Tag On!

Tag On!

[photo size=’medium’ title=’We tagged this whale!’ align=’right’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_ASF.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_ASF.jpg[/photo]After about 10 yrs or so from when we first thought about doing it, today we put out a DTAG on a fin whale in the Long Eddy. It’s been a long time coming, and we are really happy to have cracked that nut.

Today was a great day. The winds were calm, the sky blue and there were critters everywhere. Ari was proud to note that on this fine day we encountered the four main species of cetaceans in the Bay of Fundy – fin whales, minke whales, harbor porpoises and right whales. Yup we hit all the highlights. It wasn’t just a great day for us – the GMWSRS basking shark team (lead by Andrew “Sparky” Westgate) got a tag out as well, and the ad-hoc bird team (led by Rob Ronconi) successfully worked up a number of birds. Simply put, today was awesomesauce.

[photo size=’large’ title=’Porpoise!’ align=’center’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/PorpoiseLE_ASF.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/PorpoiseLE_ASF.jpg[/photo]

Our team started off with right whales on the way to the Long Eddy. We came across a mother-calf pair about 1 mile off the Swallowtail lighthouse, stopped to take a few ID shots and then called in the sighting to the New England Aquarium researchers (relayed by the GMWSRS – thanks Rob!). This seemed like a good omen. After leaving the right whales behind we encountered several minke whales and hundreds of harbor porpoises as we entered the Long Eddy, but the fin whales remained elusive. The prey mapping team got a great start and mapped out the entire eddy as it formed, collecting a ton of echo sounder data.

We had several sightings of one fin whale (Getz again) early in the flood tide, but the animal was moving large distances during each dive. Finally, as we moved past mid-flood  in the Long Eddy another fin whale joined the system and we moved in to strike. After several surfacings we finally found ourselves in the right spot for a tag attempt. We approached slowly and the whale evaded us. Shortly after however we caught the whale on it’s last breath before a dive and Ari popped on the tag about halfway between dorsal fin and blowhole, about 6 inches down on the right side of the animal’s back. Perfect placement – high up so that we got several beeps from the tag on each surfacing. We followed the animal for about two hours and as the flood tide finished up the tag popped off the animal near Fish Head.

Truth be told, it was a frustrating track because the animal moved great distances (making prey mapping around the whale difficult) and the tag seemed to have slipped down the side of the whale after the first hour, reducing the range at which we would get beeps from it on the receiver. The tag was shed by the whale after two hours – we quickly recovered it and then ran for home to get ready for tomorrow – the weather looks good and we are hoping for a replay. Stay tuned!

[photo size=’large’ title=’Our tagged whale’ align=’center’ link=’http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_TAGline.jpg’ icon=’zoom’ lightbox=’image’]http://superpod.ml.duke.edu/johnston/files/2011/08/taggedfin_TAGline.jpg[/photo]