Marissa Dive Charters
RESEARCH BLOG
10/1 still off Monterrey Bay
Seas: 10’
Weather: 25Kt Wind
Comments: OK, it was ugly out here today today, but still your adrenalin gets pumped up. The nets last night we exciting, kinda like that crab show on TV, but not near as bad. Definitely some water coming over the back of the ship though, good thing I’m harnessed in… The bad weather made it difficult to spot whales, but I did see one Blue Whale. We’re almost done with our grid, we’re on our last square, then straight East to Point Dume, through the Santa Barbara Channel, then zig zags home…
9/30 180nm out from Monterrey Bay
Seas: 3’
Weather: 10 Kt. Wind
Comments: OK, well now we found the whales. I saw over 20 Fin Whales today! I was invited to go out with the biopsy crew to collect samples. What a rush, these things are huge! We were able to get 5 biopsy darts off. It’s a really big ocean out this far in an inflatable. We found an inflatable floating on the ocean upside down today. The Coast Guard is investigating, but I remember hearing of a missing sail boat several weeks ago overdue from Hawaii. We don't know for sure where this is from but very sobering…
9/29 Here Whaley Whaley….
Seas 8’
Weather: 25kt. Wind
Comments: Here we go again, the weather picked up today.
Only a few Whale sightings, but we got a lot of krill in the net tonight. I was called up to the bow in the middle onf the night, which is OK because I work until3:00am every day. A group of people were watching dolphins ride the bow glowing from the bioluminescence. Thanks for giving me the heads up guys, I never would have seen it!
9/28 NEWS…
Captain Carl has just been notified that he was chosen to be a member of the Regional Stakeholder Group for the California Marine Life Protection Act (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/southcoast.asp ). He will be working with the Scientific Advisory Team, the California Blue Ribbon Task Force, the Department of Fish & Game, and other members of the Regional Stakeholder Group to create a plan for the Marine Protected Areas of the South Coast Region of California, from Point Conception and the Northern Channel Islands south to the Mexican Border. This will be a two year project.
9/28 Still 200 miles off of Santa Cruz
Seas- 3-5’
Weather: 8 Kt wind, overcast
Comments: Big news today. I’ve been counting whales on this trip for what, a week and a half, but today I got my first sighting that was all my own. It was a Fin Whale and everybody was excited that I was finally “official” and “on the board”. Then about 20 minutes later I did it again, another Fin Whale! Two sightings in a two-hour shift! We also saw Northern Fur Seals, Streakers (striped dolphins), and tons of delphinus (common dolphins). I would personally estimate 300-400 delphinus. It was awesome. The biopsy crew got a chance to get some samples right from the bow. After the dolphins left we came across a Ziphius, or Cuvier’s Beaked Whale. Last night on the tows we got a strange critter aboard. I don’t want to tell you what it is, but it is not a baby dolphin (see above pic).
9/27 100-200 miles off of Santa Cruz
Seas: 6-8’
Weather 20+ Kt wind
Comments: We are doing box shaped transects in the same area. It is so far off the shelf that life is pretty sparse. We did spot a mother and calf fin whale today. In the deep trawl net we caught a couple of snipe eels, a spook fish, and a loose-jaw fish. The Loose jaw fish ids one of the few fish to use a red bioluminescent light. Most animals use a blue light, and cannot see a red light. This gives the loose-jaw fish an advantage in hunting and recognizing other loose-jaw fish. Pretty sneaky.
9/25 200nm off of Santa Cruz
Seas: 5-7’
Weather: 25 Kt wind, Small Craft Advisory
Comments: Well another night off of the shelf. The pickings aren’t much out here, kinda like a desert. We did get a Snipe Eel tonight. He is a deep-sea eel that has a long pointy beak for nabbing small fish. The picture shows me standing next to the IKMT trawl net. During the day we saw 2 Sperm Whales and some more delphinus. One of the coolest things we saw today was a Wandering Albatross. They get up to a 10’ wingspan, and weigh up to 26lbs. Now that’s a big bird.
9/24 200nm off of San Francisco
Seas: 3-5’
Weather: 5’ Swells,
Comments: Tonight we trawled at 240m and 500m depths like usual, but we brought in something strange. It was a squid that nobody could identify. Cool yet creepy looking (check out the photo above). Today we saw a large male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and Delphinus (Common Dolphins). The specific name for Sperm Whales is macrocephalus, which means “big head”…
(Hatchet Fish: All those oval shaped shiny things on the belly are photophores that light up for mating and confusing predators)
9/23 Quote from Captain Carl's E-mail about his 3:30 AM night shift!
"I survived doing the trawl net in 8' seas and 25Kt wind and small craft advisory.
Anyway, I just got off of my shift with the trawl net and look what we caught. The picture above is a mesopelagic squid (which simply means that it lives mid-ocean, but really deep). We caught it at about 500m (around 1500') deep. We also caught another dragonfish and some hatchet fish (also above)."
9/21 Field Report-Still off Eureka
Seas: 3'
Wind: 5-10 Kt
Weather: Sunny, but with Mares Tails & Mackeral Scales (you remember the old sailor's song from the sea)
Comments: Last nights trawls included a bunch of krill and lantern fish. We also squid-jigged, collecting squid for a researcher in New Mexico. We'll get squid every night until we get home. The day was eventful, we spent over an hour trying to get a biopsy sample from two uncooperative Fin whales. Today the Dall's porpoise came so close the started riding the bow. They were so fast I couldn't get a picture. Dall's porpoises are considered to be the fastest porpoise and have clocked at over 30 KTs. We start heading south tonight finally. We have been working in an area that had to be skipped last time because of bad weather. It looks like we'll get our research done, then head southwest to an are about 300 miles offshore of Santa Cruz. From there we will spend two more weeks zig zagging down the coast, zig past Point Conception, through the Santa Barbara Channel down to San Pedro, then zag back up to Ventura, then zig across to San Nicolas Island, zag over to Cortez
Bank...you get the picture, ending up in San Diego.
(viper fish)
9/20 Field Report - 100 Miles off of Eureka
Seas: 3-5'
Wind: 5-10 Kt
Weather: Sunny
Comments: Another beautiful day at sea. Unusual for this time of year. The bad weather hasn't arrived yet, it is supposed to be here Monday night now. Today we saw a Fin whale, 2 Blue Whales, and 10 or so Dall's Porpoises. Tonight we caught a very unusual (at least to me) fish, it's a deep sea Viperfish (see photo). It looks just like the little aliens in the movie Alien. Check out the teeth!
(dall's porpoise)
9/19 Field Report - 200 Miles Offshore of Cape Mendocino
Seas: 5'
Wind: 15Kt
Weather: Fog/Pouring Rain
Comments: Well our sunny flat weather has officially turned. Saturday is supposed to be worse weather with 7' swells, and a High pressure system moving in for Sunday with no-telling what will be in store. San Diego sure sound nice about now. This section of the transect had to be skipped during previous trips because of the conditions. Fog hampered efforts to locate whales today, but we did see some more Dall's Porpoises and Fur Seals. It poured rain tonight while we did the IKMT trawl. Our net went to 240 meters deep, and in addition to the regular catch we caught a Deep Sea Dragonfish (see photo above). Cool!
9/18/08 Field Report
Location: 100-200 Miles West of Cape Mendocino
Seas: 3-4’
Wind: 15Kt
Weather: Mares tails, changes coming, sunny for now…
Comments: We started out the day 150 miles from land. I am really
impressed with the Marine Mammal Observers. They are really Pros,
and I have to push myself to keep up with their sightings. This
morning I spotted a group of Baird's Beaked Whales. One of the
researchers told me how lucky I was. These small whales are so
elusive that we could go 10 years without seeing any more.
Marine Mammals Observed:
Baird's Beaked Whales
Fin Whales
Elephant Seals
Fur seals
(Captain Carl aboard the NOAA research vessel the McArthur II, using the "bigeye binos)
09/17/08 Field Report
Location: Point Reyes, Drake’s Bay, and Farallon Islands
Seas: Calm
Wind: 0-5Kt
Weather: Clear/Sunny
Comments: After a slight delay, we left San Francisco aboard the
NOAA research vessel McArthur II. We started our transects at
Drakes Bay, near Point Reyes, just North of San Francisco. We
began our first watch and found Harbor Porpoises and the most
Humpback whales I've ever seen (I counted over 40 humpbacks). A
couple of the Humpbacks even breached for us. In addition to
observing marine mammals, my onboard duties will be working on
oceanographic research. I will assist in deploying a midwater
trawl at night to collect deep water fish and invertebrate
specimens. The marine mammal observers use 25X "big eye"
binoculars that take a little training to use, but they tell you
which direction the whales sighted are in relation to the ship and
at what distance the whales are.
Marine Mammals Observed:
Harbor Porpoise
Elephant Seals
Sea Lions
Humpback Whales
Seas: 10’
Weather: 25Kt Wind
Comments: OK, it was ugly out here today today, but still your adrenalin gets pumped up. The nets last night we exciting, kinda like that crab show on TV, but not near as bad. Definitely some water coming over the back of the ship though, good thing I’m harnessed in… The bad weather made it difficult to spot whales, but I did see one Blue Whale. We’re almost done with our grid, we’re on our last square, then straight East to Point Dume, through the Santa Barbara Channel, then zig zags home…
9/30 180nm out from Monterrey Bay
Seas: 3’
Weather: 10 Kt. Wind
Comments: OK, well now we found the whales. I saw over 20 Fin Whales today! I was invited to go out with the biopsy crew to collect samples. What a rush, these things are huge! We were able to get 5 biopsy darts off. It’s a really big ocean out this far in an inflatable. We found an inflatable floating on the ocean upside down today. The Coast Guard is investigating, but I remember hearing of a missing sail boat several weeks ago overdue from Hawaii. We don't know for sure where this is from but very sobering…
9/29 Here Whaley Whaley….
Seas 8’
Weather: 25kt. Wind
Comments: Here we go again, the weather picked up today.
Only a few Whale sightings, but we got a lot of krill in the net tonight. I was called up to the bow in the middle onf the night, which is OK because I work until3:00am every day. A group of people were watching dolphins ride the bow glowing from the bioluminescence. Thanks for giving me the heads up guys, I never would have seen it!
9/28 NEWS…
Captain Carl has just been notified that he was chosen to be a member of the Regional Stakeholder Group for the California Marine Life Protection Act (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/southcoast.asp ). He will be working with the Scientific Advisory Team, the California Blue Ribbon Task Force, the Department of Fish & Game, and other members of the Regional Stakeholder Group to create a plan for the Marine Protected Areas of the South Coast Region of California, from Point Conception and the Northern Channel Islands south to the Mexican Border. This will be a two year project.
9/28 Still 200 miles off of Santa Cruz
Seas- 3-5’
Weather: 8 Kt wind, overcast
Comments: Big news today. I’ve been counting whales on this trip for what, a week and a half, but today I got my first sighting that was all my own. It was a Fin Whale and everybody was excited that I was finally “official” and “on the board”. Then about 20 minutes later I did it again, another Fin Whale! Two sightings in a two-hour shift! We also saw Northern Fur Seals, Streakers (striped dolphins), and tons of delphinus (common dolphins). I would personally estimate 300-400 delphinus. It was awesome. The biopsy crew got a chance to get some samples right from the bow. After the dolphins left we came across a Ziphius, or Cuvier’s Beaked Whale. Last night on the tows we got a strange critter aboard. I don’t want to tell you what it is, but it is not a baby dolphin (see above pic).
9/27 100-200 miles off of Santa Cruz
Seas: 6-8’
Weather 20+ Kt wind
Comments: We are doing box shaped transects in the same area. It is so far off the shelf that life is pretty sparse. We did spot a mother and calf fin whale today. In the deep trawl net we caught a couple of snipe eels, a spook fish, and a loose-jaw fish. The Loose jaw fish ids one of the few fish to use a red bioluminescent light. Most animals use a blue light, and cannot see a red light. This gives the loose-jaw fish an advantage in hunting and recognizing other loose-jaw fish. Pretty sneaky.
9/25 200nm off of Santa Cruz
Seas: 5-7’
Weather: 25 Kt wind, Small Craft Advisory
Comments: Well another night off of the shelf. The pickings aren’t much out here, kinda like a desert. We did get a Snipe Eel tonight. He is a deep-sea eel that has a long pointy beak for nabbing small fish. The picture shows me standing next to the IKMT trawl net. During the day we saw 2 Sperm Whales and some more delphinus. One of the coolest things we saw today was a Wandering Albatross. They get up to a 10’ wingspan, and weigh up to 26lbs. Now that’s a big bird.
9/24 200nm off of San Francisco
Seas: 3-5’
Weather: 5’ Swells,
Comments: Tonight we trawled at 240m and 500m depths like usual, but we brought in something strange. It was a squid that nobody could identify. Cool yet creepy looking (check out the photo above). Today we saw a large male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and Delphinus (Common Dolphins). The specific name for Sperm Whales is macrocephalus, which means “big head”…
(Hatchet Fish: All those oval shaped shiny things on the belly are photophores that light up for mating and confusing predators)
(Mesoplagic Squid)
"I survived doing the trawl net in 8' seas and 25Kt wind and small craft advisory.
Anyway, I just got off of my shift with the trawl net and look what we caught. The picture above is a mesopelagic squid (which simply means that it lives mid-ocean, but really deep). We caught it at about 500m (around 1500') deep. We also caught another dragonfish and some hatchet fish (also above)."
9/21 Field Report-Still off Eureka
Seas: 3'
Wind: 5-10 Kt
Weather: Sunny, but with Mares Tails & Mackeral Scales (you remember the old sailor's song from the sea)
Comments: Last nights trawls included a bunch of krill and lantern fish. We also squid-jigged, collecting squid for a researcher in New Mexico. We'll get squid every night until we get home. The day was eventful, we spent over an hour trying to get a biopsy sample from two uncooperative Fin whales. Today the Dall's porpoise came so close the started riding the bow. They were so fast I couldn't get a picture. Dall's porpoises are considered to be the fastest porpoise and have clocked at over 30 KTs. We start heading south tonight finally. We have been working in an area that had to be skipped last time because of bad weather. It looks like we'll get our research done, then head southwest to an are about 300 miles offshore of Santa Cruz. From there we will spend two more weeks zig zagging down the coast, zig past Point Conception, through the Santa Barbara Channel down to San Pedro, then zag back up to Ventura, then zig across to San Nicolas Island, zag over to Cortez
Bank...you get the picture, ending up in San Diego.
(viper fish)9/20 Field Report - 100 Miles off of Eureka
Seas: 3-5'
Wind: 5-10 Kt
Weather: Sunny
Comments: Another beautiful day at sea. Unusual for this time of year. The bad weather hasn't arrived yet, it is supposed to be here Monday night now. Today we saw a Fin whale, 2 Blue Whales, and 10 or so Dall's Porpoises. Tonight we caught a very unusual (at least to me) fish, it's a deep sea Viperfish (see photo). It looks just like the little aliens in the movie Alien. Check out the teeth!
(dall's porpoise)
9/19 Field Report - 200 Miles Offshore of Cape Mendocino
Seas: 5'
Wind: 15Kt
Weather: Fog/Pouring Rain
Comments: Well our sunny flat weather has officially turned. Saturday is supposed to be worse weather with 7' swells, and a High pressure system moving in for Sunday with no-telling what will be in store. San Diego sure sound nice about now. This section of the transect had to be skipped during previous trips because of the conditions. Fog hampered efforts to locate whales today, but we did see some more Dall's Porpoises and Fur Seals. It poured rain tonight while we did the IKMT trawl. Our net went to 240 meters deep, and in addition to the regular catch we caught a Deep Sea Dragonfish (see photo above). Cool!
9/18/08 Field Report
Location: 100-200 Miles West of Cape Mendocino
Seas: 3-4’
Wind: 15Kt
Weather: Mares tails, changes coming, sunny for now…
Comments: We started out the day 150 miles from land. I am really
impressed with the Marine Mammal Observers. They are really Pros,
and I have to push myself to keep up with their sightings. This
morning I spotted a group of Baird's Beaked Whales. One of the
researchers told me how lucky I was. These small whales are so
elusive that we could go 10 years without seeing any more.
Marine Mammals Observed:
Baird's Beaked Whales
Fin Whales
Elephant Seals
Fur seals
(Captain Carl aboard the NOAA research vessel the McArthur II, using the "bigeye binos)
09/17/08 Field Report
Location: Point Reyes, Drake’s Bay, and Farallon Islands
Seas: Calm
Wind: 0-5Kt
Weather: Clear/Sunny
Comments: After a slight delay, we left San Francisco aboard the
NOAA research vessel McArthur II. We started our transects at
Drakes Bay, near Point Reyes, just North of San Francisco. We
began our first watch and found Harbor Porpoises and the most
Humpback whales I've ever seen (I counted over 40 humpbacks). A
couple of the Humpbacks even breached for us. In addition to
observing marine mammals, my onboard duties will be working on
oceanographic research. I will assist in deploying a midwater
trawl at night to collect deep water fish and invertebrate
specimens. The marine mammal observers use 25X "big eye"
binoculars that take a little training to use, but they tell you
which direction the whales sighted are in relation to the ship and
at what distance the whales are.
Marine Mammals Observed:
Harbor Porpoise
Elephant Seals
Sea Lions
Humpback Whales
