Day Three
Starting with the big news for the day—right around lunchtime, the visual team spotted a large baleen whale. When we were within a mile of the sighting, we made approaches for species identification. It was all hands on deck for the science team. We were joined by several of the ship's crew, taking up station on each level of the ship for photographs and good views. We made three approaches for photographic identification purposes and secured species confirmation of Rice’s whales!
Rice’s whales are the only baleen whales known to occur regularly within the Gulf of Mexico. The whales are listed as endangered, with likely fewer than 100 Rice’s whales remaining. While this project is not exclusively focused on Rice’s whales, some of our track lines cross through areas of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico where Rice’s whales have been consistently located. We were in luck today! When we see them on our surveys, we collect data and photograph each individual whale when possible. This helps us expand our photo-identification catalog for Rice’s whales. We use photo-identification data to:
- Estimate population size
- Learn about movement patterns
- Better understand population structure
- Estimate survival rates
As we steamed down the track, the visual team also encountered the usual suspects:
- Spinner dolphins
- Risso’s dolphins
- Pantropical spotted dolphins
- Dwarf sperm whales/pygmy sperm whales
- Some other distant unidentified dolphins
Conditions had improved throughout the day so the final hour of operations was extremely busy!
The acoustics team monitored for the full 13-hour day, with the exception when all were off effort for the Rice’s whales. There were a total of five acoustic detections—all dolphin species—including Risso’s dolphins, which are some of their favorites.
The bird observation team reported high diversity and low density for bird encounters today. Seabird sightings included:
- Brown and masked boobies
- Royal tern
- Band-rumped storm-petrel
- Audubon shearwater
- Sooty tern
Onward down the trackline!
Day Four
We finished another trackline and turned onto the next slightly before dinner time—which on the ship is at 16:00 or 4 p.m.— the early bird special. The visual team had excellent viewing conditions most of the day averaging a Beaufort 2—having a wave height of no more than 1 foot and a light breeze—and partly cloudy skies. There were eight total marine mammal sightings representing five identified species. Highlights included pilot whales, a Gervais’ beaked whale and Clymene dolphins (who seemed to want to ride the bow but couldn’t quite catch up with the ship).
Today was a quiet day for acoustics, recording from sunrise to sunset. We had a couple of dolphin detections in the morning but for the rest of the day, it has been the sounds of the waves and NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter.
Staying Active At Sea
Life at sea can be extremely busy at times. Scientists and crew tend to squeeze in wellness whenever they can. Some choose to wake early to get a few steps in before the day begins. Others go to the ship’s gym. Chief engineer, Jeffrey Angleberger, walks laps around the deck of the ship every morning! Fun fact: one lap around the bow deck is 0.05 miles.
Keep moving!
Explore the survey map with our 2024 track lines in our previous blog.
