Summer Breeze Daily Reports - July 6, 2005

Position on 07/06/2005, 21:56 UTC; 30 24.003N; 087 14.505W, Bahia Mar Marina in Pensacola

We arrived at the Bahia Mar Marina last night at 18:30. In fact, the way to shore turned out to be quite interesting. Just before 13:00, Raul heard a loud blow about 100 meters behind our vessel. We identified it as a Bryde’s whale, based on its size and shape of the dorsal. Unfortunately we did not get a good look at its head to observe the number of ridges on its head, which is the only way to positively distinguish between Bryde’s and Sei whales (Bryde’s have three ridges, Sei only one). The animal crossed our path and then swam in a large circle along our starboard side (see photo above right). We tried to follow it but the sea was too rough to keep a good eye on it and it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Bryde’s whales are one of the least known species of baleen whales, for the very reason that they used to be confused with Sei whales during whaling days. So it was a special treat to see one of them.

The Bryde’s whale passing our starboard       beam. Sighting location was 29 40.37N, 087 13.36W.

Just an hour later, we had an encounter with a pod of rough-toothed dolphins, which approached the boat to bow-ride for 15 minutes. Both of these encounters helped take our mind of the rather rough water we were traveling through.

We are restocking some fresh food and fuel, and will be on our way again tomorrow – weather permitting. The plan is to sail westward on the Intercoastal Waterway, thus avoiding the still very choppy open waters of the Gulf, but at the same time getting out of the way of approaching tropical storm Dennis. With any luck, we may be able to begin surveying for sperm whales again once we are west of the Mississippi Delta. This will give us an opportunity to close a gap in search effort between the survey area of the Gyre and our survey
area.