JULY 27, 2009 Day 4 CCGS Tully cruise: more Northern Resident killer whales!

It seems I didn't take many photos today...that's because only those who went in the FRC (Fast Recovery Craft) saw today's killer whale groups. Those who went saw whales in the morning and the evening which included the I11s and A24s. For those of us who stayed on the Tully we started our day in Camano Sound travelling along the west side of the Sound. Then the Tully attempted to head out toward the Queen Charlotte Islands; Mallard and I were excited at the prospect of heading out to the Charlottes to possibly see some more exotic species. We remained in the Monkey's Island looking, saw a couple of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), but after travelling only half an hour the ship turned around as the seas picked up, with poor visibility of Beaufort sea state 5, and weather reports indicated there would be Gale conditions in the Queen Charlottes over next few days...not ideal observing weather!

Campania Island. It made me think of Lord of The Rings...I had images of Frodo and Gollum travelling along the steep rock face!

JULY 26, 2009 Day 3 CCGS Tully cruise: many humpback and fin whales!

Today was one of the few days we didn't see any killer whales. Fortunately we had many humpback (Megaptera novaeangliaea) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) at the mouth of Laredo Channel near Campania Island. It was my first sighting of fin whales and we even had a mother and calf travelling together! It was a gorgeous day in the waters of the central coast!

This afternoon we had a fire/lifeboat drill. After grabbing our lifejackets from our cabins we met on the back deck of the ship and then moved to our muster stations for a few of us to practice putting on the immersion suites. Since it was so hot three of the crew/scientists got into the water in the immersion suits and we let them huddle and drift away from the boat. We soon learned how difficult it can be to see a group of people from a distance even when they were huddled together in their bright immersion suits! It was also quite entertaining for us on the ship as we watched a humpback whale tail lobbing multiple times off the port stern of the ship while our overboard crew bobbed around off the port side. They could have had a real close encounter!

Fin whale blows in the early morning light

The very long backs of fin whales

...and finally you see the fin!

Two fin whales travelling together in Laredo Channel

Mark and Tabitha doing some spotting

View from the 'Monkey's Island'

Katy heading down the ladder in the immersion suit during the fire/lifeboat drill

And some decided to jump from deck!

A good way to cool off this hot day!

huddling together for safety!

Where we stopped to do the drill...there was a very active humpback whale off the port quarter while the crew who went overboard were hanging out off the starboard!

The immersion suit crew drifting in the channel...shows how difficult it can be to spot them even as a group in bright colours in calm seas!

The aft deck of the CCGS Tully

Above 2 photos: Tabitha and my cabin (mine was the bottom bunk)

Above 2 photos: cool wave action!

JULY 25, 2009 Day 2 CCGS Tully Cruise: Transient and Northern Resident killer whales

We started this morning with our first sighting of a single male 'Transient' mammal eating killer whale (Orcinus orca) T162 (DFO Transient catalogue) at around 0900. He's a cool looking male with a big nick at the bottom of his dorsal fin. Within minutes of spotting him another group of killer whales was spotted and it ended up being some of the northern Resident killer whales including the R4s and R18s. They were a few miles south of Munro Island and we had a nice sighting watching them from the ship and the FRC was launched for photo ID to be done on the group.

Then, just after dinner this evening, we had another sighting of northern Resident killer whales in Loreto Sound, at 1830, and this group included the A11s, D9s, R4s (again!) and the R31s. In total there were 4 encounters of 34 different killer whales today!

View from the bridge of the FRC on the port deck

Northern Resident killer whale tail lobbing!

Two males travelling together

CCGS Tully Helicopter deck as seen from the 'monkey's island' above the bridge

Entering data in the bridge

Abover 3 photos: view of the our evening group of Northern Resident killer whales (A11s, D9s, R4s and R31s) from the deck of the CCGS Tully

I forgot how much Northern Resident killer whales spyhop!

And then I was lucky enough to go out on the FRC for photo ID with Mark, Jared and Rod, our coast guard bosun...

More spyhops!

Spyhop with CCGS Tully in the background

What a good looking male...nice tall, straight dorsal fin

Tail lob!

Logging (resting) whales

This guy had a nice gnarly fin! (will be looking up his ID soon)

Please note: many of these photos were taken under a DFO research permit using a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera with a 300 mm lens and have been cropped!

JULY 24, 2009 Day 1 Departure day on the CCGS Tully for a week long marine mammal survey

This morning Mark 'Mallard' Malleson picked me up at 6 am so we could get an early start to make our way up to the Pacific Biological Station at Nanaimo for 8. We were on our way to meet the CCGS Tully and head out on a marine mammal survey off the central coast of British Columbia. After we stopped for a much needed latte we were away from the early morning traffic of downtown Victoria and onto the highway heading north up Vancouver Island. An hour and a half later we were pulling into the driveway of the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo where we met the rest of the survey crew and carpooled the rest of the way to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island.

From the Pacific Biological Station we drove for two and half hours until we reached Campbell River. You had to be a marine mammal enthusiast to enjoy that car ride; Mark and John spent most of the time discussing past encounters and John quizzed us on our killer whale knowledge. I think we did quite well and mostly passed the killer whale knowledge test…and we even learned that, despite all the theories on why killer whale calves are orange, according to John ‘they just are’.

Campbell River was our food stop…and boy did we need it. Mark and I had been going since 5 am with only a latte! We rushed off to the Mexican restaurant in the shopping complex in Campbell River and stuffed our faces with fish tacos. Then we went for our final stock of boat snacks which consisted of microwave popcorn for movies, licorice and chocolate. We were now set for a week on the ship.

We arrived in Port Hardy around 1 pm after another hour and half drive from Campbell River. Of course, as is often the case, we had to ‘hurry up and wait’. After unloading the cars and parking them we waited for our Coast Guard crew to take us across to the ship. A couple hours later we were in the FRC speeding across the water towards the ship, scrambling up the ladder alongside the ship and getting settled into our cabins. Before dinner we had a quick meeting with John, our chief scientist, and the captain and chief officer of the CCGS Tully, and a tour of the ship.

Just as we were sitting down to dinner the ship started pulling away from Port Hardy...and we were heading into the waters of the central BC coast to look for the marine mammals inhabiting these waters!

Mark waiting at the Government dock in Port Hardy to head out to the Tully (in the background) on the FRC (Fast Recovery Craft) with all the gear

Our home for the next week...the CCGS Tully

My turn to wait!