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Today seems too good to be true! At 0800 this morning, in exceptionally calm sea conditions, the acousticians sent a signal to release their acoustic mooring, which had been sitting down at a depth of around 800 m for the past three days. Within about 15 minutes, the unit had risen to the surface and was spotted by one of our keen-eyed observers up on the fly bridge (highest viewing platform on the vessel), around 570 m away. It took another 30 or so minutes to get over to the float and to retrieve it. This is a fantastic outcome, both for the whale acoustics programme and for everyone involved in the Science Technical Support group. And just when we were thinking that day couldn't get any better, right before lunch the observers spotted a school of six rare Shepherd's beaked whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi), one of them possibly a juvenile. The 'paparazzi' went bananas, and we have loads of pictures to show everyone when we get back to port. On that, today is looking to be our second last day of field work as some grotty weather coming through over the weekend will see us confined in port.
REGARDS: Natalie and Dave
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.