After hundreds of survey miles with no right whale sightings, Catalog #3513 and her calf appeared in the Bay of Fundy last week. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that they would make their way over towards Lubec, ME, home of our field station!

We arrived at our field station in Lubec, ME, on August 1st; it has taken us 20 days before our first Bay of Fundy right whale sighting. Granted, the offshore team (on the Shelagh) documented right whales last week, but the crew working in the Bay of Fundy has basically been starving for a right whale sighting! 

Mom and calf as they head down on a terminal dive (mom rasing her flukes out of the water).  Photo: New England Aquarium/Kara Mahoney-Robinson.

Catalog #3513 swims in the Bay of Fundy.  Photo: New England Aquarium/ Kara Mahoney-Robinson

In the previous blog, Monica did a great job of summarizing our first offshore trip in brief day-by-day segments; we were able to call the Lubec field station at the end of every day using a satellite phone with a report of how the day went and what we saw. We were not fortunate enough provide our team members back on land with tales of countless right whales—surprisingly, we had only four right whales over our six day survey in areas where there have been plenty of right whales in past years! Despite the shortage of whale sightings, the trip went even smoother than we dreamed. Most days, we had light winds, calm seas, and no fog. Our Captain Joe, familiar with the seas we were surveying, was amazed that the conditions were so favorable. It felt a bit like Mother Earth sent us a block of nice weather to cushion the blow of such few whales.

Finally getting to work some whales on the Shelagh! Photo: Marianna Hagbloom

Our big day of sightings was August 17, when we found three right whales around the southwest corner of our Roseway Basin survey box. Two of the whales were in a Surface Active Group (SAG), where Derecha (Catalog #2360) was the focal female with SOS (#2135) giving her much attention.



Another whale, Van Halen (#1146) was milling around, and when Derecha and SOS weren't in a SAG together, all three whales were moving erratically- so much so that we thought there were more than just the three whales!


On August 19, we came across our fourth right whale, Dropcloth (#1271). He was to the northeast of where we had whales on the 17th, and seemed to be travelling in an easterly direction.

All four whales seen on this trip were old-timers. SOS was born in 1991, making him 22 years old, and Derecha was first seen in 1993, making her at least 20 years old. Even older are Dropcloth, first sighted in 1978, and Van Halen, first sighted in 1977, making them at least 35 and 36 years old respectively.

Our lack of right whales offshore was a very interesting observation, and has raised even more questions, which Philip will discuss in a future post. And while we didn't see many whales, we did see some other cool species which we'll be sharing with you in a follow-up blog!

-Marianna

As I type this the R/V Nereid is surveying the Grand Manan Basin in the Bay of Fundy. I’m back at the field house waiting for Internet technicians to arrive to help sort out some of our own going Internet problems. Working in the field has many challenges and keeping a field house in good working order (including Internet) is just one of those many challenges. However, it also seems that finding right whales this season is a bigger challenge then any of us anticipated.

Meanwhile the offshore researchers on Shelagh also have their work cut out for them. They have been covering approximately 100 nautical miles of trackline each day. The following is a quick summary of their trip so far.

 Day 1: (August 16): Left Campobello Island around 5:00 AM and headed for Grand Manan Banks   via Grand Manan Channel. Cut across the mouth of the Bay of Fundy and ran about 2/3 of their planned tracklines on Lurcher Shoal. The only large whales seen the entire day were two humpbacks and two fin whales. Spent the night in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

 Day 2: (August 17): The crew left Yarmouth prior to sunrise and continued tracklines of the remaining 1/3 of Lurcher Shoal. From Lurcher they headed to Roseway Basin. In addition to reporting lots of leatherback turtles, jellies and common dolphins the team found five right whales on the western edge of Roseway! Spent the night at sea.


 Day 3: (August 18): Full day of survey in absolutely amazing sighting conditions. The crew had a sea state 2 most of the day and worked near the NE corner of the Roseway Basin. While the team did report seeing 2 Sei whales, a few mola molas and basking sharks they also noted a lack of birds. The crew spent the night at sea.

 Day 4: (August 19): The crew was up and on watch by first light. The working conditions were more difficult and work continued in a sea state 4 and 5 for most of the morning. Despite the difficult conditions the crew documented another right whale! The crew headed into Cape Sable Island by the afternoon for fuel and a solid night of sleep.

 Day 5: (August 20): The crew reports no right whales.  They spend the night at sea. 



 In my last post I asked folks if they had any questions for the crew of the Shelagh. We got some great questions and many will need some time to answer. The questions have given us some great ideas for future blogs and so we will try our best to answer them all. For now I’m going to answer the questions that were the most appropriate to ask the crew while speaking via satellite phone.

Question: Are your bunks big? Can you stretch out and roll over?
Answer: (Philip reports)While the bunks are not overly spacious they are comfortable. Everyone can roll over and Kelsey (the tallest member of the team at 6’1”) reports that she can lay flat and stretch her legs out.

Monica

Very early Friday morning five members of our right whale research team departed in search of right whales outside the Bay of Fundy. The team will be offshore for the next six to 10 days and will be surveying for right whale habitats in Canadian waters southwest and south of Nova Scotia. The team is planning on surveying approximately 600 miles of trackline. The planned trackline will take them through some known and some lesser known right whale habitats. The goal is to not only find right whales but to collect data to better understand right whale habitats and the movement of the whales between them and the Bay of Fundy. The trips will transverse Grand Manan Banks, Lurcher Shoal, as well as the second known right whale critical habitat, Roseway Basin.

 The trip is funded by a grant to the Canadian Whale Institute (CWI) from the Habitat Stewardship Program of Environment Canada. CWI has provided us with the Shelagh for the trip and we hope to do at least two offshore trips this season (one in August and one is September). The crew from the Shelagh is planning to check in with the Lubec field station at least once a day so you will need to stay tuned to see what they might find. In the meantime, the remaining crew here in Lubec, ME, will continue to survey the Bay of Fundy for right whales. How exciting it is to have the resources this year to survey both the Bay of Fundy and offshore habitats at the same time?



Monica

How many miles of trackline does it take to find a right whale?  Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right?  Unfortunately, it’s actually how some of us are starting to feel up here at our field station in Lubec, ME. Okay, to be honest, we have been out in the Bay of Fundy only three days so far this season, but we are anxious to find right whales. The reality is that we are working and surveying long, hard hours, and collecting amazing and important data. Data collected that shows the absence of whales in a habitat is just as important as data that shows the presence of whales (even if it makes our days a little less exciting).

On Tuesday, the team headed out for another survey, but made a pit stop near Grand Manan to pick up some special guests- a film crew from France! This film crew is from One Planet, a production company that creates films "dedicated to science, society, nature and the environment." They are currently working on a series of documentaries that focuses on unique ecosystems around the world, and are in the area to cross the Bay of Fundy off their list!



The Nereid pulled aside their chartered vessel Midnight Adventure and we helped an interviewer, Noelie, and a cameraman, Yannick, aboard. They were eager to collect footage of any large whales, since the Bay is home to many species, but were especially hopeful that we might find right whales. We saw fin whales right off the bat and were able to get some close looks at them before heading out on our tracklines around the western side of the Bay.



About two hours into our survey, we sighted a group of four humpback whales, including a mother and calf pair! The humpbacks were fluking at regular intervals, so we were able to estimate when and where they would surface, allowing us to get close enough to collect some great photos for a group that does humpback ID. As soon as Yannick stopped filming and we put the cameras away, the calf breached- isn't that the way it always goes?!



Continuing through a very productive deep basin known as "The Groove" we saw many fin and humpback whales- our total count for the day was 17 fins and 13 humpbacks! We also saw a fair amount of different species of seabirds, including our first puffins, phalaropes and northern fulmars of the season. However, no right whales were observed on our survey, and so the film crew shot some more scenes of fin whales. Though we didn't find our elusive species, hopefully the viewers of the One Planet show will learn something new about right whales through the interviews taken on the Nereid with Moe.

As we headed back in to Lubec, we discussed our survey strategy for the next day out. The absence of right whales in the middle and western side of the Bay heightened our interest of investigating a different part of the Bay: The East!

-Marianna

Despite the forecast of a busy field season complete with five research projects, the first few days here in the Whale House were fairly calm and quiet! Eight researchers gathered to refresh their memories on protocols and equipment as the last of the house cleaning tasks were completed (how does a house that hasn't been occupied for 10 months get so dirty?!). Knowing that we all arrived with the itch to get out on the water, Philip (our captain for the week) had been keeping an eye on the weather for our first survey. After three days of thick fog and occasional rain, August 4 promised us a clearing into the Bay of Fundy, and so we all went to sleep on Saturday with hopes of waking up to the absence of the fog horn.

5 AM sure can roll around quickly! After consuming necessary cups of coffee and loading equipment onto the Nereid, the team got off the dock around 6:15 AM. We crossed the Grand Manan Channel with a few sightings of harbor porpoise and sighted some whale blows well in the distance. As we passed North Head on Grand Manan Island, the blows revealed a few fin whales, and so we continued to head east. After several hours of survey and many more harbor porpoise later, we came across a large ocean sunfish (Mola mola) and got to spend a few minutes in close proximity to the heaviest bony fish in the sea!



Ocean sunfish don't look like your typical fish- they have no real tail, small pectoral fins, and large, extended dorsal and anal fins. We often see these intriguing fish during our surveys, and because they use their long fins instead of a tail to move, observing their unusual way of moving never gets old! When basking at the surface, the dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water and can initially look like a shark's fin. After a few seconds, the fin (and so the fish itself) will lay horizontally against the water until it rises vertically again. Even though this is normal for them, to us, it makes the ocean sunfish look like a wobbling, struggling pancake at the surface. Combined with its small rounded mouth, the sunfish has unknowingly become a source of amusement for the team (I don't feel too badly admitting this, since even mola researchers have referred to their subject as "goofy" and "the Eeyore of the fish world"). However, these fish are fascinating creatures in so many ways and like the right whale, hold many mysteries that scientists are still trying to solve! Check out this underwater video from Smithsonian Magazine to experience the ocean sunfish in its habitat:


We didn't know it at the time, but the close encounter with the ocean sunfish would turn out to be the one of the main highlights of our first survey! After miles of trackline we did encounter a couple more fin whales, but that species were the only large whale we sighted. We decided to head north towards the Wolves islands so that we could squeeze in a little more survey before the seas became too rough—with the wind kicking up and the tide running strong, our sea state was rapidly increasing. Once the Nereid had become a little too "bouncy" and our observers on the bow got their feet more than just metaphorically wet, we chose to end the survey. Although we didn't sight any right whales, we had a great trip that let us work out some kinks and get back into the swing of things. And when we do come across our first right whales, it will make those sightings even sweeter!

-Marianna

Check out previous mola mola sightings!

• Animal Sightings on the Roseway Basin
• Other Species Seen During Aerial Surveys
• (Another) First Day Out
• One Right Whale and Counting (mentions other species seen)
• And A Day of Firsts