Acoustics tracked the whale we heard last night for about 3 hours
before it became silent. We were unable to relocate it. There was a
long line fishing vessel nearby to the north, which added a
challenge to our efforts to maneuver to stay with the animal. A few
distant sounds were heard later in the night, but not enough to
locate the animals. The RHIBs were launched about 09:00 local time
to extend our area of observations. Around noon after we had passed
Alaminos Canyon, the winds kicked up and clouds began to accumulate.
The RHIB operations ceased about 13:00 and the boats were recovered.
Visual and acoustic observations continued, although we had about an
hour with relatively high winds when the visual team went off watch.
We encountered several weed
lines as we transited eastward, but the thickest were several mile
to the south. We may have touched the northwestern edge of the
cyclone that is mainly south of 26N between 94W and 93W, but this is
not certain. Currents were southward, and the 15C isotherm depth
remained deeper than 230 meters. No whales were seen or heard. We
turned northward about 10 nautical miles east of 94W longitude and
are heading from the 2000-meter isobath we have been following
toward the 1000-meter isobath.
Our position at 21:15 local time is 26
21.825'N 93 48.466'W.
Ann
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