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