8th June.

We have had many fantastic sightings over the last couple of days but a few stand out. Two nights ago Edd and I were on night watch, when we noticed incredibly vivid bioluminescence in the water. Soon after, we heard the distinctive blows of dolphins nearby, and didn’t have to look too hard to find them – they were leaving their own extremely bright bioluminescent trails as they swam through the water. A group of around twelve striped dolphins rode the bow wave of Song of the Whale for fifteen minutes. Soon after they left we saw something else bow-riding, much bigger this time.. Shining my head torch into the dark water we saw that we now had four long finned pilot whales bow-riding. They left almost as soon as they had arrived but we felt privileged to have seen them at all.

The next morning brought more pilot whales, and this time, they hung around the boat for over an hour. We were able to get some  good photo IDs, video footage, and even managed to opportunistically collect some pilot whale scat (complete with squid beaks) and sloughed skin from the water. We can use this to identify the prey that they’re eating to tell us more about their diet.

Luke O’Connor

A couple of days ago approaching the Straits of Gibraltar, we encountered a widespread aggregation of false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens). Hopes were high that we might encounter some ‘real’ killer whales in the area, where they are known to hunt tuna at this time of year. False killers were a treat that nobody expected. We estimated that there were a total of 50 individuals, spread out over 2 miles in sub-groups of 6-10 individuals. They were breaching, displaying bursts of speed and at times bow riding SOTW. This is a poorly understood pelagic species, seldom observed in European waters, we were very fortunate to have such a close encounter. We saw two small calves and even witnessed suckling.

Conor

Eleven days in and we’ve reached the south coast of Portugal, where we’ve finally been able to shed the oilskins that kept us warm through the earlier part of our transit south. Great sailing weather meant that we were able to turn the engine off as we left Brittany astern, crossing the Bay of Biscay using the power of the wind alone. We have been testing the hydrophones over the last week, and have had acoustic detections of harbour porpoise, common, striped and Risso’s dolphins, pilot whales and sperm whales as well as sightings of fin whales. I joined the SOTW for the summer and am hoping at some point to trial a way to collect whale blow samples using a remote controlled helicopter which I have used in the past during my work on grey seals at SMRU in Scotland.

We have investigated four submarine canyons off the coast of Portugal which revealed lots of acoustic detections, and one possible detection of the group of animals we are specifically searching for – beaked whales. The deep water canyons are possible habitat for deep divers such as beaked whales and one has been proposed as a future Marine Protected Area (MPA); the recordings will be analysed later in the year to determine if these waters are home these elusive cetaceans.

We’re nearly into the Mediterranean and hope to continue with the good weather and awesome cetacean sightings, but now to the important matter of baked Camembert for dinner!

By Luke O’Connor

A mixed group of common and striped dolphins taken using a GoPro mounted on the bow of SOTW.

The “Final report for a survey of cetaceans in the Azores, Portugal,conducted from R/V Song of the Whale 5th April – 8th May 2012″ is now available to download.

A Current Position page has been added to the site enabling Song of the Whale to be tracked via the Automatic Identification System (AIS) when in range of a shore station.

After weeks of increasingly frenzied activity, boat maintenance, construction and testing of hydrophones, R/V Song of the Whale set sail from Ipswich on Thursday 23rd May.

Recent maintenance jobs include the removal of the mast and replacement of all the standing rigging (stainless steel wire and fittings which hold the mast up).

We are currently a crew of seven, bound for Corsica: skipper Brian, engineer Mat, mate Edd, deck hand Nicola, scientists Anna, Luke and myself. My name is Conor Ryan, and I’ve recently joined the SOTW team. I come from Cork, Ireland and recently finished my PhD in Galway on baleen whales in the Celtic Sea. So far on our passage we have been treated to sightings of a single harbour porpoise and a grey seal (off Felixstowe docks) and a pod of 9-12 bottlenose dolphins (to the north of the Channel Islands). Also, Anna recorded a harbour porpoise acoustic detection on the hydrophone in the approaches to the busy shipping channel in the Straits of Dover. For the first few days we have been settling into our 24 hour routine of navigating, monitoring the hydrophone and carrying out domestic tasks including taking turns cooking. En route to the Mediterranean, we will investigate some deep-water canyons off Portugal, which may be prime habitat for beaked whales, before passing through the Straits of Gibraltar and on to Corsica for a crew change.

The primary aim this summer is to cover some poorly surveyed waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Aegean Sea in search of elusive harbour porpoises and sperm whales in particular, then on to the Levantine Basin and Egyptian waters for cetacean surveys in waters that have never been previously studied. We will also be collecting noise and vessel traffic data which will be used in an effort to reduce the effects of ship-noise on cetaceans, and to contribute to efforts to reduce ship-strikes. Luke who has just graduated from St Andrew’s University in Scotland is volunteering with the SOTW team, and is hoping to have a chance to trial a new technique for collecting blow samples using a remote-controlled helicopter in order to investigate hormone levels in large whales, which can be used to determine pregnancy and stress levels. But for now we push on through the cold grey English Channel in the hopes of hearing and seeing more cetaceans (and less rubbish!) in the coming days.

by Conor Ryan

SOTW Team leaning into the swell in the Bay of Biscay, en route to the Mediterranean from the UK. From Left: Nicola Papastavrou Brooks, Edd Hewett, Luke O’Connor, Brian Morrison, Mat Jerram, Conor Ryan and Anna Cucknell.

On 25th March 2012 SOTW and her team departed Ipswich, Suffolk to embark on a series of research, education and outreach projects during a circuit around the North Atlantic. The field work took six months to complete, stopping at six countries and covering over 10,000 nautical miles.

The Azores was our first main port of call, where at least 24 cetacean species have previously been recorded. Here and throughout the entire trip we focused on the implementation and development of new acoustic detection methods to locate beaked whales and large baleen whales such and blue and fin whales. Photo identification images were also gathered in the hope that whales sighted around the Azores may be matched to those sighted around Iceland.

As we reached North America in early June, humpback whales became the focus of our research. Joining forces with many organisations including NOAA and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, to study feeding humpbacks in that area and better understand how they use the water column with the aim of reducing the risk of vessel collisions and entanglements.

SOTW then sailed north, towards the cooler climes of Iceland, en route we hoped to encounter the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. These animals are well studied in their coastal habitats off North America, however our aim was to provide information on these animals in the lesser studied offshore areas off Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Right whales were unfortunately not seen on this trip, however acoustic data are currently being analysed and may yet reveal some detections of whales.

In Iceland it was the minke whales’ turn for attention as the team looked at their movements and behaviour in relation to the whale watching vessels there.

Throughout the year, every cetacean species sighted or heard through the hydrophones were recorded, along with seals, sharks and turtles and even sightings of rubbish to better understand distribution of marine debris.

The variety of cetaceans recorded during the trip has been phenomenal. Blue whales, fin whales, humpback whales, sei whales, pilot whales, northern bottlenose whales, Sowerby’s beaked whales, minke whales, sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, spotted dolphins, striped dolphins, white beaked dolphins, white sided dolphins, harbour porpoise and even acoustic detections from killer whales!  Unfortunately whales and dolphins are impacted by a range of different human threats and that is why efforts to help protect these animals and their ocean habitats are so important.

The sailing may be over for the year, but the SOTW team are still hard at work, analysing the six months’ worth of data and maintaining and preparing SOTW for projects in 2013. A huge thank you goes to everyone who has participated in the various projects and helped to support the SOTW team’s important work this year, from crew members to interns, local students, visiting scientists, resident artists, donors, fundraisers and locals we’ve met along the way.

The SOTW team would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and we look forward to sharing our findings from this season with you in the New Year.

In the meantime please take a look at the new sound clips page that is being developed, where you can hear vocalisations and view spectrograms for a variety of cetacean species.

We left Reykjavik on the 20th of September having seen the amazing northern lights the night before. The first day of passage was sunny and calm. The day started out nicely since we had two sightings of white-beaked dolphins in Faxafloi Bay. However, on the following evening the wind started picking up and in the end rough conditions and sea sickness lasted for 3-4 days. Despite the conditions, we had plenty of good acoustic detections of killer whales, pilot whales, sperm whales and dolphins. Eventually, we were pushed to the north of the Faroe Islands by the strong winds gusting up to 40 knots causing a slight deviation from our planned route. One of the Genoa sheets (the rope used to pull the sail in) snapped in the middle of the night but thankfully our experienced sailing crew managed to get it fixed without it causing too much damage.

Finally, the wind turned north easterly and we were sailing again in the right direction. When the weather finally calmed down, we were sailing southwards along the Scottish east coast, passing through potential sites for future offshore wind farms. On the way, we had a day filled with white-beaked dolphin encounters. The group sizes varied from two to seven dolphins and often they stayed with the boat bowriding up to almost an hour. Today is not only the last day of the passage but also the end of the field season. Some of the crew have been on board for the whole six months, some have been on board only for a week but all of us will take home good memories of the times spent on Song of the Whale.

Milaja & Miriam

SOTW’s route from Iceland towards Ipswich.

As the Song of the Whale research draws to a close, a change is certainly afoot in the weather off Iceland.  As we leave Faxaflói Bay behind us and head offshore, the calm summer conditions of recent weeks seem like a distant memory as we brace ourselves for a first dose of winter weather. Unfortunately, the rough conditions compromise our research effectiveness, as we are now almost entirely reliant on our acoustic capability. Although we hear sperm whales and dolphins, we see very little. At least the high winds and swell give our Icelandic volunteers Arnar Bjornsson and Johan Porbjornsson a taste of life on the high seas! The winter storms continue to roll in from the USA over our final two weeks in Iceland limiting our work to shorter trips in Faxaflói Bay. Although we had intended to retrieve the EAR (Ecological Acoustic Recorder) that had been deployed with the University of Iceland earlier in the season, this is now considered impossible as the retrieval process requires conditions calm enough to spot the sea-bed recorder after it is freed and floats to the surface.

A white-beaked dolphin leaps from the water in Faxafloi Bay.

The poor weather allows us to encourage local people to come aboard Song of the Whale in harbour. Open days in both Reykjavik and Keflavik are well attended, particularly by exuberant school groups. We are also able to take David Martin, a visiting Scottish MEP, out for a short trip in Faxaflói Bay. Although the weather is far from perfect, we are keen to show David our research techniques in person as he is helping IFAW in their campaign to end commercial whaling. Our season wraps up with an event in HARPA, the state-of-the-art concert hall overlooking the harbour. Not just a chance to summarise the work of the Song of the Whale team in Iceland, this is also an opportunity for Robbie Marsland, director of IFAW’s UK office, to review the successes of IFAW’s ‘Meet Us Don’t Eat Us’ campaign. At the reception, the Environment Minister expresses her support for a call to make the whole of Faxaflói Bay a whale sanctuary. The sanctuary could effectively end minke whaling in Iceland and we are pleased to hear the Dean of the Science Faculty of the University of Iceland and the chairman of the Icelandic Tourism Association also support the sanctuary. Thus it is that as our new team members Miriam, Solve and Smiley join Brian, Matt and Milaja in preparing Song of the Whale for the return passage to the UK, we are left feeling positive about the future for whales in Icelandic waters.

Song of the Whale seen from the HARPA concert hall

What a varied and busy week!  In the last 10 days we have had more successful days tracking minke whales.  The weather has been with us most of the time, which has resulted in several more hours worth of excellent data on the behaviour of the whales in Faxafloi Bay, both around whale watch vessels and in isolation.  Additionally we also had two days of poor weather, when the sea state prevented us from tracking whales but was good enough for us to  conduct research of the wider area, searching for minke whales. Hopefully with sufficient study effort over the main area where whale watching occurs we can make an estimate of  how many minke whales are in the area and therefore an approximate exposure rate for each minke to whale watch vessels.

We also had an opportunity during the inclement weather to take measurements of vessel noise in the water.  All the whale watch companies in Reykjavik were very helpful in passing SOTW at a variety of cruising speeds allowing us to make calibrated recordings of the noise each vessel made underwater.  We are hoping these data will be useful for the whale watching companies to help make their vessels as quiet as possible.

The SOTW team has hosted a number of guests this week.  Following Bill Oddie ‘s visit with the BBC One Show crew who were making a short segment about IFAW’s work in Iceland, Jim Gray from DEFRA joined the crew for a few days and then three British Members of Parliament visited IFAW’s project in Iceland: Tracy Crouch, John Leach and Tom Harris all helped us track and photo-ID minke whales and were introduced to the science SOTW carries out to support whale conservation around the world.

To top all of this off, we had an open day in Akranes mid-week where around 300 school children of varying ages came to visit the boat and learn about our work; the students listened to whale sounds, learned more about whales and explored the boat.  Additionally, the boat was open to Akranes residents too and so many of them popped down to see what we were studying in their local waters.

So a successful week all in all, including a big crew change. Russell, Susie, Fredrick, Michelle and Jeff  have headed home, but Olly and Brian are back and two Icelandic students join us for the upcoming voyage offshore.

Tracy Crouch – Conservative, John Leach – Lib Dem and Tom Harris – Labour.