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).