We had good weather offshore today and we tried for most of the day well offshore in good visibility species looking for beaked whales. We surveyed fairly large areas of offshore banks and basins looking and listening, but didn't have any luck. We came across several small groups and single blue and fin whales offshore and an aggregation feeding up on the shelf and by the end of the day we found a small group of blue whales feeding in quite deep water well offshore.
The photo to the right shows a tag on the left side of a blue whale collecting data about the movement and sounds received (and made) by the animal (J. Calambokidis, Cascadia Research, collected under NMFS permit #14534).
We are still aiming for beaked whales and hope to have good conditions tomorrow morning out from San Diego. However, we are quite interested in testing the differences in responses of marine mammals in the various kinds of habitats in which they live and are exposed to human sounds. Today's CEE with offshore blue whales was very useful in that regard.
this blog catch my attention, because I am type of the person that love nature.
Posted by: online jobs | 10/05/2011 at 10:00 AM
Did you know that whales can be seen year round in Southern California? During the winter months, of course there is the annual migration of the California Gray Whale. But during the summer months, Blue Whales, Fin Whales and large pods of dolphins can also be seen!
Posted by: Alijah Allan | 04/03/2012 at 06:47 AM