Season sucess!

Dr. Gordon listening for whales.

Spermwhale fluking.

We have been very lucky with the weather and have therefore been sailing in “milky-calm” seas. There have been several whales depredating off the fishing boats and we have been able to document the behavior quite nicely. The calm weather has been good for spotting the whales from far away and it has allowed us to stay out at sea for extended periods of time. We were able to follow some whales for up to 48 hours, which will give us great insight into their behavior. The acoustic data will also enable us to measure the length of the whales.

Dr. Jonathan Gordon at the helm.

We got acoustic recordings of male sperm whales both while they were depredating from the lines and while they were feeding elsewhere. The photoidentification data has not been analysed yet, but we have seen at least five different whales with the fishing boats.

As the fishing season drew to a close we left Stø to return the research Vessel at it’s home port in Tromsø. Now we will begin analyzing the acquired data and looking for funding and collaborators for the future of this project. The blog will be updated, faithful to its nature, sporadically as we progress in the depths of scientific discovery.

Sails the Iolaire, homeward bound.

Many a thanks are owed again to the fishermen and the kind people that helped this project become a reality. Also special thanks are given to Redningsselskapet in Tromsø for equipping us with life vests for the project.Thank you.

All in all, to put it shortly, this season has been good for research.

Stay tuned for results!

August 2017

The weather has been on our side.

The second part of the Greenland Halibut fishing season has started and Iolaire is out sailing again. Dr Jonathan Gordon is leading the field work and the team consists of Fred Lehto, Johnny Leo Johansen, Juho Reinikainen, Linda Massa and Tuomas Salonen.

 

S/Y Iolaire crewmembers for the August 2017 season, Juho Reinikainen, Tuomas Salonen and Linda Massa.

The entire June and July has been  a bit unusual in terms of sperm whales, with all whales moving to offshore waters (more than 20 nautical miles) on several occasions and whales have been hard to find for whale-watchers. We are looking into the underlying factors to this but do not have any answers yet. We were really curious to find out how things would be when the fishing started – would the whales be around?

The team in search of Spermwhales.

 

 It turned out that we were lucky, both with great weather and with several sperm whales around. We have now an acoustic recording of a sperm whale interacting with a longline, which was one of the main goals for this years field work – so we are more than thrilled! We hope ofcourse to get more recordings and feel optimistic since the weather forecast and whales seem to be on our side.

The work at sea consists to a large extent of watchkeeping, taking ID photos and listening to the whales.

We will be updating the blog every now and then as we are not always in the range of network, so bear with us. As we are a non-profit organisation, we would like to remind you of the possibility to donate to the research on this site (see the donate button), every little bit helps. Stay tuned and keep on pushing