Re-cap of 2011: Safety drills, sunsets, fishnet tangles, Cairo riots and dolphins, January/February

MMO rotation offshore Egypt and transit to Cadiz, Spain 

It is definitely nice when we get MMO contracts with more than one rotation; you get to return to the same country, the same ship, the same crew, the same routine and the same animals (or lack thereof!). After spending a lovely white Christmas with my family in New Brunswick (see previous post) I went back to the west coast for a few days and then I was soon on a plane back to Egypt to finish the job on the Ramform Valiant.

Although the companies we work for are constantly assessing travel safety in the countries we work in, sometimes unexpected situations arise. Myself and the rest of the ship's crew flew into Cairo on January 18th and were transported to Port Said to do helicopter transfers to the ship on January 19th. Then on January 25th, only 6 days after we traveled through Cairo, protests against government corruption broke out in Cairo. The protests were part of what is now called the Arab Spring, a wave of demonstrations that happened in early 2011 across the Arab world and resulted in the removal of rulers and re-structuring of governments in many Arab countries.

Thousands of demonstrators in Tahrir Square shortly after we passed through Cairo to go the ship

 Source

Although it was considered unsafe by most to stay in the country we remained because we were self-contained and working many miles offshore, well away from protest activity. We were only slightly impacted when we lost internet communication; shortly after rioting began (which was coordinated using social networking internet websites like Facebook and Twitter) the government shut down all internet services in the country. Additionally, when our chase vessel attempted to go to Port Said for supplies and to bring data ashore for the client, they could not enter the port because the official port buildings had been burned and the military had taken over. See video of tanks rolling through Port Said here. Although most foreigners were fleeing Egypt at this time, for some reason, our project manager stayed in Cairo and while we were sending daily reports of our activities offshore he was sending us emails about tanks rolling down the street past his office! 

When we completed the survey mid February the situation in Egypt was still unstable and, although the client reps and I were not needed anymore, it was decided we would stay for the transit through the Mediterranean to Cadiz, Spain. I wasn't entirely disappointed though because it meant I would get to travel through the entire Mediterranean from east to west and I was definitely planning to watch for marine mammals en route. In the end it was interesting how the sea life changed during the transit. 

As suspected, our sightings of dolphins picked up the further west we got; the productivity increased as we entered waters with increased mixing from the Atlantic Ocean to the west. As a special treat at sunrise on Valentine's day we were passing just north of Tunisia (we could see the shoreline) with flat calm sees and had a lovely sighting of bowriding Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinis delphis). Throughout the rest of the day we saw more groups of common and striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) and five sightings of Loggerhead turtles (Carretta carretta). I was happy to have these couple days of good sightings because, as was somewhat expected, when working offshore of Egypt the other MMO and I had only four dolphin and no turtle sightings in 3.5 months!

Following are some photos during my time offshore Egypt and during the transit to Cadiz, Spain:

Testing the fire hoses on the helideck for upcoming helicopter operations

Following three photos: still not sick of the offshore sunrises and sunsets!

Workboat operations: some of the seismic crew like to give us MMOs something to look at especially when there are few marine mammals :)

My office - gotta hate my job, the worst office space ever! 

...and that's even an old office chair :D

The helideck and pool - the pool had been emptied due to high seas

More drills - testing smoke flares and the helideck fire suppression system

Unlike those of us from colder climates the Phillipino crew prefer to cover up as much as possible when working in the sun!

Yikes! Now that was not a nice entanglement of fishing gear the crew recovered with our gear!

There can be a surprising number of bugs offshore: houseflies, grasshoppers, moths and even occasionally mosquitoes -I really enjoy morning watches with the call of grasshoppers from around the decks of the ship

View from the helideck, astern of the Ramform, to the bridge - the bridge wings on the Ramform Valiant are awesome! 

Workboat heading in after another long day working on the cables...

...and the boat drives straight into the sling off the stern and is lifted back onboard

Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinis delphis) bowriding

Taking the lifeboat for a test drive - all safety equipment must be regularly tested and inspected so we know it's functioning properly when we need it!

Striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) 

A mother-calf pair of striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) bowriding 

The captain taking a break on the comfy couches of the bridge

Yep, we have to watch how much we pack which can be difficult if you want to bring ID guides, cameras, binoculars and GPS's

Upon arrival to Cadiz we were joined by the Ramform Viking, the Valiant's sister ship

Views around the port in Cadiz, Spain

One of our fenders being lifted by crane to be placed between us and the dock

Tugs bringing the Viking alongside

MMO rotation, offshore Egypt, November/December

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 :(

Source

The hydrophone cables are used to record the sounds, created by air-gun arrays also towed behind the ship, that are reflected from the seafloor. Using powerful onboard computers and then further processing onshore they can obtain a 3D image of the seafloor and find the geological structures likely to contain oil and gas deposits or whatever geological features they are interested in. The majority of the time seismic surveys are used for offshore oil and gas exploration but there are occasions when air-gun seismic operations are also used for research on earthquake activity (see post from one of my previous MMO jobs) and understanding unique habitats such as the magmatic structure under underwater deep sea hot thermal vent communities (and another post when I worked as an MMO on one of these surveys).

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

 

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! 

Following are photos taken during transit and my first rotation on this survey:

Some very entertaining Spanish sparrows (Passer hispaniolenses transcapicus)

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!