MMO job on Ramform Valiant in the offshore Mediterranean waters of Egypt
In early November, after spending nearly a week in Valletta, Malta (see previous post) the vessel left port to travel to Egypt and begin the job I would be working as an MMO on. The transit took about 4 days and then, when we arrived at the site, it took the seismic crew roughly another week to get all the gear deployed. These ships tow hydrophone cables, which can be many kilometers long, and take many days to deploy. The crew must slowly let out the cable from large reels on the ship and it is important to have control of them (there can be up to 14 or more!) so they do not do not entangle...very expensive and time consuming if this mistake is made!
'Expensive spaghetti'
What happens if you're not careful! streamer cable entanglement :(
Typical layout for a 3D seismic survey:
The objects towed directly behind the vessel are the air-guns while further behind are the hydrophone cables
Movement of sound from the air-guns towed behind the vessel
You can see the direction the sound waves move from the air-guns, through the seafloor and back to the hydrophone receivers where the signal travels back to the ships onboard computer processing system
You can see the direction the sound waves move from the air-guns, through the seafloor and back to the hydrophone receivers where the signal travels back to the ships onboard computer processing system
The eastern Mediterranean Sea, known as the Levant Sea, is an area not known to be especially rich in marine mammal activity; this is mostly due to the fact that the Levant Sea has the lowest levels of biological productivity in the Mediterranean (due to poor mixing, high salinity, low oxygen levels in addition to pressures from human activities). Another important consideration, and part of the reason why I was interested in working in this poorly studied region, is that there has been little research conducted in the offshore waters of Egypt. There is one marine mammal research organization, called IMMRAC, which is conducting studies on the marine mammals off coastal Israel. They have done a lot of great work in the coastal waters of Israel contributing to the small body of knowledge on marine mammals in the Levant. Additionally, IMMRAC was the organization to have the first observation of a gray whale in the Mediterranean Sea (and in waters outside of the Pacific Ocean!) since the Atlantic Gray whale was extirpated during whaling in the 1700s) in 2010. Here is a popular media article about this exciting and fascinating sighting.
Map showing the Levant Sea at the eastern end of the Mediterranean
One marine mammal observer (MMO) was on the vessel throughout this survey; I was on the first five weeks and last month. Even though there were no requirements for us to be present during seismic surveys offshore of Egypt the client chose to have an MMO as a 'best practice' approach and an important part of their HSE (Health, Safety, Environment) policy. Mitigation rules vary depending on the location and requirements of each country. During the survey my role was to look for marine mammals and sea turtles and inform the crew and report on the use of the agreed on mitigation guidelines, in this case the UK's JNCC Guidelines. We would be implementing measures such as a a full 60 minute pre-shooting watch (before the air-guns were turned on), a delay to starting the guns if marine mammals or sea turtles were withing 500 m of the guns, and utilising a 'soft-start' (building the noise level gradually) before starting full production. I also spent as many hours as possible observing for marine mammals and sea turtles during all daylight hours.
Unfortunately, and as was suspected, I did not have many marine mammal or turtle sightings during my first rotation offshore Egypt. I did have some fun sightings of birds during the transit and the rotation including many entertaing observations of sparrows, an unidentified hawk and unidentified falcon, a great horned owl and some greater flamingoes. I also had three sightings of dolphins but I was unable them to identify to species level due to their behaviour and distance from the vessel (as you will see in the single photo in this post!).
In addition to these sightings we also had two sharks attack the gear within the first 24 hours of deployment! The first attack was relatively benign causing a little damage to one of the 'birds' (used to control the depth movement of the cables) but the second attack resulted in one of the cables being sliced completely in half with the rear end floating away and the chase vessel had to be sent to retrieve it!
Unfortunately, and as was suspected, I did not have many marine mammal or turtle sightings during my first rotation offshore Egypt. I did have some fun sightings of birds during the transit and the rotation including many entertaing observations of sparrows, an unidentified hawk and unidentified falcon, a great horned owl and some greater flamingoes. I also had three sightings of dolphins but I was unable them to identify to species level due to their behaviour and distance from the vessel (as you will see in the single photo in this post!).
In addition to these sightings we also had two sharks attack the gear within the first 24 hours of deployment! The first attack was relatively benign causing a little damage to one of the 'birds' (used to control the depth movement of the cables) but the second attack resulted in one of the cables being sliced completely in half with the rear end floating away and the chase vessel had to be sent to retrieve it!
Following are photos taken during transit and my first rotation on this survey:
They were around the vessel for a few days and a great source of entertainment while I was on my visual watches!
Unidentified hawk sp.?
'Levitating' Spanish sparrown :)
Beautiful sunset
My office
Following three photos: helicopter bringing Egyptian immigration officials
Warbler spp.
Sad but true...this is the only photo of dolphins I got!
Perfect conditions but not perfect distance and behaviour
My office at sunset :)
Long-eared owl (Asio otus)
More fun(ny) sparrow (house sparrow?) pictures
Apparently house and Spanish sparrows commonly hybridize making it difficult to confidently ID them, especially during the winter season when their markings are not as distinct
This one was trying to stay on the rail everytime the ship would roll resulting in the long neck stretch in the following picture - very entertaining to watch!
And then they discovered the ashtray and proceeded to stick their heads in and try to pull out cigarette butts!
The ABs hard at work painting and making the ship look great!
The moon
An unidentified falcon
possibly a Peregrine falcon? (Falco peregrinus)
Still can't get sick of the offshore sunsets!
And I saw the 'green flash' when I took these photos
More sparrow shots
Who would've thought they would make such great subjects!
Two of the seismic crew, obviously good friends, enjoying the sunset :)
A not-so-great photo of some greater flamingoes (Phoenicopterus roseus) flying past the ship
Just prior to the end of the rotation we tried to get into port for our crew change but sandstorms meant we had to wait offshore Port Said for a couple days. The Suez Canal had been closed for a few days so there was a bit of a wait for ship's wanting to get through the canal and into port. Here's the story of the sand storms as reported by BBC.
Finally, we were given a berth in port so headed to shore in Port Said where we did our crew change and went home for Christmas and New Years!
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