Saturday was our last day on the water. Three pilot whale sightings and numerous attempts to deploy the ECG tag were unsuccessful - the whales were mostly uncooperative. Early in the day we tried to head north to the melon-headed whales, which the satellite tags indicated were in roughly the same area as when we tagged them on Friday, but the wind had picked up so we were forced south once more. So on Sunday we packed up. We're heading back to Massachusetts this afternoon, having collected some great acoustic recordings using the towfish and the Dtags that were deployed. The drifter buoy, which was only used once, on Friday, actually recorded some of the highest quality acoustics we collected.
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| Equipment to be sent back to WHOI |
Fieldwork will continue in May 2013 - the last of four trips on this project. But next week Aran heads to
Alaska to carry out hearing tests on beluga whales (
Delphinapterus leucas) as part of ongoing health assessments. This project is in partnership with the
Georgia Aquarium and the
National Marine Mammal Lab. Check back here for regular updates on that project.
I bet you guys are happy to be home (for a few days). Aran, hope you have a chance to blog from Alaska, this blog is really great!
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