December 25, 2013: Christmas dolphins!

365 Project, Day 144

Here is my day 144 submission to my 365Project:

All I wanted for Christmas was a Christmas whale or Christmas dolphins...and lucky for me, Santa delivered :)  

While eating my Christmas breakfast with the medic and one of the client reps in the mess room this morning, I glanced out the window and there, to my delight, was a group of dolphins swimming just a few hundred metres off the starboard side of the ship! Of course, I had to  go get a better look and photograph them so I threw down my cutlery and took off to the bridge to grab my camera and binos and check out our Christmas visitors. 

Unfortunately for me, I had a difficult time photographing the group of Common dolphins (Delphinus sp.); my camera was very cold from sitting in the air conditioned bridge so when I went outside it instantly fogged up and, not until the camera and lens matched the ambient temperature outside, could I get any photos despite my many attempts to wipe the moisture off the front of the lens. This was incredibly frustrating especially because I figured out a couple days ago that by keeping my camera in my cabin (in my bed, ha ha!) it would be warm enough to not fog up when I took it out in to the tropical warmth and humidity. Silly me, I had not kept it in my cabin with me last night because today was our last day of production and we hadn't had a sighting for a few days and I didn't really expect we'd have another sighting. Once again I learned my lesson...as is typical with wildlife always plan for the unexpected!  

Here are the best of the shots I could get despite my slightly foggy lens:

Christmas Dolphins! 
You can see the distinct V-shaped dip below the dorsal fin on the dolphin in the middle of the shot...an important feature to use to identify this species.

Fun fact of the day:
Dew Point Temperature is an important thing to know about when shooting in situations with large temperature gradients i.e. the cold air-conditioned bridge of the ship to the warm, humid environment in the tropical outdoors. Dew Point Temperature is the temperature at which humidity (or water vapor) in the air condenses (becomes liquid again) and when you move the camera from one environment to another in which the camera temperature was at or below the Dew Point Temperature  the water vapor in the air condenses on the cold camera creating an annoying fogged up lens.

To read more about Cameras, humidity and condensation check out this The-Digital-Picture.com webpage.

Santa Claus hard at work on the bridge

Our little Christmas tree in the messroom

We even decorated our cabin doors with glowing icicles and all :)

August 5, 2013: Angola Common Dolphin

365 Project, Day 46

Here is my day fourty-six submission to my 365Project:

I had a lovely sighting of about 30 common dolphins (Delphinus sp.) this morning. They were great fun to watch as they porpoised in a tight group in the opposite direction to the ship!

Fun fact of the day:

There are two types of Common dolphins, long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus capensis) and short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), but the species off of Angola have characteristics of both types so it is very difficult to know, by visual assessment alone, which species you are looking at. 

Read more about the dolphins of Angola at Ketos Ecology .

And here are some extra photos...just for the fun of it :)

Common dolphins (Delphinus sp.)

Humpback whale breaching (Megaptera novaeangliae)

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