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| Spotted dolphins (Photo: M. Kaplan; NMFS permit #15530 to CRC) |
Yesterday's low sightings numbers were more than made up for by this morning. Not 15 minutes after leaving the harbour did we catch a group of pilot whales, followed shortly by a few bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). An hour later we came upon rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis), and then, a large group of spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata). In total, we had 9 sightings today of these four species while travelling 126 km.
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| Spotted dolphin with a "cookiecutter" wound from a cookiecutter shark bite (Photo: M. Kaplan, NMFS permit # 15530 to CRC) |
While we didn't find the species we are looking for, this cetacean abundance let us try out the towfish for real. It was deployed 3 times for a total of 45 minutes of recording, split among rough-toothed dolphins and pilot whales. Once back on land, we had a look at the recordings and found lots of clicks and some whistles. So the towfish is looking good. Now to fix the drifter buoy once and for all...
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| Spotted dolphin (Photo: M. Kaplan, NMFS permit # 15530 to CRC) |
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| Spectrogram of two pilot whale whistles picked up by the DMON while in the towfish |
Very interesting data. Written is a way that even a non-scientist is able to understand.
ReplyDeleteNatan V