Sperm Whale Seismic Study (SWSS)

Summer Breeze Daily Reports - June 29, 2005

Position on 06/29/2005, 02:52 UTC; 28 38.818 N; 089 04.820W

As luck would have it, shortly after the whale we had heard last night went quiet, two large barges passed us on both sides. Their combined noises drowned out any other sound the hydrophones might have picked up for about an hour. We kept sailing a  search pattern for another hour after the barges had gone, but still no clicks. So we decided to move on. We heard clicks again just after 12:00 local time, and after tracking for a short while, saw the blows of a whale. However, it fluked before we were in a good position for a high quality fluke ID photo. We had another acoustic contact two hours later, but by now the constant drizzle had turned into rain and there were gusts of up to 30 knots, so we were not able to obtain an fluke photo.

Unfortunately, one of our crew, Sierra, had developed a serious eye infection over the last night. We had hoped that some of the available medication on board would help, but by early afternoon, it was clear that none of them were effective. So we decided to leave that last whale and head for Gulfport. We are planning to arrive there by midday tomorrow, and to stay for two nights. This will also allow us to take care of some minor repairs and to restock with fresh food. We have scheduled the beginning of the next trip for Saturday morning, June 2.