Day 6: More acoustics, and more wind

Two spotted dolphins
(Photo: M. Kaplan, NMFS permit # 15530 to CRC)

The weather has taken a turn for the worse and has prevented us from heading north to our study species' habitat, so we headed south out of the harbour today and encountered pilot whales, spotted dolphins and more rough-toothed dolphins.

For the rough-toothed dolphins we deployed the towfish to make more acoustic recordings of their echolocation clicks. But we had yet to see for ourselves how the towfish behaved in the water, so we donned our masks, fins and snorkels for the second day running to do some in-water tests. The result? The towfish looks great, and the acoustic data that we are collecting with it somewhat makes up for our inability as of yet to tag any false killer whales or melon-headed whales. We're hoping for better luck and less wind over the next couple days.

The towfish in water, with the DMON (yellow) attached below
(Photo: T. A. Mooney)