Day 10

Our hopes for recovering our lost tag were temporarily revived today when  we sighted the University of Hawaii's research vessel Kaimikai-O-Kanaloa 30 km offshore and heading north. Aran called their bridge on the radio but after a follow-up phone conversation we were told they had engine trouble and were returning to Honolulu, and so were unable to search for the tag which, at this point, was probably nearly 100 km from our harbor and at least 50 km offshore in the middle of a windy channel. A quick survey of the charter boats in the harbor and a subsequent check on the radio signal, which had weakened overnight as the tag drifted further away resulted in us again halting the recovery plans. 

Aran using the radio tracking equipment
from land to search for the tag's signal
(Photo: M. Kaplan)

That bad news was slightly offset by the fact that we were able to deploy the towfish four times today, making a total of 50 minutes of recordings of the clicks and whistles of rough-toothed dolphins. And the weather appears to be improving: we plan to head north tomorrow morning in search of the as-of-yet elusive false killer whales and melon-headed whales.