| 28th January 2009 filming a humpback in the water, two more fluke id photos and humpbacks singing! |
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| Written by Andrew Stevenson | ||||
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Two new flukes Fisherman Kevin Winter phoned in early with humpbacks feeding on the edge a mile west of South West Breaker. With Michael Smith as captain, we set out with Kevin Horsefield, Kelly Winfield, Chloe Kempe and myself on Sea Slipper on a beautiful sunny and calm day. We eventually spotted two whales off the point at Sally Tuckers exhibiting typical feeding behaviour fluke diving for intervals of at least 11 minutes in 100-130 feet of water as they moved north along the edge from the point at Sally Tuckers. An interesting aspect of their behaviour was the observation that they often made fluke dives at exactly the same time, in perfect synchrony. Mid-afternoon the two whales cruised on a steady heading and at a consistent speed of 5 1/2 knots towards Challenger. By setting a course parallel and going slightly faster we were able to stay ahead and to the side of them. On these occasions the whales diverted towards us and when we were stationary surfaced beside or immediately behind us. After getting in the water a couple of times with the engine off and listening on the hydrophone and hoping to attract them to us, one did swim under me and circled fifteen feet below several times before heading off. This seemed to be an older whale and had many white scars on its dorsal fin, an indication that it was a male.But looking at underwater video footage of a mother with a calf here in Bermuda, I see the female has the same amount of scarring on the dorsal fin, so this could be a male or female with a smaller whale.
The scarred back belonged to the fluke on the left at the top. The water was warm, 71 degrees and it wasn't cold even with just a 3mm wetsuit on. We followed or were parallel to the whales to the eastern edge of Challenger where they made an abrupt left hand 90 turn on the edge of the Challenger Banks, presumably to feed. We left them at 3.30 and Kelly sighted another whale spout on the South East side of Challenger. On the way back Kelly sighted another whale to the south.
On the way out we listened with the hydrophone at South West Breaker where I could just make out the sounds of a humpback. At Sally Tuckers the sounds were slightly louder and as we crossed the canyon between ST and Challenger the humpback singing became more pronounced. Just before we headed back we listened a last time and I would guess the much louder sounds were from the crown of Challenger, as they were last season. But we also heard something else too; I thought it might be dolphins but we hadn't seen any and Kelly began to think that it didn't sound like a dolphin. It was a higher pitch, and sounded like what you might expect a baby humpback to sound like. Baby humpbacks definitely vocalize so could we hear the baby whale Kevin had seen? For Kelly Winfield's detailed notes on today's expedition and Dr Wolfgang Sterrer's analysis of a 23-35 pound yellow fin tuna's stomach contents taken on Challenger a week ago, including numerous finger-sized shrimp, see below.
Kelly Winfield's notes on today's expedition: Weather Conditions Left Watford bridge at 10:00am Plan: Head to South West breakers (Two whales already reported a mile from Southwest) Passing South West Breaks at 10:45 began heading out towards Sally Tuckers Hydrophone placed in water at 11:00am - Heard distant whales Hydrophone out; continue on towards Sally tuckers at 11:15am Hydrophone In at 11:55am Whales once again can be heard but louder. 12:05 First sighting; 2 whales Dove at 12:06. 11 minutes pass before next breath at 12:16 then dove again at 12:17pm 12:23 whale comes to surface; No breath dorsal fin spotted and bubbles seen, whales disappear from sight with no blow. 12:42 two whales surface at surface for 4 minutes dove at 12:46 13:02 dove 125Ft 8 minutes 13:10 animals resurface only one blow seen 13:25 Hydrophone in. Whales are heard much louder than previous 13:30 Whales at Stern 13:32 Whales dive 13:35 Andrew in water 250ft 13:40 Whales at Bow 13:45 Whales Dive and Andrew out GPS N 32° 11. 598° 13:55 Whales off Bow dove at 13:56 14:01 Whales Spotted close to stern 14:02 Andrew in Whales under boat Andrew filming- Whales disappear 14:22 Whales spotted off bow Andrew back in boat 14:25 Continue on to Challenger 15:23 Distant Blow seen East off Challenger 15:28 Whales seen off Stern 15:35 KW in water 15:45 Whales seen off Bow, KW back in boat 15:47 Continue on towards Challenger banks 16:00 Whales spotted on port side moving in same direction as boat 16:23 Whales off Bow 16:30 Boat stop Hydrophone in water; Whale vocals loud with low grunts and higher chirps. 16:35 Boat turn around head for shore whales seen at Stern heading towards Challenger On route back to Shore whale Spout seen eastwards of Challenger as well closer to shore. Back to Watford Bridge by 17:55. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Stomach content of a Yellow Fin Tuna caught by Kevin Winter, January 26, 2008, at Challenger Banks on January 17th 2009 About 5 lbs of frozen stomach content were defrosted on Jan 28, and examined by W. Sterrer and C. Flook. The bulk consisted of fish, most of which was digested beyond species identification.
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