June 18, 2014: Dilapidated West Coast Cabin

365 Project, Day 202

Here is my day 202 submission to my 365Project:

I've been playing and working on the waters around southern Vancouver Island for years now and I never get tired of being on the water! When I was young we'd go out salmon fishing in our little 17' fibreglass boat (and canned and smoke it ourselves, yum!), I'd build log rafts and float around off the beaches around Victoria and then later, from 1998, I started working in whale watching and research. 

I feel so lucky I grew up in such a beautiful place and had such wonderful experiences as a child! I think everybody should have the opportunity to experience nature and the outdoors, avoiding the increasingly prevalent nature deficit disorder, like my brothers and I did while growing up on the west coast! 

Today's photo is a dilapidated house on the coast west of Victoria near Sooke; it is gradually becoming more and more dilapidated adding an interesting bit of character to the landscape. 

Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) 

The Olympic Mountains, with Mount Olympus visible through the Elwha River Valley, in Washington State

Mount Olympus, Washington State, as seen from Race Rocks Ecological Reserve

Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) hauled out on the rocks at Race Rocks Ecological Reserve

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

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

JULY 2, 2009 MORNING K and L pod eastbound at Otter Point

Departure time: 1000
Vessel: Five Star Charter's Fastcat

Sighting #1: Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
Time: 1037
Location: 0.5 miles E of William Head, Vancouver Island, BC
Behaviour: travelling
Other: This whale surprised us by surfacing right off our bow when we were underway so I couldn't get any photos!

Links
American Cetacean Society minke whale fact sheet

Minke whale (from June 30, 2009 Sighting)

Sighting #2: Southern 'Resident' fish eating killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Start Time: 1115 - 1156

Start location: Otter Point, Vancouver Island, BC

Behaviour: travelling fast

End location: Secretary Island off Vancouver Island, BC

Individuals identified: K and L pods - K27, L12, L85, L79, L89, L22, L83

Cool fact about this species: Females grow to an average of 24 feet and 7,000 pounds (more at Orca Sightings Network fact sheet)

Links

Center for Whale Research killer whale fact page, photo ID and matrilines

Orca Adoption Program at Friday Harbour Whale Museum

Orcasound online hydrophone network

Orca Sightings Network

American Cetacean Society fact sheet

K27, Deadhead, a 16 year old K pod female

Breach! Near Otter Point off the west coast of Vancouver Island

L12, Alexis (estimated to be born in 1933) and L85, Mystery an 18 year old male

L79, Skana, a 20 year old male

L22, Spirit a 38 year old female (mother of L79 and L89) and L12, Alexis

L12 and L85

L83, Moonlight, a 19 year old female

Mount Olympus, Washington as seen from Oak Bay, Victoria

Sighting #3 Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris)

Time: 1225

Location: Race Rocks

Behaviour: In kelp bed at Great Race, bubble blowing

Links

Marine Mammal Center Elephant Seal fact page

Above 2 photos: Northern Elephant Seal in bull kelp at Race Rocks Marine Protected Area

SIMPLE WAYS TO HELP SAVE THE WHALES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT
To learn some ways how you can help save the whales and the oceans they live in see the Whale Nerds Unite blogpost for June 27, 2009!