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Sperm Whale Seismic
Study (SWSS)
Summer Breeze
Daily Reports - July 25,
2005
Position on 07/25/2005, 28 58N 93 09W2WAfter
following the group of 4 whales that we had picked on the morning of the
24th (mentioned in yesterday’s report) through a few dive cycles we felt
that we had reasonable IDs and lengths for all the animals, so we left them
and continued. As we are short of time and a fair way to the west of our
original survey blocks we are roughly following the 1000m contour rather
than zig-zagging. We picked up whales again in the early evening and had
time to collect only a few photo-ids before dark. This had the feeling of a
large but well dispersed group and we were keen to have more time with it
next day.
First though there was some significant engine maintenance to be done.
The fuel filters have become blocked, so that the engine can’t maintain full
speed and the alternator (which was rebuilt in Galveston last week) has
ceased to charge. Luckily there was a light breeze in the right direction
and we could track the whales with this while Pip managed to fit new filters
and a new alternator – a very hot and sweaty task at the best of times.
With a rejuvenated engine we tracked the group overnight and we’ve been
working with these animals all morning. It does seem to be a largish mixed
group with several calves, at least two of which seem very small. We’ve seen
few of these this year.
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