What a difference 25 hours makes

50N, 020W, about 300nm east of the Mid Atlatnic Ridge. Wind 37knots, Water temp 13.2C, air 12C.

We are on 25 hour days as we head through the time zones, so an extra hour in bed (the challenge is being able to stay in bed without falling out). Big swell today, 4 -5m and strong gales which weren't really forecast. The day started at 5am - task one was to haul in the hydrophone so as not to lose it in the building swell. At first light, I spotted a group of common dolphins bow-riding which I thought was a good sign for the day... but that was it! Emily had some kittiwakes passing at speed but the constant nose-diving of the ship into deep troughs and the spin drift made viewing conditions very tricky for spotting birds or cetaceans. Given that a cetacean survey was not possible, I indulged in some statistical analysis for the day.

The weather charts don't look to good for the coming days either, but we are hopeful that a brief respite in the weather will coincide with our passage over the Faraday Seamount and perhaps the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. For now the hydrophone remains dry, but hopefully we'll give it a good soaking tomorrow. I'll post some pictures of the rough seas tomorrow. Oíche mhaith.

Kind Weather

View aft from the crow's nest

Conditions: We had sea state 0 to 1 for many hours this morning and we found ourselves 150nm WSW of Mizen Head at first light. The swell was low all day and the sea state crept up to a 4. Daylight was quenched quickly (just in time for dinner rather conveniently) by a veil of ominous looking clouds.

Sunrise on 30 January 2011, 150nm WSW of Ireland

Sightings: Early sightings helped me overcome the mental anguish (having my forgotten my toothbrush: ironically the pub conversation the night before leaving was mostly about teeth, I brought floss & toothpaste, and I find myself in a place called The Seabight). The First sighting was of a patterned dolphin species, but I couldn't nail the ID. Soon after a distant group of bottlenose dolphins and then a group of striped dolphins (4). Just as we left the Seabight and slipped over the abyssal plain, a mother-calf pair of fin whales was spotted about 2km away. The rest of the day was quiet apart from an active group of striped dolphins (15) trying desperately to avoid the ship it would seem. These are noticeably smaller than common dolphins and are considered a warm water species... the sea temperature is 12C here at present. 

Striped Dolphins

Acoustic Survey: In the early morning, between seven and half past seven, two groups of dolphins were detected, however it was not possible to identify those to specie level, because It was still dark to carry out the visual survey, which could have confirmed the specie ID. All the afternoon was really quiet, while at around eight in the evening another group of dolphin was recorded. As soon as dolphin whistles were heard, characteristic clicks from Sperm Whale appeared on the spectrogram as well. It is not the first time that Sperm Whale and dolphins have been recorded together. It was expected to have encounters of Sperm Whale, because we are actually in very deep waters (4635 m), which are perfect habitat for this species due to its deep diving behaviour. The hydrophone is still in the water but the situation seems to be very quiet at the moment.

Seabird Survey: It was a quiet day up on the bridge as well for the seabird survey. I saw kittiwakes and northern fulmars scattered throughout the day, but mostly in the morning. During the CTD drop we passed by a little Atlantic puffin sitting on the water, looking nervous about the big ship looming above him (pardon the personification). Some stray pieces of garbage floated by as well, plastic bottles, balloons and bits of foam all find their way out here. The calm water and clear sky made for good visibility throughout the day... if only we had more birds to see!

So Far So Good

We departed Cork City as planned at 1500 and sailed down a very calm and bird-ful River Lee, past Cobh and out past Roches Point towards open sea. The only cetacean sighting was of 4 bottlenose dolphins right on cue where they usually hang out - between Roches and Weaver Points in the mouth of Cork Harbour. One of the animals had a well-maked dorsal fin which I recognised as one of the Cork Harbour resident group.

The visual survey was finished at 1730 due to darkness, about 9 miles south of Cork Harbour. The hydrophone was deployed just before darkness and so far there have been two acoustic detections, probably of  Common Dolphins arouind 1930 off Galley Head, Co. Cork.
The weather forecast looks good for the next two days, but we're likely to hit some strong winds on Monday evening. Fingers crossed for some detections over the shelf break tomorrow.

Trans-Atlantic Cruise Blog

I visited St. Johns, Newfoundland on an Ireland-Newfoundland Partnership Scheme grant in 2010, to collect samples for my PhD and to part-take in a biodiversty cruise on board the CCGS Hudson. The collaboration between the Biodiversity Research Group in GMIT and the Montevecchi Lab in Memorial University of Newfoundland has since strengthened. The R.V. Celtic Explorer is heading for Newfoundland and Labrador for an over-wintering cod survey. To maximise the return for this trip, a multi-disciplinary research cruise will take place during the transit to Canada. The Celtic Explorer will depart from Cork on 29 January and arrive in St. John's, Newfoundland after 7 February (depending on the weather!).

The Canadian Marine Institute have sponsored flights for myself and Alessandro Pierini (GMIT and IWDG) to return to Ireland after the cruise, but to return to Canada for the return transit after the cod survey is complete. We will carry out a visual and acoustic survey for the duration of the transit. Simultaneously, a bird survey will be carried out by Emily Wilson (MUN) as well as a continuous plankton recorder and EK60 survey (for identifying plankton and fish biomass).

Our route should take us over highly varied and dynamic habitats including shelf edge canyons, (Porcupine  & Grand Banks) mid-ocean fracture zones (Charley Gibbs Fracture Zone) and sea mounts (Hecate Seamount & Orphan Knol)l with extensive areas of abyssal plain in between. Surveys of this kind during the winter have been few and far between so we don't know what to expect. It is known that the mid-Atlantic ridge is a stronghold for the poorly understood sei whale, sperm whales and beaked whales. Migrating humpbacks are believed to migrate further offshore during their southward migration, but we may have missed the main migratory event, with news from Cape Verde that the humpbacks have already started to arrive there.

I will try to update this blog at least once a day and ask others to add to it. Fingers crossed for some favourable weather and that the megafauna gods will be kind to us.

Conor Ryan