Tuesday, October 09, 2007
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Although we were expecting gale force winds, we woke up to a calm morning and flat seas at
Garrison
Bay. After porridge prepared by Ash and Tim, we headed out past Roche so Tim could record vessel noise from the Glacier Spirit. Tim successfully recorded a number of drive-by’s at different distances and speeds. We then headed back out and down the west coast of
San Juan
Island to try to catch up with the whales before the weather caught up with us. We received reports of members of J and L pods at
False Bay and Eagle Point, so we continued to motor along the coast. We found J1 near
Edward
Point and deployed the hydrophones, getting some great recordings of calls, whistles, and clicks. Soon, we were surrounded by the whales. After a couple of hours recording and a great variety of vocalizations, Tim was able to organize another set of drive-by’s with Ocean Magic II. Tim altered his methodologies and had the vessel circle the Gato Verde instead of deploying the buoy, which seemed to work much more efficiently. Afterwards, we headed north along the coast of San Juan
Island until we passed the whales, and again deployed both the hydrophone array and the high frequency hydrophone. We saw a number of very young animals and recorded some great calls for another couple of hours. Tim tried to organize a third drive-by with Prince of Whales, The Jester, but they were heading out to find humpbacks off Race Rocks, so Tim was only able to make a quick recording as they were departing. We started to head back to
Garrison
Bay to prepare for the 25-35 knot winds predicted for the night, but stopped one more time to watch the whales just before heading in. The whales were spyhopping, tailslapping, and resting at the surface. Anne finally dropped the hydrophone one more time, while the rest of us took photos and watching through binoculars. Alex and Shannon started preparing vegetarian moussaka, while Tim lowered the anchor at Garrison.
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