In Search of Dolphins, Whales, and Turtles

Fin whale off the coast of New Jersey. Photo credit: NOAA/NEFSC Marjorie Foster

The Northeast and Southeast Fisheries Science Centers have just begun aerial surveys to document the distribution and abundance of marine mammals and turtles from Florida to Canada! This is part of the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program of Protected Species (AMAPPS) project (funded by NOAA Fisheries, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Navy).

Track lines of the proposed AMAPPS survey area. Map by Debra Palka, NOAA Fishery Biologist

These surveys will be conducted from NOAA Twin Otter aircraft, specially designed to fly at a low altitude and slow speed, allowing scientists to spot animals from observation windows on the sides and belly of the aircraft.  The distribution and abundance data collected will be used to create species density maps of marine mammals and turtles.

Northeast AMAPPS aerial survey team (from left to right): Christin Khan, Debra Palka, Allison Chaillet, Jennifer Gatzke, Richard Holt. Photo credit: NOAA/NEFSC Mary Jo Barkaszi.

The Ups and Downs of Weather

Day 11: Saturday, July 30

We felt we paid for yesterday’s beautiful weather and tons of sightings as today was a day of extreme weather. We started at 6am at about 40.7N 66.3W on line number 7 in poor sighting conditions, 20 knots of wind, so the visual marine mammal observers could not work, but the passive acoustic array was able to be deployed. Mother nature then wiped up some rain squalls and 30 knots of wind. That was fun to watch! But it all settled down quickly and the visual marine mammal observers were able to start working at about 1:30pm, and in the afternoon we saw the usual animals and birds. The passive acoustics, however, were able to work all morning and afternoon, a very positive aspect of the passive acoustics data collection methods!

Day 12: Sunday, July 31

Our last full day. Today we were able to complete the last four lines of the inshore lines that were just south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The conditions were beautiful. We did not see lots of marine mammals, but we did see many sharks (mostly blue sharks), birds, and fishing boats. This was the first day that we saw harbor porpoises. We also saw mostly common dolphins.  We finished our lines by about 5:15pm, just in time for us to dismantle our equipment and get to dinner.  At this evening’s sunset viewing we got all of the scientists together and took pictures of the entire gang.

Day 13: Monday, August 1

We arrived at the dock in Newport, RI at 0700, unloaded all our stuff, and then scattered to the winds, but not before thanking the crew of the Henry B. Bigelow who were fun, professional and a real pleasure to work with.

Debi Palka
Chief Scientist, Leg 3
Aboard the Henry B. Bigelow
AMAPPS 2011

Prepare the Probe!

No, we’re not probing whales and dolphins, but we are probing their environment to learn more about their habitat.  XBT is the acronym for EXpendable BathyThermograph  – a one-time use instrument that collects temperature (thermo) and depth (bathy) data.  It’s just one of the instruments we use to collect environmental information and although it is not a complicated instrument, it can tell us a lot about the medium in which whales, dolphins, and their food all live.  For example, XBT data can reveal the depth of the thermocline (area where temperature changes rapidly and plankton are known to aggregate), and help resolve the boundaries of thermal fronts.  Most importantly, XBTs can be launched while we are underway and do not detract from marine mammal observer effort.

Chris Faist, NOAA Teacher at Sea, launches an XBT. (Credit: Pete Duley, NEFSC/NOAA)

XBT results on the computer screen. The data is read in the ship's dry lab during the launch. (Credit: Pete Duley, NEFSC/NOAA )

XBT launches on this cruise are targeted for tracklines that cross the shelfbreak.  These launches, every 3 to 5 nautical miles, will provide temperature profiles to supplement Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) data.  In conjunction, these instruments will help us resolve the position of the Middle Atlantic Bight shelfbreak front, an oceanographic feature we think is an important part of the habitat for marine mammals in the area.

Below is a temperature profile of one XBT launch.

Sample XBT temperature profile taken July 22, 2011

The type of XBTs we use – Sippican T-7s – only report data to 765 meters (2,510 feet) depth.  The surface temperature is just above 20 ^oC  (68^{oF )} and drops to approximately 10 ^oC (50^oF) by 50 meters ( 164 feet) depth.  Temperature then increases to about 13 ^oC (about 55^oF)  by 100 meters (328 feet) depth before starting to slowly decrease as the probe descends to its terminal depth.

Erin LaBrecque (Credit:Irene Briga, NEFSC/NOAA)

 

Erin LaBrecque
Duke Marine Lab

Hearing is believing

Hello from team acoustics! We’re now on leg three of the AMAPPS survey on the Henry B. Bigelow and for this leg we have had some ups and downs.

Greetings from Team Acoustics and our mascot, Gumby. (Credit: Cara Hotchkins, NEFSC/NOAA)

On the positive side, our hydrophone array has been really reliable lately! The ocean environment is a very stressful place for equipment, especially scientific equipment. Several times during the cruise we have had to fix problems at sea ranging from corroded connectors to bad hydrophone preamps (which required us to disassemble the entire array), but we have finally got everything in working order!

Danielle Colewiak and Rob Valtierra preparing the hydrophone for deployment. (Credit: Carol Fairfield, NEFSC/NOAA)

On the down side it has been pretty quiet during this leg, although there have been some really cool moments. Today we came across a mixed group of pilot whales and common dolphins which resulted in some great recordings, and

Deploying the hydrophone array: the array is towed from the ship during marine mammal visual visual surveys to record acoustic data. (Credit: Jennifer Gatzke, NEFSC/NOAA)

Rob Valtierra at work in the acoustics lab (Credit: Kelly Slivka, NEFSC/NOAA)

Atlantic spotted dolphin spectrogram (which represents time versus frequency). For more information about NEFSC's acoustics program, including sound recordings of different species, visit our website. (Credit: Danielle Colewiak, NEFSC/NOAA)

yesterday we had some killer whales swim right by the array! Overall, it has been a great cruise for the acoustics team. Personally I must admit that after being on all three legs of the cruise, I’m ready to set my feet on solid ground again!

Robert Valtierra
Acoustics Team

Observing Orcas

Day 8:  Wednesday, July 27

Today started out great because we came upon a group of 4 killer whales at 44.04N 65.08W. We attempted to photo-id them so they can be compared to other killer whales from around the world.  Killer whales in the Atlantic appear

A single killer whale, one of four sighted in the North Atlantic. (Credit: Pete Duley, NEFSC/NOAA)

to be particularly understudied, so these are important photos.  Unfortunately they did not really appreciate being photographed,  but we did our best from a distance, as you can see in these pictures taken by Pete Duley.

Mother orca and calf (Credit: Pete Duley, NEFSC/NOAA)

Two orcas and a petrel photographed from the Henry B. Bigelow (Credit: Pete Duley, NEFSC/NOAA)

The sighting conditions during the rest of the day went down hill after the killer whale sighting, as did our sighting rate, though we did see the usual pilot whales, Risso’s dolphins, common dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins and Cuvier’s beaked whales.  We stopped surveying at about 3:30pm due to high winds and fog,  both occurring at the same time.  Tomorrow is supposed to be better as we start surveying our most easterly shelf break transects.

Debi Palka
Chief Scientist

“Roger, Roger”: Amusement at Sea

July 23, 2011:  While only three days in, the social life of Leg 3 on the AMAPPS cruise has begun with the hotly contested first group movie choice of the evening shown Thursday night – a respectably attended screening of the 1980 classic “Airplane”.

“Roger Murdock:  ‘We have clearance, Clarence.’  Captain Oveur:  ‘Roger, Roger. What’s your vector, Victor?’ ” Several of the observers also conduct aerials surveys;  some of the quotes from that film will no doubt be painfully repeated many times in the near future!

The first ever NOAA Ship  HENRY B. BIGELOW double elimination cribbage tournament will be held soon; the sign up list is  posted and people are facing off in practice hands.  Expect the competition to be fierce with Duley and Friedrichsen showing strong and Briga ‘claiming’ she doesn’t know how to play.

We are enjoying internet access while aboard this leg, as we did for the majority of Leg 2, thanks to Billy’s techno-savvy.  While we did not have internet for the first week of Leg 2, that did not stand in the way of Facebook activity.  Paper ‘walls’ were posted on cabin doors and statuses were updated. Once our cyber-connection had been restored, the ink continued to flow with creative cartoon mobile uploads!

Paper "walls" were posted on cabin doors during the brief internet interruption at the start of leg 2. (Credit: Jen Gatzke, NEFSC/NOAA))

Thanks to our hard working BIGELOW crew, we thoroughly enjoyed an ice cream social in addition to our 4^thof July BBQ on the stern and flying bridge party during Leg 2.

Kelly Slivka took this image of herself (really!) during a recent ice cream social

Safety at sea provides another measure of fun and outlet for creativity, with abandon ship drills providing the perfect opportunity to obtain embarrassing photos of your coworkers and use those obscure features provided with your image editing software.

A good sport: Danielle Colewiak during one of the ship's safety at sea drills. Her colleagues had some fun after the fact with the image editing software. (Credit: Kelly Slivka, NEFSC/NOAA)

If you’re lucky enough while observing on the roll tank you may get musical accompaniment by the cruise chemist – and bongo handler, and CTD operator, and…what doesn’t Reubin do?

Reubin Darlington provides some musical entertainment. (Credit: Kelly Slivka, NEFSC/NOAAO

Observers cannot get enough of looking through the big-eyes during the day so they are used on clear nights for stargazing!

It's not all daytime fun: Carol Fairfield takes advantage of a clear night sky to do some stargazing. (Credit: Kelly Slivka, NEFSC/NOAA)

The Stinky Sailor Bar will be open on the Flying Bridge tonight with Mocktails, music and Cornhole (beanbag toss).

Left to right: Pete Duley, Jen Gatzke, and Reubin Darlington have some fun during off hours. (Credit: Kelly Slivka, NEFSC/NOAA)

Where Leg 2 saw dolphin Mardi Gras beads, origami, water pistols and bubbles, Leg 3 has Hula hoops and a big jar of atomic fire balls that have already begun to fly. But it’s only day three and one never knows if the sea bags may still have some surprises in store!

Jan Gatzke
Marine Mammal Observer

A Bit of Everything

Day 5:  Sunday, July 24

We completed the onshore lines today in lovely Beaufort 1-2 conditions, except for those pesty rain showers that we had to wait  out. We saw a few common and bottlenose dolphins, a bunch of basking sharks and other shark species.  We even saw a few breaching basking sharks.  We also saw lots of fishing gear and weekend pleasure boat fishers.  What a zoo!  It was great to see the horizon, especially in the afternoon when the seas were nearly flat.  We had lunch on the back deck with grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob. That was yummy and fun! At night we headed way offshore to line 23, so that means tomorrow we will be heading towards the sea mounts and Canada.  More on that later.

Day 4:  Saturday, July 23

We are back at the inshore lines (south of Cape Cod) because the weather forecast predicted this is the only place with light winds, but there were chances of fog. And that is what we found, light winds and some fog, but not enough fog to mess up our entire day. We actually got to see some animals, mostly common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and mola molas. The passive acoustic array was not deployed because these waters are too shallow and we do not want the array to drag along the bottom. All the equipment is working well and the people are happy and healthy.

Day 3: Saturday, July 22

We woke up to acceptable sighting conditions (Beaufort 3-4) when we were at the southeastern end of Line 11. We started surveying northwesterly with everyone on effort: the two visual marine mammal teams, birder team and the passive acoustic team, and we also deploying more XBTs (Expendable Bathythermographs).  We only say Risso’s dolphins. Unfortunately we only worked for 2 hours before we hit the “wall” of fog.  Not  to worry as it did not hurt when we hit that wall and there was no damage to the ship! However, we did decide to leave the area and headed offshore hoping to escape the fog. We ran to the northern waypoint of Line 11, which we reached at about 11:30 am.  Here we succeeded in escaping the fog but we picked up a swell and winds that were at the top of our surveyable range.  We started surveying but  did not see marine mammals. We got into some nice and warm waters, about 26 Celcius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) . Although we did not see marine mammals, there were some warm water birds like Audubon’s  Shearwater,  and lots of flying fish.  Given these marginal conditions we surveyed till 6 pm.

Day 2: Thursday, July 21

We woke up to fog when we were just south of the Vineyard. We could not work in these conditions, so we moved offshore looking for clear air. By lunch time the wind blew the fog away and tempted us to work, but unfortunately the wind also blew up the seas.  Despite this we surveyed he top half of line 11 (on the shelf break near a frontal zone). Though the visual marine mammal teams could not work over this frontal zone, Erin and Chris deployed XBTs and had the EK60 and ADCP running, Betsy deployed the VPR (Video Plankton Recorder) and conducted several bongos and CTDs, Robert and Sandra deployed the passive acoustic array, and the Mike and Marie (with others helping) looked for birds and marine mammals (of which there were very few of both kinds of animals). When all this is put together this should hopefully paint a nice picture of the bio-physical world in this area.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 20

We left the dock at 2pm and by 4:30pm we were at our first waypoint, so we surveyed for a couple of hours on track line 36! We are not used to suchshort transits. Though the sighting conditions were decent, we did not see any marine mammals, but we did see sharks and tuna.

Debi Palka
Chief Scientist, Leg 3
Aboard the Henry B. Bigelow
AMAPPS 2011

Hit and Miss on the Water

Day 14 – July 10: We’re well offshore and crossing over the Gulf Stream in calm seas. We began our westernmost offshore line shortly after sunrise. About three hours later we got a surprise call from a US Gov plane informing us that we couldn’t go any further south or east of where we were for the next four hours. Given that our current heading was southeast and our next trackline was directly east, we pretty much didn’t have any other options. So, we hauled in the array and camped out. Luckily, about an hour later we got the all clear to carry on. Jen and I were quite disappointed because in the meantime we were really making progress on learning and choreographing a routine to the NOAA Corps song: “Forward with NOAA.” Perhaps it’s fortunate for all that our efforts were cut short.

Our sightings were sparse, starting the day with a few mixed groups of Atlantic striped and spotted dolphins, but then our survey area turned into a desert. Thankfully we found an oasis of life when we encountered a flock of about 100 shearwaters (plus 1 skua and 1 jaeger) above a large school of yellowfin tuna, but this reprieve was short-lived. We did feel somewhat like the US Women’s World Cup soccer team, however, when we pulled out a group of Gervais beaked whales 5 minutes before going off effort for the day.

Most pictures from the day are still on people’s cameras, but here are some great shots of the pilot whales we had in the fog on the 5th.

Long-finned pilot whale. (Photo credit: Danielle Cholewiak/NOAA NEFSC)

Notice distinct anchor-shaped ventral marking on this long-finned pilot whale. (Photo credit: Danielle Cholewiak/NOAA NEFSC.)

Long-finned pilot whale and calf seen from the Henry B. Bigelow. (Photo credit: Danielle Cholewiak/NOAA NEFSC.)

Note the ventral fetal fold marks on calf of long-finned pilot whale. (Photo credit: Danielle Cholewiak/NOAA NEFSC.)

Allison Henry, chief scientist

An Acoustics Update

Sperm whales were heard by our acoustic team, and their sounds were recorded by scientist on board the Henry B. Bigelow.

Day 13.

After two days surveying in water too shallow to deploy the array, the acoustic team was happy to put the array out again this morning as we began to traverse a line off the slope of the continental shelf.  Seas were rough this morning – windy with a 2m swell – but with a little extra weight on our array, it was towing cooperatively about 13m deep, so the extra noise from wind and waves didn’t bother us.  So far today we’ve heard a few different groups of dolphins and pilot whales, but the highlight has been passing in and out of sperm whale city, where the clicks of so many animals start to blend together like the constant clacking of fingers on computer keyboards. We passed very close to a few animals and were able to pick them out loud and clear over the rest, tracking their slow and rapid click trains as we approached and passed them by, sometimes only a few hundred meters away.  We pulled out a short audio clip and converted it to MP3- put headphones on and take a listen! And imagine you are on the boat with us, hearing these animals as we pass them by.

And Now a Word from Our Birders

When exploring the big blue—pelagic waters well beyond the reach of land-based seabird observers—one should always expect the unexpected. Of course there’s always no shortage of vast stretches of open ocean where birds are extremely scarce to nonexistent, save for the occasional Leach’s or Wilson’s Storm-Petrel. That’s life on the big blue. One may summarize this patchiness as interminable hours of intense boredom punctuated by fleeting seconds of unbridled excitement. However, it is the chance of encountering something unforeseen that eliminates any ennui brought on by the lack of seabirds or other marine life. Despite first impressions of the ocean being an aquatic desert, it in fact consists of a variety of habitats and associated organisms, constrained by the physical and chemical properties of sea water, particularly sea surface temperature and salinity, all further modified by the affects of wind and ocean currents.

Wilson's storm petrel were the most abundant seabirds seen thus far.

The first week of Leg 2 of AMAPPS 2011 aboard the Henry B. Bigelow was no exception to the patchiness paradigm. Looking over what we saw, an impressive 19 species totalling 392 individuals, it’s obvious that we surveyed a wide range of habitats during the past six days, from subtropical to temperate; continental shelf to abyssal deep. Tropical and subtropical seabirds stole the show during our all-too-infrequent visits to southern and warmer offshore waters. Two White-faced Storm-Petrels (Pelagodroma marina), likely feeding on their favorite food, planktonic crustaceans and small fish, were seen loosely associating with Striped Dolphins. Even at a distance, as were these two, this small attractive seabird is easily identified by its peculiar manner of foraging and feeding: dancing and bouncing over the sea surface on exceptionally long legs, wings held open in a shallow “V” and executing erratic changes of direction while pushing off from the water with both feet like a tightly wound spring. These were the first (perhaps the last?) White-faced Storm-Petrels for the Henry B. Bigelow unless we return to the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream. This highly pelagic storm-petrel nests on remote islands in the south Atlantic such as Tristan de Cunha, as well as on Macaronesian islands off western Africa, including the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands, the latter perhaps the source of the birds spotted by sharp-eyed observer Mike Sylvia. White-faced Storm-Petrel is a very rare summer visitor to warmer waters of the west Atlantic. Other noteworthy species seen during the two days we were in warm 25-26°C water were a couple of dark morph Trindade Petrels, two Black-capped Petrels, a single Bridled Tern, and several White-tailed Tropicbirds. Representing Greenland and the high Arctic were several Dovekies seen about 260 kilometres east of Nantucket, most likely birds who did not, for whatever reason, return north to breed, electing instead to remain on their wintering grounds.

Shearwater spotted by birders, part of the research team on board the Henry B. Bigelow. (Photo Credit: R. Holt/NOAA NEFSC.)

In terms of overall abundance, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel again came out on top with 140 recorded in the 300 m strip transect. The following three most abundant species were all shearwaters and, interestingly enough, their totals were remarkably similar: Cory’s Shearwater (56), Audubon’s Shearwater (54) and Great Shearwater (53). A bird familiar to all, Rock Pigeon, was unexpected far offshore, perhaps a lost racing bird? If so, then there is a strong possibility it finished last. Other species of note included our first Royal Terns and a single South Polar Skua.

A single South Polar Skua sighted by birders on the Henry B. Bigelow research cruise. (Photo credit: Todd Pusser/NOAA NEFSC).

Michael Force, Mike Sylvia and Jeff Gleason, seabird observers