushy and not super tall, but not any of the animal’s body. I hollered to John, the MMO going off shift, that there was a whale and he started to make his way back to the tower to check it out too. Unfortunately, when I saw it surface it’s second and last, time he didn’t see it. I saw the back of the animal but not the head and it looked like it had a dorsal fin but it definitely was not a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliaea) as I’ve seen many of them and it didn’t look right to be a humpback. After getting over my excitement (yes I was excited!) I described it to the other MMO because I wasn’t too sure what it was. Eventually he told me that it sounded like I saw a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)! I was very excited that I saw my first sperm whale…even though it was only a brief sighting.

We had a few more sightings of porpoise during the last few days of the survey. The weather also picked up just before we headed into port; it wasn’t as bad as the weather we had at the beginning of the survey during the OBS drops; although it was windy (>30 knots) the swell wasn’t as big. Transit day was beautiful and we had some more interesting sightings; 3 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), lots of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), and, another new species for me, a group of Northern Right Whale Dolphins (Lissodelphis borealis). Right whale dolphins are interesting because they don’t have a dorsal fin. Initially I spotted them swimming across our bow and thought they were Dall’s porpoise but they were jumping clear out of the water (which porpoise don't do) so I thought briefly they were Pacific White Sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) but realised they had no dorsal fin…and that was the defining identifying feature that they were Right whale dolphins!

And some not so nice weather approaching us!

Recovering a Scripps OBS

...and then we had some more rough seas

An older Black-Footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) flying near the ship. Older animals get the lighter feathers around the head and tail.

Nicky and my little cabin...mine was the top bunk. What you see is what we had!

Gary and Ricky working their culinary magic at sea in the mess

The mess

The Pilot boat coming alongside the Langseth to put a pilot to guide us up the Columbia River

One of three fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) we saw a few miles off the Oregon coast

The Common Murres (Uria aalge) became more common the closer we got to shore!

California sea lion in flight!

Gull associating with a sunfish (Mola mola)...gulls are known to associate with sunfish by picking parasite, such as copepods, off their skin (reference referring to this association)

Coming back to land was more interesting than I expected; as we drew closer to shore I noticed there were many seabirds we didn’t see offshore (many species of gulls, common murres, and brown pelicans among others), the sea lions, and the smell of land. The smell of the trees and dirt was so distinct! We finished the survey with a beautiful cruise up the Columbia River back to the fishing boats, roads, bridges, houses and shops and restaurants and pubs. As we were pulling into dock we were also treated to a helicopter rescue display by the US Coast Guard for a fishing festival happening that weekend!

Above 5 photos: Scenery along the Columbia River

Above 3 photos: Brown pelican fishing in the Columbia River

US Coast Guard Helicopter

Above 4 photos: a crowd greets us at the dock...there was a fishereman's festival at the dock and the US Coast Guard were putting on demonstrations just as we were docking

View from my very comfortable hotel room back onshore!

Above 2 photos: my neighbour on a nest outside the hotel room

AUGUST 26 to September 11 RV Langseth MMO cruise: MMO observation during geophysical research

2009-10-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

On August 26 the Ocean Botoom Seismometer (OBS) drops were completed and we commenced our full visual and acoustic monitoring. We had a final meeting with the PIs and techs to ensure everybody was clear on how the mitigation measures were to be implemented. Prior to turning on the airguns two of the MMOs did their visual watch using the Big Eyes, small binoculars and naked eye for 60 minutes and one of us listened acoustically for marine mammals at the PAM station. After completing the 60 minute watch without a sighting the techs began to ramp up the guns (gradually increase the airgun sound level over ~35 minutes).

The safety zone for this survey was very large (7.7 km) so while the airguns were firing our visual watches consisted of rotation between Big Eyes and naked eye/small binoculars every 15 minutes to ensure we didn’t tire from constantly looking through binoculars. We also utilized a PAM (Passive Acoustic Monitoring) system (CIBRA Workstation) to acoustically detect marine mammals. We listened for marine mammal calls and kept watch for those out of our hearing range using the PAM monitor at the PAM station, which shows the sound spectrograph, in the main lab. Once the guns were at the full sound level we did not need to clear the area again, unless they were shut down due to a marine mammal sighting or they were turned off for more than 9 minutes i.e. for maintenance, but we maintained watch of the area to ensure no marine mammals entered the safety zone. Our full watches consisted of 9 hours of visual and PAM spread throughout the day which meant we spent a lot of time running up and down between the tower and the main lab. To entertain myself when I wasn’t on watch I usually checked my email on the very slow internet connection, read or watched a movie in the ship’s theatre.

One of a pair of hitchiking wrens who appear to have come offshore with us from the coast

The deck crew busy cleaning around the stacks in rolling seas!

John and Meghan on visual watch

Joe on visual watch

The sunsets were beautiful when the fog and clouds cleared!

Moonrise at Endeavour MPA

And another beautiful sunset!

The MMO tower at sunset

The Big Eyes...at sunset!

Fortunately for the science crew we didn’t need to shut down the airguns due to sightings; the guns functioned well throughout the survey and we had no marine mammal sightings. This was good because it meant that no marine mammals were likely within range of the 160 dB zone of the airguns but it is possible that our lack of sightings was also due to behavioural avoidance of the area (paper on impacts of anthropogenic noise). In addition to following mitigation measures set by both the Canadian and US government August and September were chosen as survey months because it is the time of year endangered species, such as the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), would be least likely to occur in the area. In fact, one of the science techs with Scripps showed me some interesting data. Normally, he extracts whale calls from hydrophone recordings of the area, from the NEPTUNE project, to hear earthquakes but decided to do the opposite and remove earthquake sounds to listen for whale calls. From that data he has found that blue and fin whale calls in the area occur from October through the winter; which means it was very unlikely there were Endangered blue whales or Threatened fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) around the MPA during the survey.

Although we had no marine mammal sighting during the survey we did have some sightings of other wildlife; we saw a few more sunfish (Mola mola), on a couple of the calmer days we could see Blue sharks (Prinocae glauca) swimming underwater or at the surface near the ship and a Peregrin Falcon (Peregrinus falco) stayed around the ship for a day. We even saw it attack and kill another bird, which we think was a petrel, and eat it while in flight around the ship!

Above 4 photos: we were lucky to have a juvenile peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) join the ship for a day...which made things more interesting for us in the MMO tower!

John and Megan on the old heli-deck. The airgun array can be seen being towed behind the ship.

Above 4 photos: our Peregrine friend caught another bird a ways out from the ship and proceeded to circle us while eating it in flight!

What else is there to say...the beautiful moon

Another beautiful sunset

drifing Bull Kelp (Nereocystic lutkeana)

Above 3 photos: on a rare flat calm day we had a few Blue sharks (Prinocae glauca) swimming at the surface near the ship

During survey time the crew and science techs were also lucky enough to learn more about the research being conducted by the PIs and each of them gave us a talk about their research (info on Doug Toomey’s research, info on William Wilcock’s research).

From William Wilcock’s website (see link above) this survey was designed to:
“...image the 3-D seismic structure of the crust and topmost mantle along an 80-km-long section of the Endeavour ridge. The experiment will image four targets: (1) crustal thickness variations within 25 km of the axial high (0 to 900 kyr); (2) the 2-D (i.e., map view) structure of the uppermost mantle beneath the spreading axis; (3) the 3-D structure of the crustal magmatic system and (4) the detailed 3-D, shallow crustal thermal structure beneath the Endeavour vent field. The results of imaging will define the recent history of magma supply, the pattern of melt delivery from the mantle to the crust and the structure and segmentation of the subseafloor magmatic and hydrothermal systems.”