had frequent snows followed by windy days. Today was no exception,
unfortunately. As the day began, it was clear that we would have weather
for the day, but the fog steadily encroached on our visual observation
range until finally we could only see approximately 100m from the boat.
This definitely made an impact on our ability to see whales for tagging.
Finally at about 1pm, we found two whales – a pair off in a krill-less
bay. Virtually devoid of life other than birds, these two whales were
enough to send a couple boats after them for radio tagging. (I went to bed
since I had been up for the night shift.)
Fast forwarding approximately 6 hours, I woke up, showered, and brushed my
teeth. The boat had the usual movement of keeping station, bow and aft
thrusters periodically forcefully turning the boat. We must have not been
able to tag today. I eat by myself in the mess, since I am there
approximately 1 hour dinner serving hours are over. Soup and some canned
peaches.
Arriving in the dry lab, I survey the monitors giving our position,
heading, speed, wind speed, etc. We have been on station for over 2 hours!
The whales are sleeping… or something. Oh, yes we did get a tag on
today. Good thing we radio tagged a narcolepsy enhanced whale – we'll
be able to study outlier sleeping habits! Just kidding.
Tonight will be a relatively quiet night for the krill gang. As our main
job while animals are tagged is to make sure our ADCP and echo sounders are
operating correctly, sitting in one place will make the job rather mundane.
Meh. Maybe I'll have to post twice in a day. (Play
dramatic/suspenseful music)
P.S. Yesterday I went out on the "tag" boat whose goal was to pick up
the radio transmitting tag after it detached from the whale. Unfortunately
the mechanism to release the suction cups holding it on was a little
delayed, so we weren't able to pick it up on our boat due to some rough
seas. Attached is the photo of the team locating the direction of the
signal. Enjoy!
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