Greetings from GYRE!What a day this has
been! Five tags on! It started out with the acoustics team
successfully tracking sperm whales through the night. The animals
had moved northeast over 15 nm, back to the vicinity where we had
turned southwest yesterday. By morning, only 2 of the animals were
within acoustic range. The sea state was rough and marginal
for launching and tagging from small boats, and the visual team
again worked with the difficult conditions of white-capped seas.
These conditions lasted throughout the day. We lost contact with the
animals shortly after 07:00 local time, but reacquired acoustic
contact about three hours later. Although the seas were still
marginal, the small boats were launched about 11:00 CDT. An XBT was
taken, and the 38 kHz fishery echo sounder was deployed to monitor
for deep backscatter layers that might indicate prey fields. Near
surface currents were directed northeastward at about 1knot or less
when the 38 kHz ADCP was turned off.
Then the action started. We worked with a
group of 8-12 sperm whales, including 2 that were yearling sized.
About noon local time, a depth S-tag was deployed. Two hours later
and in quick succession, 2 location-only S-tags were deployed. A
bioacoustics probe (B-probe) was attached to a whale shortly after
that, but the tag did not stay on. About 17:45 local time, a third
location-only S-tag was deployed. An hour later the tag team
deployed another location-only S-tag. Biopsies were obtained on all
5 tagged animals and photo-ids were taken of at least 2. All the
teams worked long and hard with excellent coordination and
communications to achieve this 5-tag success in the windy, rough
seas of the western Gulf of Mexico!
Our position at 21:10 local time is 26
52.715'N 95 29.975'W.
