Albatross and Penguins and Humpbacks, Oh My!

February 17th, 2016

By: Carly Moreno

Now that we’re finished with the underway and regular stations along grid, the focus of the cruise is now to make sure the birders and whalers have enough time to do their science. Both the birders and whalers split their time between visual surveys from the ship’s bridge, and shore excursions on the small Zodiac boats that leave from the ship’s stern.

Figure 1. A Southern Brown Skua, common along the WAP. And a Cape Petrel common, along in the Drake Passage. Photos courtesy Darren Roberts and J.D. Gantz.

Figure 1. A Southern Brown Skua, common along the WAP. And a Cape Petrel common, along in the Drake Passage. Photos courtesy Darren Roberts and J.D. Gantz.

The two birders on the ship, Darren Roberts and Carrie McAtee, split their day on the bridge into 6-hour chunks, and do visual surveys for Antarctic birds and seals. They mainly focus on assessing Southern Fulmars, Snow Petrels, Southern Albatross, and lots more (Figure 1). The rest of the day they spend on the boat jumping from island to island surveying local penguin populations. Their main goals are to assess whether annual variability of sea ice and snow conditions affect Adélie population trends, foraging success and diet, growth rates, survival, and seasonal dispersal. They also spent 5 days camping on Avian Island to conduct breeding colony censuses, weigh and measure crèched chicks, as well as diet sample adult Adélie penguins.

Figure 2. Humpback whale with satellite tag and biopsy dart. The is the small round ring in the forward portion of the dorsal fin. Below the satellite tag is the yellow and orange biopsy dart deployed via cross bow. The dart has a small 40 mm tip on the end that collects a small skin and blubber sample and then it bounces off the whale and floats until retrieval. Photo courtesy Ari Friedlander.

Figure 2. Humpback whale with satellite tag and biopsy dart. The is the small round ring in the forward portion of the dorsal fin. Below the satellite tag is the yellow and orange biopsy dart deployed via cross bow. The dart has a small 40 mm tip on the end that collects a small skin and blubber sample and then it bounces off the whale and floats until retrieval. Photo courtesy Ari Friedlander.

Dr. Ari Friedlander (OSU) and Dr. Doug Nowecek (Duke) are the PI’s of the cetacean biology and ecology group. They focus on visual surveys for cetaceans most of the day from the bridge, but when they see a pair of humpbacks they quickly deploy the Zodiac boats and zip out to photograph and sample the whales. They’re interested in the demography and population structure of the whales that feed along the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Specifically, they want to determine the sex ratio, pregnancy rates, foraging rates, and behavior ecology of humpbacks in the area. They use a number of different types of sampling methods, including blubber biopsies and tagging. One of their most interesting tags is a multi-sensor suction cup they attach to the flank of a humpback to record video footage and fine-scale movements of the animals. From this instrument, they gather information on the whale’s movement patterns, feeding strategies, and foraging rates. After about 24 hours the suction cup falls off and sends out a beacon to be recovered. Perhaps the most exciting tagging expedition happened right from the bow of the LM Gould. Instead of using the Zodiacs, Ari and his student Erin, were able to tag a whale from the bow of the ship. After that, the 2nd mate, Ladd Olsen, maneuvered the ship to recover the tag from the stern.

Figure 3. Sediment deployment activities on the back deck. MT Jack Greenberg and MLT Lindsey Loughry deftly managing the cone.

Figure 3. Sediment deployment activities on the back deck. MT Jack Greenberg and MLT Lindsey Loughry deftly managing the cone.

Another focus of the cruise is to deploy and recover physical oceanography moorings. The Ducklow group is in charge of these large operations, but they usually need lots of helping hands. It takes the two people to range and interrogate the mooring releases and several people to sight the tiny pale floats, which are practically invisible among the bits of ice in the ocean. Of course it also takes the captain, Ernest Stelly, to maneuver the ship to recover the moorings. On the back deck, 4 to 5 people are required to hook the line from the moorings and bring the floats and the instruments onboard. However, because of all of the ice, we were only able to deploy and recover two out of the four moorings. The other two moorings that are still trapped in the ice will probably not be recovered in the future as their batteries will run out before the next LTER cruise. We were able to deploy the Ducklow sediment trap and the Acoustic Doppler Current Meter for Dr. Alex Brearley from the British Antarctic Survey. Because of the coordinated efforts from everyone onboard, both of these instruments were deployed without any problems. Now that the moorings are done on the 300 line, we’re heading north to Palmer Station!