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The acousticians did a fantastic job overnight and followed a vocalising whale for many hours. By morning the whale was still calling and after dropping another sonobuoy we got cross bearings and a location. Within an hour of dawn we approached the position and soon the call came from the sightings team that a whale had been seen. As we approached this whale to confirm in was indeed a blue we noticed a second animal with a smaller blow. After a few fleeting sightings of this fast-moving whale it was identified as a Sei whale. The two species appeared to be feeding together with the Sei circling as the blue made its feeding lunges – another wonderful sight. Knowing our weather window may be small we got a few photo-identification shots of the blue and then left hoping there are more whales back to our east. After an hour or so a small whale was spotted which was quickly identified by our crack sightings team to be a lone male killer whale. This spectacular animal with a tall dorsal fin came close to the vessel so again we got some nice photos which will be added to Australia’s photo-ID catalogue. We continued to head east deploying sonobuoys but no whales were heard all afternoon even though we were seeing patches of krill, dolphins, lots of seabirds and even a shark close to the boat. After more time heading east and without a peep heard on our sonobuoy the sightings teams spotted a blue whale - again we approached and got a few photographs. So the score for the day so far is Acousticians 1 – Sightings Team 1. It’s good to encourage healthy competition! The wind has picked up as forecast and it now blowing about 20kts from the south so the swell will pick up quickly. The swell is forecast to rise to about 3m which may be workable but if it proves too difficult we will head home during the night or early tomorrow morning.
REGARDS: Mike
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.