Song of the Whale Diary: 30th May - 4th June

Friday 30th May
Saturday 31st May
Sunday 1st June
Mo nday 2nd June and Tuesday 3rd June
Wednesday 4th June

Friday 30th May
Written by Nienke
As a continuation of the exchange programme, I join the sea team of WHOI today and Giada Columbo comes on board the Song of the Whale instead of me. I leave the harbour with Patricia in the Zodiac. Contrary to previous days, this morning the entire research area is like a mirror. Soon after we arrive a few miles in front of the land station, a location where many observations of beaked whales are generally made, we see the first group of Mesoplodon beaked whales very close by. However, it is only after I have photographed these animals I learn that I needed to have taken pictures of the entire body, instead of only the dorsal fin for the Photo ID! Also the Song of the Whale and Punte Balleina (the other research vessel of WHOI) are very close by, and we all have a good opportunity to see and photograph the animals. During the day all boats have several beaked whale encounters, and also other dolphin species are spotted, such as Atlantic spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. In the afternoon we keep ourselves very busy performing salinity-temperature-depth sampling and collecting water samples for nutrient and phytoplankton analyses. By the end of the day we were very experienced in pulling in a 200m rope, including the attached sampling equipment. The way back to the harbour is a bit rough, and the trip in the Zodiac looks a bit like a rodeo ride. Lots of fun there! Because today and tomorrow are local festival days, many people are present in the village. However, when we arrive back, the busiest place is the harbour, where a fisherman proudly shows his hand-caught marlin of about 3m which was also hunting the tuna!

Saturday 31st May
Written by Nienke
We leave the port very early in the morning, especially compared with the land team, who are a bit late today. For this reason, we are at sea before the land team is ready and searching the area for beaked whales. As there are no sightings from shore yet, we decide to head to the lighthouse at the south-western point of the island. However, we do not see or record any beaked whales so we head further towards the shore, towards a location mostly out of view from the land station. Soon afterwards, we see Cuvier’s beaked whales close to the boat. This group of whales becames the focus of the research group for the entire day because they come to the surface in the same area throughout the day. Our methodology is to perform transect lines at a random distance up to 4km from the last sighting of animals, so we do not approach these animals. During the transect lines we also see Atlantic spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, similar to the previous days. By the end of the day, the Cuvier’s are breaching (jumping) several times, which is very spectacular! Unfortunately, Mayumi is sick so we head back to the harbour.

Sunday 1st June
Written by Nienke
Another fruitful day at El Hierro! Today we have even more visitors on board from the Spanish team: Jennifer (from Venezuela)and Oyanne and Lucia (both currently studing Marine Biology in Tenerife). These girls show our boys how to perform salinity-temperature-depth collection and to collect phytoplankton and nutrient samples to depths of 1000m! Meanwhile, I explore the island together with Beth. Unfortunately, Mayumi is still not well enough to come with us. Mark borrows us his car, so we are able to go wherever we want. First we travel to a lookout point, from which we have a beautiful view over the north-western part of the island. Via the pine forest on top of the mountain, we go to the most important happening of the island, the agricultural festival in San. Andrés. We arrive quite early while they are still organizing everything. Nevertheless, we see lots of animals, local handicrafts, and the ox-race. After buying some local pies for the boat, we continue our sightseeing over the island. We want to go for lunch in the smallest hotel of the world, but due to the public holiday and the agricultural festival, it is closed. We have a hard time finding another place to eat something, for whole villages are abandoned! Via a very beautiful, but very scary and winding, steep way, we go back to La Restinga and arrive back at the same time as the boat. In the afternoon we have an open day for the local people and other interested guests. We explain about the research and show them the boat. More people are interested than we expected so we conclud that it all went well. We finish the day, and the end of our research at El Hierro, with a very nice dinner at the Italian restaurant near the swimming pool.

Monday 2nd June and Tuesday 3rd June
Written by Nienke
After spending two incredible weeks at El Hierro, we have to say goodbye to the Spanish team and prepare to set our sails towards Tenerife. We spend the morning arranging things for the sailing trip, doing paperwork and working on the hydrophones. Niklas wants to stay for some dives, and we are joined instead by Oyanne and Lucia (members of the Spanish team) who are keen on sailing with us towards their ‘home island’. We leave the harbour with lots of wind, and we have to sail against both the wind and the current. For this reason, the trip towards Tenerife takes almost 25 hours (the previous trip towards El Hierro was only 18 hours). We leave El Hierro with the sunset behind us, and head for La Gomera guided by some spotted dolphins. After a while we come into a wind-less zone and we start using the engine. The evening comes, and more and more stars became visible in the sky as the lights of La Gomera and Tenerife came closer and closer. During the night we all have night watches. Around seven in the morning, we see the sunrise. The view of the highest mountain of Spain, the volcanic mountain of Tenerife (Pico de Teide, 3717m) was very spectacular, for it stood out of the clouds. Around four in the afternoon we enter the harbour of Santa Cruz (Marina Atlantico), were we enjoy the luxury of a long and warm shower in the port. Afterwards, we are not allowed to go back to our boat using the pontoon, for the boat in front of us has problems and might explode! For this reason we were brought to our boat on a small boat belonging to the harbour police. Very exciting! Jonathan leaves to day to go back to Scotland, but we will see him back in the Azores. We close the day with a nice dinner in an Indian restaurant. When we arrive back, Claire has returned to the boat, after being absent for a couple of weeks.

Wednesday 4th June
Written by Nienke
Today is a major changing day for the staff on board. Olly and Mat leave but will come back when we are at the Azores. Three new people arrive: Yara Bernaldo, from the Basque country and lives now in Gran Canaria where she is doing her PhD on mass strandings of beaked whales, and Patricia and Natasha from the Spanish WHOI team are also join us on the passage to the Azores. Two teams go out for major shopping: one team (Magnus and Mayumi) for mechanical and electronic stuff and the other team (Beth, Yara and I) for groceries for ten people for two weeks. We have some problems paying for the shopping because Beth was, as we discovered later, supposed to inform her bank that she had left her country (the US). It takes us almost 1.5 hours to actually pay for the shopping, including several checks on the credit card, ID and drivers licence! However, the people of the shop are very helpful and kind. They even have a special service to deliver the shopping to the boat in the harbour. Meanwhile the rest of the people on board are doing the laundry, cleaning, paper work and checking the equipment and materials on board. All together, today is a day of reorganizing and preparation for the upcoming trip to the Azores. The trip will take about ten days, for we will also perform research near the seamounts south of the Azores. I am really looking forward to the sailing trip, although I hope I will not get seasick. I am especially curious about what we may discover at the seamounts, for I think that will be very interesting!