The routine

We have been on this cruise for a week now. Maybe it is time for a bit of a recap to describe how our routine has been shaking out, and what we all get up to all day.

By dawn the ship heads to a spot in the mouth of the canyon where we hope to find whales. The sun gets up around 6:30, which also reveals bleary-eyed scientists in the mess fixing their favorite blend of cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc, given that the heartier fare isn't set out for a while yet. Whether they got much, if any, sleep the night before depends on if we were tracking a tagged whale or looking for a released tag overnight.

Another day, another tag. (Luis Lamar,
Advanced Imaging & Visualization Lab, WHOI)

Regardless, our trusty scouts, usually Will, Marta or Moe, and Andreas then head off in the ship's tender with one of the ship's crew to listen and look for whales, while we also set a visual watch on the top deck. We take turns at this. Often by 9:00 or 9:30 they have started tracking a whale or two, so it's time for the Zodiac crew to mobilize: Leigh and Julie the taggers, Luis the camera guy, and Michael the driver.

We suit up and head off to join the tender, shut down the engine while Will and Marta determine where the whales are headed. We follow suit, heading in the apparent direction of the clicking and stopping to listen every while. When a whale goes silent ,we start to look out over the water in earnest.

Often, the first to see the whale blow is the person on the top deck of the ship. The Zodiac crew then moves over into a spot behind the whale, slows down, sets a tag on the end of the pole, checks that the ship can hear the radio transmitter, and then ever so gently creeps up behind the whale. Finally, if the whale lets us, we can gently place the tag on its back. If it does not want us there it quickly becomes obvious and we move on to another whale and start all over again.

Once the tag is on, the Zodiac crew returns to the ship and we start radio tracking the whale. A whale will usually surface every hour, at which time we can hear the beeping associated with a surfaced whale, and thus stay with it.

Meanwhile, the ship's tender heads off to look and listen for other whales to get photo-ID images and a better sense of where in the canyon the whales can be found. Once the tag attachment time has elapsed—usually 3 to 6 hours—the tag detaches and slowly surfaces, at which point we detect a continuous beeping that helps us direct the ship so that we can scoop the tag with a dipnet and start downloading the data.

A white-capped albatross taking flight (Luis Lamar,
Advanced Imaging & Visualization Lab, WHOI)

Meanwhile back in the lab, Wayne and Don are busy with their aerial camera system. Archie is still waiting for parts to be delivered, while his buddy, who today was christened Bubby after one of the ship's deckhands, is almost ready for prime time. The plan is to test fly Bubby off the ship's tender tomorrow. Andreas and Micah are also busy with version two of their breath-sampling device. That, too, may see prime time tomorrow if inshore trials go well.

Today we were surrounded by many Buller's Mollymawk, a local albatross.