Song of the Whale Diary: 24th July - 1st August

Thursday 24th July
Written by Nienke
Today we reach the cluster of underwater volcanoes known as the Josephine banks seamounts. During the whole day, we hardly see anything alive, with the exception of some shearwaters and some turtle sightings. Now and then we hear some sperm whales clicks and faint dolphin whistles, but most of the time even the hydrophone remains silent. Although no cetaceans are seen, we keep up our good spirits and during the day we have a lots of fun and laughter. From these seamounts, we will continue our journey to another seamount area called Gorringe Ridge.  

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Friday 25th and Saturday 26th July
Written by Nienke
As is often stated for seamounts, they can contain a higher species diversity and higher animal density than the surrounding area. Around, and between both seamount areas, we hear many whales and dolphins during the night, and also during the day we see more than at other locations during this trip. In the afternoon, we take a closer inspection of the Gettysburg Seamount, where most of the crew take a swim over the top of the volcano which is only 25m below sea level. Directly after entering the water a grey column of fish (Trevelly) rise from depth and start surrounding and following the swimmers. After our swim we start our last part of the journey towards Lisbon. During this trip we have hardly seen other boats, but reaching closer to the coast of the mainland, we see more and more (cargo)vessels, both directly visibly as well as plotted on the digital chart and the radar. We reach the entrance of the Tagus River in the middle of the night. Because there will not be a place for us in the harbour before early morning, we remain sailing in front of the river entrance. From here, we have a beautiful view of the coast by night and  many dolphins surround us for hours, clearly visible in the green bioluminescent light. After docking, we spend the rest of the day cleaning the boat and performing maintenance work, for tomorrow’s annual inspection.   

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Tuesday 29th July - Friday 1st August
Written by Nienke
This week, people involved in IFAW's whale program (e.g. commercial whaling, whale watching, entanglement, ocean noice pollution and Song of the Whale) have a meeting in Lisbon to discuss future strategies. This meeting is hosted by the Luso American Development Foundation (FLAD). There is also media work with TV, newspaper and radio journalists visiting the boat and we hold an event in partnership with FLAD and the US Embassy on Thursday night. This event jointly celebrated the presentation of AMVER Awards (a programme designed to save life at sea) and the work of the Song of the Whale. On Friday, the Song of the Whale team leave the boat for a well deserved vacation. We will be back at the end of August when we will resume our diaries. So goodbye for now and we hope to see you in a couple of weeks.