Study of humpback whale song in Antarctic feeding grounds

An interesting study out today on humpback whale song in Antarctic feeding grounds, which breaks the long held view that feeding and breeding activities are spatially and temporally distinct. Song production produced by males, and which has a reproductive function, is now shown to occur in feeding grounds. For humpback whales, as for humans, the way to a female's heart is through her stomach!

Read more at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121219174156.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

And download the scientific publication at:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0051214

Job done! Our latest acoustic buoy trip

100% success on our third acoustic buoy trip! We successfully deployed 3 MARUs and recovered the one pending MARU.

There was a lot of waiting around because of bad weather, but once we got going, we got everything done in a record 4 days.

Many thanks to all who were with us: Luis Bedrinana (Centro Ballena Azul/Universidad Austral de Chile), Fred Channell (University of Cornell), Nicolas Alonso (Que Pasa), Devin Altobello and the Captain and crew of Yagan II.

Here are some photos of our trip:

Setting off! Luis Bedrinana, Nicolas Alonso, Susannah Buchan, Fred Channell and Devin Altobello.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Fred programming the buoys.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

With Luis on the upper deck.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Tying down the equipment in rough seas!
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Luis on the look out for cetaceans.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Luis and Nicolas having mate on the upper deck.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

On our way to the first deployment site...
Credit: Susannah Buchan

The MARU ready for deployment.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

All done! Unloading our equipment.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Setting off...

Loading today and leaving port tomorrow!

We have loaded all our gear today and should be leaving tomorrow, weather permitting. We have been waiting in port in Dalcahue on Chiloe Island for the storm to pass for the past four days... But at least we got to sight-see a little, especially the beautiful oceanic side of Chiloe Island.

The purpose of our trip is to install some more hydrophones (Marine Autonomous Recording Units, MARUs) on the sea floor to listen for whales. I'll be updating on how our trip goes. But for now, fingers crossed for good weather!

Getting the MARUs ready with Luis Bedrinana and Nicolas Alonso

Loading MARUs and lowering them into the hold

The beautiful oceanic side of Chiloe Island

Incredible shots of a rare white humpback whale!

See more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233321/Rare-white-humpback-whale-spotted-coast-Norway.html

World's rarest whale, the spade-toothed beaked whale, seen for the first time

The spade-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon traversii) beached on a new Zealand beach:


Read more at Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121105130353.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

Blue whale acoustic data analysis underway!

We have been analysing the Marine Autonomous Recording Unit (MARU) data from the Corcovado Gulf. This is a video of what we hear, sped up 8 times so that the sounds are actually audible.

You can also see the post on Facebook at Centro MERI: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=369961319759448

Imagine an ocean louder than today, resonating with whale song...

Simulations of ocean sound based on pre-whaling whale population levels suggest that the ocean may have been even louder than today caused by all the singing whales. Current noise levels are high and rising due to anthropogenic sound, mainly shipping, which is thought to drown out whale sounds.

Read more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121023123954.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

A beluga with human voice!

A beluga imitating humans!



Read more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121022122052.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

An interesting piece of work on lung-feeding tactics in whales, using data-logging tags

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011090641.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

Beautiful photos by the wonderful Dani Casado of our work in Patagonia

Beautiful photos by the wonderful Dani Casado of our work in Patagonia. Check it out: 
http://danielcasadophoto.blogspot.com/2012/09/ballenas-azules-en-chile.html

Credit: Dani Casado http://danielcasadophoto.blogspot.com/2012/09/ballenas-azules-en-chile.html

'Diving into the wreck' by the late Adrienne Rich

Diving into the wreck

First having read the book of myths,
and loaded the camera,
and checked the edge of the knife-blade,
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave and awkward mask.
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with his
assiduous team
aboard the sun-flooded schooner
but here alone.

There is a ladder.
The ladder is always there
hanging innocently
close to the side of the schooner.
We know what it is for,
we who have used it.
Otherwise
it is a piece of maritime floss
some sundry equipment.

I go down.
Rung after rung and still
the oxygen immerses me
the blue light
the clear atoms
of our human air.
I go down.
My flippers cripple me,
I crawl like an insect down the ladder
and there is no one
to tell me when the ocean
will begin.

First the air is blue and then
it is bluer and then green and then
black I am blacking out and yet
my mask is powerful
it pumps my blood with power
the sea is another story
the sea is not a question of power
I have to learn alone
to turn my body without force
in the deep element.

And now: it is easy to forget
what I came for
among so many who have always
lived here
swaying their crenellated fans
between the reefs
and besides
you breathe differently down here.

I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and sway into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.

This is the place.
And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body.
We circle silently
about the wreck
we dive into the hold.
I am she: I am he

whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes
whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrels
half-wedged and left to rot
we are the half-destroyed instruments
that once held to a course
the water-eaten log
the fouled compass

We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.

                                                       - Adrienne Rich

A study about studying whales: huge knowledge gaps in the world map...

This is a study about studying whales! Although we already intuitively knew it, it is hugely helpful to have this put into facts and numbers. Indeed, whales are poorly studied around the world, arguably with the exception of the eastern tropical Pacific, and areas of the North Atlantic/Arctic oceans. Indeed, there are huge knowledge gaps in the world map and we still have very poor coverage of these magnificent, elusive and mysterious animals.

One such looming gap is our study site in the eastern south Pacific and the south of Chile. So I hope in my research lifetime to see this map a little fuller!

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120917085533.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

Some interesting research about anthropogenic underwater noise decreasing whale communication from our partners at Cornell...

Here is some interesting research about anthropogenic underwater noise decreasing whale communication. This has come out of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who we are currently working with on the hydrophone (MARU) deployments in the Corcovado feeding ground.

Read more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120815142050.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Dolphins+and+Whales%29

The complex use of dolphin sonar in bubbly water and its engineering implications

Do dolphins benefit from nonlinear mathematics when processing their sonar returns? The title of an interesting and complex study of dolphin sonar from the University of Southampton UK, looking into how dolphins process their sonar signals in bubbly water, produced by their very own bubble nets for hunting fish, which would confuse the incoming signal making it difficult to distinguish between bubbles or fish. However, researchers found that if these animals have non-linear signal processing capabilities (as opposed to linear) then sonar signals of bubbles and fish are differentiable. The application of non-linear signal processing has implications for the engineering of man-made sonar, enabling targets, such as sea mines, to be distinguished that would be missed by conventional linear signal processing.

I am not at all a whiz when it comes to signal processing theory, but the crossover between the use of sound in dolphins and human engineering is interesting, and shows how complex and how little we still understand about these highly evolved beings.

Read the article on the University of Southampton website: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=122555&CultureCode=en

Rescuing the buoys: The MARU recovery trip!

Rodrigo Hucke (Centro Ballena Azul/Universidad Austral de Chile), Luis Bedriñana (Centro Ballena Azul/Universidad Austral de Chile), Fred Channell (Bioacoustics Lab, U. Cornell) and myself cruised onboard the Yagan II, a 50t 18m fishing boat, between the 16th and the 25th of June from Chiloe, through the Corcovado Gulf, out to the Boca de Guafo, back across the Moraleda Channel, over to the continent and Tic Toc Bay, and then back to Chiloe again. 


Our mission was to recovery 6 MARU (Marine Autonomous Recording Unit) sound buoys placed around the Corcovado Gulf blue whale feeding ground. These buoys were deployed in January and have been recording blue whale sounds for the past 5 months and will help us find out some key information on their movements and song dialects.


The weather was tough and we had alot of waiting around for ports to open. Unfortunately, 2 out of our 6 buoys were not recoverable, they answered us but they never surfaced. The other 4 were recovered fine, we sent them the 'release' sound signal, they responded to the signal, released their anchor and then floated to the surface in the vacinity of our boat. We also deployed a 7th buoy to replace one of the ones we lost. So all in all we got the job done! And were happy and relieved to go home...


Here are some photos:

The working deck on Yagan II.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Sending the buoy a signal and waiting for the answer...
Credit: Luis Bedriñana

A MARU at the surface. 
Credit: Luis Bedriñana   

A MARU at the surface with some growth on it. 
Credit: Luis Bedriñana    

Spotting the MARU and pulling it in...
Credit: Luis Bedriñana

Pulling in the MARU...
Credit: Luis Bedriñana   

The MARU on deck!
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Turning the buoy off once on board.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

The anchor connection before release.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

The anchor connection after release, leaving the anchor plate on the sea floor.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Fred talking to the replacement buoy before dpeloyment.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Getting the MARU ready for deployment.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Deploying MARU 7.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Deploying MARU 7. 
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

MARU 7 ready for deployment.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

A blue whale when we were deploying MARU 7!
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Capitan Espana,  me, Oliver (first mate), Fred and Rodrigo.
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Piratas!
Credit: Luis Bedrinana

Squid and octopus are also affected by ocean noise pollution

We are learning more and more about the effects of ocean sound pollution on marine organisms: beyond marine mammals, it seems that squid and octopus are also affected (suffer acoustic trauma) by noise pollution in the ocean. Squid, furthermore, are key prey items for sperm whales.

Read about it: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110411111032.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fdolphins_and_whales+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+

Winter research in Melimoyu: a selection of photos

We left Melimoyu on the 13th of June after a great three week stay. I am very pleased at how good the weather was and how much we were able to go out to sea and sample. Here is a selection of the best photos from our very successful winter campaign:

Arriving in Melimoyu on the Pincoya.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

The Patagonia Sur research vessel: Chucao I.

Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Preparing the phytoplankton net.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Up comes the phytoplankton net!
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Hauling up a heavy zooplankton net!

Credit: Alex Machuca

Zooplankton net and Melimoyu volcano in the background!
Credit: Alex Machuca

Krill sample.

Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

A bigger-eyed, deeper-water species of krill that we have found in these winter trawls: Nematocelis megalops. 

Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

A pipefish in our trawl sample (Sygnathus sp).

Credit: Sebastian Yancovic 

Rough seas!
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Oliver bringing up the Niskin bottle for collecting seawater samples.
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

Bottling the seatwater sample from the Niskin bottle.
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

Our samples! Credit: Susannah Buchan

The dappled back of a blue whale on the 7th of June.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Frost on the Patagonia Sur guest house.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Black-browed Albatros and the Melimoyu volcano. Amazing!
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Reading the Multiparameter sensor.
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

Casting the CTD sensor...
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic 

Up comes the CTD!
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic

Melimoyu volcano and clouds...
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Melimoyu volcano and more clouds...
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Leaving the Gulf behind and entering Refugio Channel after a long day of sampling...
Credit: Susannah Buchan 

Sunset in Melimoyu Bay from the house.
Credit: Sebastian Yancovic