Our staff Tweets, and more!
| Nov. 19, 2009 |
| Written by office staff | |
| November 19, 2009 19:54 | |
|
We had a little better luck today then we did yesterday. Today we started on the center leg of Jeffreys and then headed to the west of Jeffreys in deeper water, an area we haven't surveyed in a while. We saw a lot of humpbacks, a few minke whales, about 75 white-sided dolphins, a handful of harbor porpoise, and a sei whale! Sei whales are always a good sign for us because they feed on the same food that right whales feed on. So if sei whales start to move into the area, then that means there should be the right type of food for right whales. We only saw this whale for a quick surfacing, but they have a distinctively large dorsal fin and tend to travel right beneath the surface of the water leaving flukeprints marking their path, only taking a breath every 15 seconds or so. Sometimes they can be confused for a small fin whale or a large minke whale due to their similar body shape.The sei whale was found about half way down the track line off to the western side of the Ledge, an area that we've yet to see any right whales in this season. In addition to all of those whales, we also saw a right whale! It was on the central leg towards the top of the Ledge, in a similar area as to where we saw the right whale yesterday. We were able to photo Id this one and it is one that we have previously seen this season, but have not matched it to the catalog. It appeared to be feeding in the water column, doing 3 to 5 minute dives. When we looked at the plankton tow, it didn't look like there was a high density of food in that area, so it will be interesting to see if that whale stays in the area or moves on. We were not the only ones looking for right whales today. There was also a National Marine Fisheries Service aerial survey flying over head. They overlapped with some of the area we were surveying on Jeffreys Ledge, but they were also continuing east to Cashes Ledge. It will be interesting to see if they still have a large number of whales out there or if those whales have also moved on to another area. Some right whales have already been seen on their migration south to the southern US coast, but I'm hoping that we will have a few more whales on Jeffreys before our survey season ends. Check back next week to see what we find on our next survey!
|