A talk I gave today in Concepcion/ Una charla que di hoy en Concepcion

Aqui va el link que resume la charla que di hoy en el Departamento de Oceanografia de la Universidad de Concepcion. Fue muy grato ver a tanta gente interesada a este trabajo que estamos realizando junto a mis colegas del Centro Ballena Azul. Y muchas muy buenas preguntas! Gracias!



http://www.udec.cl/panoramaweb2/2013/05/investigadora-udec-presento-estudio-acustico-sobre-la-ballena-azul-del-golfo-corcovado/

y un video cortito:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151573777104706

A beautiful summer: a selection of photos from my 2013 summer field season

Here is a selection of photos from my summer field season working with blue whales of the Corcovado Gulf.  It was a great summer for blue whales. Sunny weather, lots of phytoplankton, lots of krill and beautiful sightings of blue whales.

Tonight I start travelling back to Santiago by boat, bus and air.

Beautiful blow of a blue whale.
Credit: Susannah Buchan 

Blue whale deep dive!
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale fluke.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Sampling with Wil.
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

Observations...
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

Wil pulling up the samples.
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

An exhausted Wil!
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

Loaded phytoplankton samples!
This indicates full summer bloom conditions and lots of food for krill.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Casting the bongo net for sampling krill.
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

Euphausia vallentini
Credit: Alex Machuca

Swimming krill.
Credit: Wilfredo Alarcon

Filming a documentary about our blue whale research for  National Television.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Cabala film crew on board.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Interviewing Captain Alex Machuca.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Team Anihue!
Credit: Alex Machuca

Having a rest.
Credit: Felipe Gonzalez - Reserva Anihue

Last day, leaving the Golfo Corcovado behind.
Credit: Cristian Correa

We met a huge group of hyperactive bottlenose one morning. Here is one playing in our wake.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Sea lion sunbathing in front of the Melimoyu volcano.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

The elusive Burmeister's porpoise in Melimoyu Bay.
Credit: Oliver Alarcon

Filming the bottlenose dolphins with a gopro for National Television.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale blow hole.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

At the beach with the Melimoyu volcano and glacier in the background.
Credit: Cristian Correa

Last thoughts overlooking Melimoyu Bay before leaving...
Credit: Cristian Correa

Wilfredo, Captain Alex Machuca and I for the last time on board Chucao.
Credit: Felipe Zepeda

The blue whale barrel roll

Some extremely cool research has come out recently on blue whale feeding behaviour, which explains what I often see from the boat. Below is a photo that I took in 2011 and another I took last last week in the Corcovado Gulf. What you can see sticking out of the water is the blue whale's pectoral fin (its flipper) which indicates that the animal is rolled onto its side as it lunges through the water. We have often referred to this at lunge-feeding behaviour or a lateral lunge, where the whale rolls onto its side and takes a huge gulp of water and krill and then rolls upright again.

Blue whale lunge feeding, 2011.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale lunge feeding, February 2013.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

This new research is summarized in this video, which shows the simulation of blue whale feeding behaviour off the coast of California, based on data collected with suction cup tags and images collected with a National Geographic crittercam. This is so incredibly cool! Take a look:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/12/07/2012/blue-whale-barrel-roll.html

This simulation shows feeding at almost 300 m depth. This is interesting because here in the Corcovado we often see whales feeding at much shallower depths, in waters of say 130 m or even less, and we see these  lunges at the surface. I am not sure if this shallower feeding is common elsewhere, but it is surely linked to the oceanographic conditions that determine krill patch distribution, which I am researching as part of my PhD. It would be amazing to replicate this study here in southern Chile, where the oceanographic and krill distribution characteristics are very different from the Californian upwelling system.

Summer field season so far: a selection of photos

I have been in Melimoyu for about three weeks and we have had good luck sighting whales and sampling the feeding ground. We have seen quite a lot of deep dive behaviour and some lunging behaviour which indicates exploratory dives for food and feeding.

Here is a selection of photos:

Blue whale and the Melimoyu volcano.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale diving in front of Islote Locos.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale dive.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Blue whale diving in front of Islote Locos.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

A lovely blue whale blow. 

Credit: Susannah Buchan

 We have been working on board the research vessel Anihue which has been helping us from the nearby Anihue Reserve. They also have an echosounder which is really useful for sampling krill. 

Credit: Susannah Buchan

Plankton soup! Taken from near diving blue whales.
Credit: Susannah Buchan 

Plankton patch showing up on the Anihue boat echsounder. We got a good krill sample  in our net when we targeted this patch. See photo below.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

Krill soup!
Taken from near diving blue whales with the help of the echosounder on board Anihue.
Credit: Susannah Buchan

 

Radio 4 programme on selecting Marine Conservation Zones around the UK

A good overview of the process and problems of selecting Marine Conservation Zones around the UK. It's not perfect but is a step forward. Unfortunately no sites include key areas for cetaceans.

Listen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pthk3

From http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/512xn/p013r4q7.jpg

Listen to the Chilean blue whale song!

Listen to an example of the Chilean blue whale song we recorded in 2008. This sequence is characteristic of animals in the Southeast Pacific and in Chilean waters and is the focus of the our current research.

http://static.quepasa.cl/20121213/1670881.wav

Article about our work in the Que Pasa magazine

Check out the article in Spanish written by Nicolas Alonso:
http://www.quepasa.cl/articulo/ciencia/2012/12/3-10753-9-los-hombres-que-oian-a-las-ballenas.shtml

Credit: Devin Altobello