Whale research, like anything else, has its good days and bad days. Today did NOT feel like a good day. We were lucky that we saw whales…we saw 7 groups and a total of 14 whales, but not a single group was cooperating with our research needs! The first few groups of the morning were staying down for a long time and were very hard to follow. Finally we saw a group of at least four in the distance. This was the group we had been waiting for! Four whales are generally hard to lose.
However, we never saw them again! We guessed that they separated since we then saw several single animals in the area. And all of these were staying down for very long periods of time and surfacing far away from where we had last seen them, which makes it very difficult to get near them and collect data. They were impossible! When the wind picked up in the early afternoon and made it too difficult to work, we were happy to call it a day and hope for a better one tomorrow!
Here is a picture of what most of our day was like, staring at water waiting for whales to surface!
