Quiet Weekend

We got back on the water yesterday, aboard one of the Islands whale watching tour boats (Tartaruaga del mer). We came across a single whale breaching and tail slapping about 500m from our vessel. A closer encounter was attempted but to no avail. A few mediocre photos were taken, enough to recognise that this was a new animal for this year at least. 

Today was even less eventfull.  Heading out on our old faithful RIB, we were greeted with a 3m swell breaking just inside the port. Fearing a rough start to the day, we went to the southern end of the bay to ‘calmer’ waters. Again there was a brief encounter with a very quiet whale, which seemed to only blow once per surface. We possibly recognised this animal as ‘Pat’ the singer from a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately we didn’t obtain any useful photo-I.D.’s to make the match.  He headed off west into the roughest waters I’ve seen since arriving on Cape Verdes. We called it a day since there was little chance of locating whales close to shore in these conditions. 

Darren Craig.

Sal Rei Island

After saying farewell to Conor ( while holding back the tears :-)), we welcomed a days rest away from the water. At the moment our boat is getting some rest too and a quick service as it has being clocking up the mileage over the last couple of weeks. 

Today we hit the water again, but without our boat we were in it rather than on it. Myself and Ken O’Sullivan snorkelled through a kilometre of shallow water to reach Sal Rei Island. We spotted plenty of healthy coral and colourful reef fish on our crossing, far too many to try and identify. Sal Rei Island is a small island in Sal Rei bay, measuring roughly 1.5x0.5 km. It is currently uninhabited and there are plans underway to establish a whale research centre along with accommodation on the island. On the island there are remains of a small Portuguese fort and a basic lighthouse. Both of which are great vantage points offering views over the main study area of our research. Valiant efforts are taking place to clear the island of rubbish which as accumulated over the years. Progress is being made swiftly and hopefully the centre will be open sometime next year ready for more extensive research to take place.

                                    Ken manning the fort with view of Sal Rei Bay in backround

Species List: Osprey(3), Cattle egret(2), Brown-necked Raven, Gecko (4), Cardinal fish, Powdered Tang, Damsel fish, Parrot fish, Rainbow Wrasse.

Darren Craig.

Notch's Girlfriend

Yesterday we encountered a whale that had been escorted last year by Notch - an infamous breacher/pec-slapper who put on some amazing aerial displays last year including a 15 minute display of over 20 full breaches. Song recordings and genetics confirmed that Notch is a male and he is back in Cape Verde again. We biopsied the female that he had been escorting, and her new calf. We will be able to see if he sired this calf, and how many others for that matter.

Notch's Girlfriend

Dodgy picture of a male magnificent frigatebird

We took two more samples in the morning - what may have been a young male. This whale was small with a lot of scars, and did some breaching including one full breach (tail and all out of the water!) quite unexpectedly about 50m from our stern. This whale was travelling with a female without a calf. The five samples collected yesterday brings to 19 the number of tissue samples collected this year. Altogether we now have DNA samples from 43 individual whales which is close to ideal sample size of 50 which is required for most decent population genetic analyses. We are delighted to get so many in such a short period, considering there are so few whales around here (we encounter the same individuals on an almost daily basis, but only biopsy 'new' animals).

I am flying back to Dublin via Manchester this afternoon after 2 memorable weeks of productive fieldwork in great company. Thanks to Darren Craig for the trojan work and enthusiasm - twas great craic. We owe so much to Pedro Lopez Suarez ('Pedrin') too, for helping us with sampling permits, chartering boats, pick up our fuel every day and for sharing so much of his knowledge about the whales and the local area. This research is simply not possible without his help. José was our skipper for most of the past fortnight and has been superb - he always keeps a cool head and has great control over the boat, managing to keep the splashes to a minimum... so important considering our camera and biopsy gear hate sea water.

Pedrin at work on the Tartaruga do Mar  whale-watching boat

From Left: Pedrin, Conor and José (by Darren Craig)

Darren will take a breather for a week or so before Simon Berrow arrives on May 6 to carry out another 2 weeks of fieldwork. Darren will keep you all posted on this blog.

Until next year...

Ciao

Conor Ryan

Well-Earned Rest

Part of me was praying for windy conditions so we could take a break (it is very hard to justify taking a break during settled conditions here considering they come along so rarely). My partial prayers were answered today when the wind was blowing 20 knots, so we took a well earned break. Funnily enough, we still woke up at 7 on the button. The day was spent catching up on boring office stuff/paper work. This paid off as we received our CITES export permit from the Cape Verdean authorities this afternoon... but are still waiting for NPWS to respond to our import licence application a month ago...

Darren was mixing some whale songs, which sounded pretty cool... I can see them being a hit, perhaps it might help fund our next expedition. We just need a record deal. 

Tomorrow will be my last full survey day as I head back to Ireland on Thursday. Conditions are forecast to be marginal so hopefully we will find whales in the shelter of the bay. The last couple of days there has been a very curious young whale approaching boats, spy-hopping and tail-waving only metres from whale-watchers. Hopefully we can catch some of that action. The long-term forecast is not nice, but we will probably take a week-long break between me leaving and Simon arriving (first week in May) so that Darren can re-charge the batteries. The surf forecast looks good at least. 

I plotted out our survey effort for the past 2 weeks. We have good coverage down the west and south coasts, but have yet to round Ponta do Sol to survey the north coast. Hopefully this can be done in May if conditions allow as we had some good encounters in that area last year. 

Bird Safari

This morning we had a tip-off from the whale-watching boats that there were two whales close to the harbour entrance at Sal Rei. We picked them up quite easily just 300m or so from the harbour in shallow water. We cut the engine and they gave us quite a surprise as the calf surfaced only a boat-length away and the mother swam right beneath us - white pectoral fins visible under the surface. We sampled both animals and called it a day early as the wind and swell were on the increase (not to mention we were worn out after many days on a bumpy sea in a small boat). News came in later of 5 more whales in the bay to the south.

Back ashore, Laura (bean an tí) had a fantastic lunch of fish and roast vegetables ready for us... she is a great cook and has her work cut out feeding us hounds.

Pedrin is involved in osprey research and invited myself and Darren along to collect some feather samples for a stable isotope study. Pedrin has found 89 osprey nests on Boa Vista and regularly visits some of them in order to ensure that the chicks/eggs have not been stolen or predated (usually by people or brown-necked ravens). We waded out to an islet and climbed up the cliffs to find a prominent nest, about the size of a large armchair, made  with sticks, coral and sponge with the odd flip-flop and brush-head thrown in. The two chicks 'played dead' for a few minutes while we collected a feather from each. The parents were hovering overhead but never dive-bombed us (as Pedrin had promised).

Adult Osprey

Pedrin next to Osprey nest, collecting feather samples

Cream-coloured courser - a desert wader

Two osprey chicks on the nest

The journey out to the islet brought us through desert, sand dune and some grassland. We had some great views of: cattle egret, whimbrel, Kentish plover, cream-coloured courser, hoopoe lark, desert lark, black-crowned sparrow lark, Iago sparrow, brown-necked raven, osprey and quail.

Whales few and far between...

Black-crowned sparrow lark seen at 7am on my way to the bakery (Conor Ryan) 

This morning we covered most of the inshore waters of the northwestern side of Boa Vista but only encountered two very evasive whales. One was singing so we recorded 28 minutes on the hydrophone. The second whale was a smaller animal and was only blowing twice before diving. It looked similar to a whale that we biopsied yesterday judging by the shape of the dorsal fin. The wind was freshening so we called it a day. On the plus side, I managed to photograph a flying fish for the first time ever!

Flying fish (Conor Ryan)

Productive Day!

Yesterday we had some exciting encounters with breachers and lob-tailing whales. 

Taking flight (Darren Craig)

Splash after a full breach (Darren Craig)

Half-breach (Darren Craig)

One male whale which we know from last year was lob-tailing only about 20m from the boat as we drifted passed in the wind.

Humpback bull lob-tailing in front of 'humpback hill' (Darren Craig)

We managed to collect 3 biopsies with two 'lob' shots at distances of between 20 and 30m as the weather conditions were quite good. 

Biopsy dart re-bounding with a sample (Darren Craig)

We got fluke images for photo ID from each whale too. All 4 whales that we encountered were heading south which means we might need to search down south in the coming days in order to find them. We went for a quick dip over an offshore reef where there was plenty of life (including a small shark, parrot fish and tangs/surgeonfish) and the visibility was easily >20m. 

Back at Natura it was our Bean on tí, Laura's,  birthday so we had a bit of a shindig. 

Cachupa

A nice shot showing the long white pectoral fin (the longest pentadactyl limb / 'hand' in the animal  kingdom) which can reach 5m in length... the same length as our RIB! (Darren Craig)

The sea conditions were quite good today, but many of the whales that we encountered have already been sampled (either this year or last year). Deciding which ones to biopsy when given the opportunity is getting tricky. We know most whales by the scars and shapes of their dorsal fins and have a mental library of 35 or so whales that we have already sampled.... We take a hard copy of our dorsal fin catalogue out on the water with us, but there is not always time to consult this when the whales are alongside us. I didn't manage to collect any biopsies today - but I did try an ambitious 40m lob-shot which narrowly missed. Hopefully tomorrow will present more opportunities with new animals. Darren got plenty of dorsal and a few fluke ID shots.

We encountered 10 individual whales today and were treated to an array of behaviours including breaching, lob-tailing, pec-slapping, trumpet-blows, bubble-blowing and tail swipes. Trumpet blows are loud forceful blows which are a sign of aggression along with bubble-blowing and tail-swiping (side-swipes of the flukes at the surface). These behaviours were seen in escorting males as they were competing for a female (who seemed more interested in our boat than the males!).

A female whale off Praia do Chaves in only 11m of water (Darren Craig)                                   

Lips are well and truly chapped now and the farmers tans are coming along nicely. We have been on the water all day every day since arriving here 8 days ago and are looking forward to a rest day when/if the weather dis-improves.

Bird List: magnificent frigatebird (1), brown boobie, osprey,Cape Verde shearwater, red-billed tropicbird. We had an Olympic flying fish which stayed air-borne for about 15-20 seconds covering at least 200m! We also spotted a large (2-3m) shark offshore but could not identify the species.

The day was topped off with a big feed of Cachupa - a beautiful traditional Cape Verdean stew of fish, beans, corn and cabbage.

Cooperative Humpies

Today we left our mooring at the southern tip of the island and headed further east, past a seabird colony. We saw a magnificent frigatebird circling over the islet of Curral Velho, where the last pair in the entire Palearctic breeds. These frigatebirds are unusual in that they nest on the ground as opposed to on trees which makes them particularly vulnerable to predation by introduced mammals and humans.

The winds today were light by Cape Verde standards - about 14 knots and forecast to drop to 9or 10 knots in the coming days hopefully making for excellent fieldwork conditions.We took a peak around the corner from Curral Velho at the eastern side of Boa Vista where the wind is normally howling as it faces into the prevailing northeasterly trade winds. We spotted a mother-calf pair both breaching and lob-tailing about 3km offshore. We tracked them slowly inshore until they were in water just 13m deep and we could see them beneath the surface the entire time. We managed to biopsy the mother.

Mother and Calf Pair about 40m from the shore (Darren Craig)

We came across a singing male ("Pat") on our 40km transit along the west coast back to the north of the island. He could be heard singing without and hydrophone through the hull of the boat. We recorded about 25 mins of song as he belted it out right beneath us. He showed us his fluke and even breached as we left him behind us. It was interesting to see this whale surface to breath while singing continuously... normally they stop singing before surfacing to blow.

As we rounded the corner into Baia Sal Rei we encountered a competitive group - the first for us this year. Competitive groups comprise a female (sometimes with a calf) and several males competing for dominance / access to the female. Encounters with competitive groups are very exciting as the males battle it out. Today one of the escorting males had a bleeding gash across his fluke. We saw some streams of bubbles too which can be a sign of aggression. All four whales were approachable so we successfully biopsied each one and Darren photographed two flukes while Pedrin had photographed the other two earlier in the day from the whale-watching boat.

A male escort with fresh grazes on his fluke (Darren Craig)

This is the first time we managed to sample 5 whales in one trip - a fantastic day!

Birds List: Magnificent frigatebird (1), white-faced stormie (>10), Cape Verde shearwater, brown boobie, osprey (1)

Santa Monica

We got a lift to the southern end of the island to Lacacao in one of Natura's 4x4s. The divers at the local hotel gave us a lift out to the rib which was still on it's mooring (thankfully... if it had gone adrift: next stop Brazil). We headed northwest towards Santa Monica where we want to spend a few days, following reports of many whales there. Santa Monica is usually out of reach for us as it is a long transit from Sal Rei past some dodgy reefs and shallow water which are exposed to the northeasterly wind and swell. We only encountered one whale there having put in about 7 hours of driving and about 60km of mileage. We could not find the animal again after seeing just two blows. We made over one hour of whale song recordings, with two whales singing a duet at one stage.

After a long day with no photo IDs or biopsies, we were about to pick up our mooring when we spotted a mother and calf about 200m from it!... apparently these whales had been there 'all day' .... sometimes nature is just cruel. We tried to track these whales but they disappeared into the glare and we had only 20 minutes or so before our lift back to the beach (on the diving boat which is landed at about 20knots onto the sand) was no longer on offer. We will return to Lacacao and will spend more time near our mooring this time. If conditions allow we plan to make the 40km journey back to Sal Rei tomorrow afternoon. We plan to close the circle by going to Lacacao the other way over the weekend (i.e. around the north and east coast of Boa Vista) as the forecast looks good. These are areas where very little (if any) search effort for humpbacks has been made in the past.

Bird List: Magnificent Frigatebird, red-billed tropicbird, white-faced storm petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, Cape Verde shearwater, brown boobie, black-winged stilt, bar-tailed godwit, Kentish plover, turnstone, cattle egret, hoopoe lark, Iago sparrow, brown-necked raven.

Needle fish and flying fish were abundant all day.

Southern Survey and Singing Whales

Our new skipper Jose joined us today to make our first trip down south to Lacacao. With the weather conditions up to the same old tricks(2-3 metre swells and 20 knot winds) we set off due south-west straight into Sal Rei Bay. We immediately got onto a pod of three animals, a mother, calf and one very large escort. On our first approach we gained a biopsy of the escort who was always in between us and the mother calf pair. With a quick reload we attempted to biopsy the mother but they had set off towards the north into a choppy swell. We gave up chase as surfacings were erratic and the animals were moving at a fair speed.  After getting dorsal images of the all three animals  we headed south to calmer waters.

Biopsy dart striking escort 

 There were no sighting from our search down south although after dipping the hydrophone in flat water we picked up 40 minutes of whale song. Our mooring was then located by Pedrins free diving skills, so we tied our boat and headed ashore on what was the most exiting beaching of a boat Ive ever experienced. The local dive club gave us a lift onto the shore at about 35kph with a ‘handbrake turn’ into the sand for good measure. The weathers looking good for the next few days so hopefully we’ll get some good surveying to the south the island.

                                                 Conor listing to a singing male Humpback

Species List: Flying fish, Needle fish (8), Brown boobie, White-faced Storm Petrel,  Cape Verde Shearwater (6), Hoopoe Lark, Tropic Bird, Osprey.

Birding

We hit the water this morning and were forced south in strong winds and a building swell. After 2 and a half hours of searching in poor visibility, we decided to call off our survey as conditions were not suitable. The rest of the day was spent organising our trip south to Lacacao tomorrow. We met with the RIU hotel diving manager who gave us permission to use a mooring near the hotel. This will allow us to moor the boat down south and travel by road each day back north to Sal Rei where we are living. But first we have to find the mooring and tie a buoy to it which will involve a bit of searching and some free-diving.

We also met with our new skipper - José who sailed from Sao Nicolau via Sal on his yacht. José and Pedrin have been working on establishing a whale research station on an uninhabited island off the coast of Sal Rei - a great location for humpbacks. All going to plan, we are hoping that this station and interpretive centre will be up and running by next year in time for the 2013 humpback breeding season.

Iago sparrow (Endemic) 

Sanderling(?) and a single turnstone

Whimbrel

Not an animal... help with spp ID please! 

Kentish Plover 

Greenshank

Neglected kestrel

Osprey

New wind-turbines

During the late afternoon myself and Darren did a bit of birding at the local beach - Praia Cabral.

Black Flukes

This morning started off thundery and very calm by Boa Vista standards (sea state 3, 1-2m swell). During a heavy shower we collected one biopsy with a nice single approach. This is our third biopsy sample. The mother and calf pair were both sporting lovely all-black flukes. During our afternoon trip we tracked 2 adult whales in challenging conditions but lost them after about 15 minutes with no biopsy attempts or fluke images obtained. These were likely to be roving males which often form alliances. We called it a day when our fuel was running low and Darren spotted a massive humpback breaching on the horizon, pec-slapping and fluking... we had to leave it be.

Whale-watchers on board Tartaruga do Mar (lost beneath the swell)

Pedrin went on an angling boat about 60 miles southwest of Sal Rei towards a large bank that sits on the continuous shelf between the islands of Boa Vista and Maio (to the south). This is thought to be an important offshore area for breeding humpbacks. Unfortunately, there were no cetacean sightings but lots of white-faced storm petrels.

We are planning to spend some days on the south coast of the island in the coming days. We rarely get to spend time down there as it is a long spin from our base in Sal Rei, but we have extra fuel tanks and will moor the boat down there for a few days and travel by road. This will allow us to search less plied waters for whales. According to locals, there are lots of whales down south this year.

This is how we get the RIB from it's mooring!

Species list: loggerhead turtle, green turtle, osprey (2), Cape Verde shearwater (c.10), flying fish (>10), common kestrel (1), brown-necked raven (1).

Rainy rain

It rained heavily last night and we had another shower this morning - very strange for this time of year but very welcome as the eastern Cape Verdean islands suffer from a severe shortage of water. But warm rain could never dampen our spirits.

We covered the waters north and south of Sal Rei today - encountering two mother-calf pairs and two distant breaching whales (likely males). The first mother-calf pair were evasive and in choppy water so we headed south for shelter, following a tip-off from the whale-watching boat. We failed to biopsy any animals in the morning, but returned to the same location in the late afternoon where we successfully biopsied two whales. These were the first samples for the season, and considering it is only day one of our dedicated surveys, things are looking up. 

Mother and calf in Baia Sal Rei. 

We just finished data-entry, sample processing and equipment sterilization and are off to hit the pub for a break before an early start tomorrow. Ciao.

Species List: Humpback whale (5 or 6); Birds: Cape Verdean Shearwater (c. 8); a plovery thing; red-billed tropic bird; osprey (2). Fishes:   needlefish; flying fish. 2 Portuguese man-o-war.

First Trip

The journey from Dublin to Boa Vista went relatively smoothly, apart from the serious questioning that I got in Manchester en-route (a policeman was considering taking the crossbow off me for not having an import permit for it). I started rabitting on about whales and the research, he noticed we shared the same birthday too and the atmosphere lightened a little. He left me go and with just 45 mins to find the other terminal and check in 3 bags, I sprinted across the airport and made it by the skin of my teeth.

We didn't spot any whales on our approach to Sal Rei as the plain did a broad sweep over our study site. 

We had our first trip to sea this morning at 0830 and spotted no less than 5 humpbacks within 4 or 5km from Sal Rei. They were in two groups about 4km apart. One group comprised a mother, calf and her rather excited escort who treated us to many breaches and some pec-slapping. No biopsies yet as we were hitching a ride on the whale-watching boat. This afternoon we will launch the rib and might be able to squeeze another trip in if there are enough daylight hours left. None of the whales that we spotted today have  been biopsied by us before, so we are keen to sample them before they head back north.

We also spotted an osprey plunge-diving, brrown-necked raven, red-billed tropic bird, a Portuguese-man-o-war, a green turtle and some flying fish. The sea was rough as the north-easterly trade winds are blowing at about 22knots. Fingers crossed for some slack winds soon. 

Humpbacks in West Cork - Early, Late, or Never Left?!

While in the middle of getting the fieldwork equipment together for the Cape Verde trip, I got a call from Eugene McKeown at 9pm, telling me of the 5am start in search of two humpbacks that birders had spotted off Galley Head. All the gear was at hand so I went for it.... and it piad off. By 10:30 we had two biopsies; the first time IWDG has ever managed two humpback samples in the one day. One of the whales was HBIRL18 which had eluded us back in January off Co. Wexford. The second animal was a newbie (HBIRL20) which was hesitant to show it's fluke at first, but later on it refused to put it away - displaying 3 bouts of strong lob-tailing.

                                     

The whales were certainly skim and lunge-feeding on plankton which were teeming on a strong tidal front off Toe Head, associated with basking sharks at one point. Strangely enough, the only time I have witnessed this feeding behaviour in humpback whales in Irish waters was exactly at this location when "Dutchy" was spotted there in September 2007. 

This is the first sighting of humpbacks in Irish waters for the month of April. These appeared to be sub-adults, and considering the time of year, this sighting gives further evidence that young and reproductively 'resting; humpbacks may stay at high latitudes to feed rather than go all the way to the breeding grounds to face harassment by the big bulls!

So the flotation suit has been put away in favour of shorts and sandals. Only one and a half more sleeps before we leave for Boa Vista... fingers crossed that all will go smoothly... airports & crossbow makes me nervous.

Preparations...

IWDG secured another grant from Island Foundation to fund the 4th humpback whale research expedition to Cape Verde. Our approach this year is similar to last years - 6 weeks of daily or twice daily surveys from a shore-based research station in Sal Rei, Boa Vista. Pedro Lopez Suarez has already been sending on photo ID images since he started fieldwork on board local whale-watching boats on 1 March. Since then, he has collected 14 fluke IDs and has observed several mother-calf pairs, breaching and competitive groups... so it is shaping up to be a good year for whales already.

This year's team will comprise myself, Simon Berrow, Pedro Lopez Suarez, Darren Craig among others. Our primary aim is to collect biopsy samples, photo ID images and acoustic recordings. These data will help us to  piece together the jig-saw puzzle in collaboration with international researchers in the US, Switzerland and Netherlands. Our knowledge of these whales is increasing steadily each year. We need to increase our genetic sample size in order to get a clearer picture of how genetically isolated or otherwise this population is. We had some nice photo ID matches between Cape Verde and Norway last year.... we have yet to obtain a match between CV and North America, so it appears (for the time being!) as though the range for these whales is exclusively in the eastern North Atlantic. 

There were several whales returning to Cape Verde last year that have been recorded since the 1990s, and in the past week, some of our favourite aerobats including "Cassnova" and "Notch" have been spotted. A comparison of genotypes using 20 'microsatellite' markers (comprising a genetic barcode, unique to individuals as used in forensics) has yet to be undertaken but promises to be very interesting as our colleagues Per and Martine have thousands of samples from all over the Atlantic to compare to these Cape Verdean whales. 

I will only be in the field for 2 weeks (12 - 26 April) as I have to submit my PhD thesis this summer so I had better knuckle down before I run out of time/funding/sanity! Darren has plenty of experience with humpback whale research from his time in Australia working with the HARC project among others. Darren will spend a full six weeks on Boa Vista, while Simon will join him for the final two weeks in mid May. 

Plans are afoot to establish a dedicated cetacean research station on an uninhabited island off the coast of Boa Vista and funding is currently being sought to make this a reality. Any information about funding avenues that have slipped under our radars for this would be gratefully appreciated. This is the brainchild of Pedro and if successful would allow us to continue long-overdue research on these whales in what is the single most important bay in the Atlantic for this population, as far as we know.

This blog will be quiet for a bit while we get ourselves and our equipment out to Cape Verde. I look forward to keeping you updated!

Conor Ryan