After a relatively quiet night, acoustics heard a sperm whale clicking about 07:00 local time, maneuvered the Gyre closer, and heard several whales. The RHIBs were launched. The visual team sighted animals at the surface, one a mother with a calf or small juvenile.

There were approximately 9 sperm whales in the area today. Two were adults, two were calves, and the rest were likely juveniles. A Bioacoustic probe was deployed in mid-morning and stayed attached for approximately 2 hours, as it was programmed to do. It was successfully recovered about mid-afternoon. A preliminary quick look at the data indicate the whale was diving to about 20-30 meters for about 1.5 hours.

It then completed a dive to 500 meters of about 30 minute duration before returning to the surface. The tag then released and rose to the surface where the RHIB teams located and recovered it. The 38 kHz fishery echo sounder, which should provide information related to potential prey or other acoustic scatterers at the diving depth, was deployed during the day. A biopsy was obtained on the animal with the B-probe and on a second whale as well. A couple of photo-ids were taken.

Our position at 21:00 local time is 27 33.374'N 94 26.166'W.

Ann