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Ahoy Shipmates,
This morning as we had some good acoustics contacts on blue whales in the vicinity and spent several hours refining techniques for cross-fixing them. Final preparations have now been made for our operations off the ice edge, including making the "Remora" ready for use, and ensuring our tagging and biopsy firearms are properly sighted. There is an expectant air around the ship and everyone is looking forward to getting into the hard work and excitement of the project. Visual observations continue during daylight hours, however there hasn't been much to report today.
This afternoon we conducted our weekly fire drill and muster exercise, and the medical party spent time working through a casualty evacuation by stretcher with Cath, our ship's Doctor. On the social side, there was a well attended afternoon exercise class in the gym. One unusual benefit of the unique design of the "Explorer" is that she has a hot salt water bath in the main bathroom, so we are currently filling the bath in preparation for a ladies' spa session after dinner. Neptune hasn't shown up yet, but he can't be far away - Life is never dull on the southern ocean!
Tomorrow we will arrive off the ice edge - so far the water has remained quite warm, so we have not yet seen any icebergs or ice - it will be a different story tomorrow. The acoustics intercepts of the whale calls we have received so far show there is plenty of blue whale activity in the survey area - hopefully we can prove the concept that passive acoustics can be used as a tool to locate them
Until tomorrow,
Chris, Margaret, and the VWhales Team
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.