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Today started with snow showers and poor visibility for finding whales. Despite this the acoustic team provided such good locations for the singing whales we managed to find several blue whale pods in the gloom.
As seems to be the pattern where we find blue whales we also find the few balls of krill so we attempted to sample krill again. On the first attempt we towed the net hoping to come across a ball but with no luck. Of course as soon as we pulled the net a ball appeared under the sounder. Later as the snow showers passed and the visibility improved we found another bigger krill ball. We passed over the area twice more to track the drift of the krill before finally setting the net and hoping we would again find the mark. While staring tensely at the echosounder output the ball appeared but at a shallower depth then we could set the net. Quickly the net was partially hauled hoping to catch at least some of the lower part of the swarm. The krill team were tense when the net was finally hauled and the cod-end opened. Of the many thousands of krill that must have been in the ball the net managed to catch just two hundred but for our purposes that was enough – another goal of the voyage completed.
For the rest of the day we closed on blue whale pods and took photographic data. And we even managed to collect a biopsy sample – the first from a blue whale for the trip.
We have now decided to temporarily suspend the whale-orientated research and steam to the trawl survey area. This will allow us enough days later in the voyage to recommence the blue whale research with, it is hoped, enough time to find and survey another blue whale hotspot.
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.