Sunrise Sentinel

First watch this morning began like most first watches: bleary-eyed and unkempt scientist climbing to the tippy-top of the flying bridge toting binoculars, cameras, notebooks, sunscreen, water and NPR-laden iPods. Anecdotally, if you happen to fall slightly tardy in this processional (my usual position), you could navigate to the flying bridge Hansel and Gretel-style, following the trail of breakfast morsels and coffee droplets. Our typical best-case scenario for the "rooster watch" is a brilliant unimpeded sunrise. The members of today's sunrise shift, however, looked on in wonder as if they'd just stumbled upon the majestic geysers of the Yellowstone valley. Fifty sperm whales surrounded us! The characteristically canted blows rose dense and bushy in the early morning air, probably a result of deep recovery breathing. Sperm whales feed through the night when the schools of squid ascend from the depths to feed on shoaling fish. Each of the night's feeding dives can last well over an hour! Upon further inspection, most of the groups included cows with young calves resting placidly at the surface, the antithesis of the Moby Dick stereotype. Our attempts to get close to them were fraught with frustration (hence no good photos to share). None-the-less an exciting way to start the day! It's also good to know large groups of the prune-headed 'Cachalot' are still out here enjoying their breakfast morsels and taking in the brilliant unimpeded sunrises!

Having headed far south trying to outrun to a high-pressure zone currently sloshing the proverbial bathtub near Hawaii, we're now far outside of our planned study area. Interesting the last few days have shown a marked upswing in the number of sightings; we had six today (including a new species for me, the rough-toothed dolphin!). Our leading hypothesis (as objective government scientists) is that the animals have all coordinated to form a big line just on the outside of our study area. Batten down the hatches and ready the Dramamine my friends - we can't run any more - 14-foot swells predicted for tomorrow!

Veteran’s Daydreaming (guest starring the Bryde's whale)

One of my many roles as the illustrious 'visiting scientist' out here is to sight whales. You guessed it: glorified whale watching! This job usually entails many lonely hours searching the horizon line for that distant whale spout, desperately trying to hold binocular still on an ever rolling ship, while squinting into the sun ... somehow we're always facing into the sun when I'm on watch! Sounds grueling, I know, but it's one of my favorite things to do. For better or worse, it affords a lot of time to think. Usually after about 2.3 seconds my mind starts to wander.

Nestled amongst some of the tiny blips of sand that held great strategic importance during the Second World War (ie., Wake Island, Midway Atoll and Pearl Harbor), I imagine what it would have been like to be out here as a young man seventy years ago. Out here among the sunshine, waves and wispy clouds of the great Pacific, but instead of searching for whales and seabirds, I'm looking for Japanese warships and aircraft. I would not be naive to the fact that the enemy aircraft are instructed to take down my ship at any cost. My ship is my only lifeline. We are SO far from anything; I haven't seen land in weeks. Would help even come if my ship went down? Even if they new where we went, it would be weeks if not months before they could get here! Sunburn, thirst, starvation, sharks, misery!

As my eye catches a far off splash, my mind snaps back to the job at hand, "BLOW at 30 degrees left!” I yell. I look down; I feel Goosebumps rise on my arms.

I'm sure some of those boys must have had short attention spans too. I bet they used to think frustratedly, "why do we always seem to face into the sun when I'm on watch?" I'll even bet that one of them saw a whale spout on the distant horizon and daydreamt of what it would be like to be a whale biologist. Maybe they got Goosebumps thinking of a peaceful world where people could devote time to studying instead of killing.

At the end of this long day, we were greeted by a feeding Bryde's whale. The bait ball on which our whale fed was immense and the scene featured the whole cast of usual characters: tuna, mahi mahi, marlin, droves of seabirds, and even a colossal whale shark!!

On this veteran's day, I thank the men and women of our armed services, especially those that fought in these waters some 70 years ago, many of whom paid the ultimate price. They fought and died so that I, two generations removed, could study instead of fight.

New Blog While My Office is Out at Sea

Hello from the R/V MacArthur II! We're out here west and north of the Hawaiian islands surveying for marine mammals and seabirds. Believe it or not the government pays for us to do this as part of compliance to the Marine Mammal Protection Act!! Check out the HICEAS website if you want to know what we're up to out here... officially speaking anyway.

Here's the "Mac" before she pulled out of Maui 13 days ago. She's a sturdy girl at about 240 feet from stem to stern, and more importantly she's outfitted with a gas grill and an electric smoker (I didn't even know there was such a thing) for some mean smoked Mahi Mahi! Stay tuned for updates on that.