Skoven progress – week 1

psh2
Sunday 17 July 2016

By Claire Lacey (Cruise Leader)

Team Skoven had a great start to our survey campaign. We left Aberdeen on 27 June and had a 36 hour passage to the start of our survey transects. One of our tasks on the way was to practice estimating distances to cetaceans seen from the vessel. To do this, we have “Percy” the wooden porpoise which we can cast off from the vessel and compare our distance estimates to a measured position.

Darren and Percy, the wooden porpoise
Darren and Percy, the wooden porpoise

We reached the start of our survey transects early in the morning of the 29 June and were treated to some incredible weather during the first week. We made excellent progress, finishing the small triangular block 7 quickly and the moving on to block 8 and heading generally southwards. We recorded eight species of cetacean so far in the first week, as well as a single grey seal!

Many of our fin whale sightings have occurred within the first few hours of us starting in the morning; the combination of calm seas and early morning light have made the blows very visible, and they hang in the air for a long time afterwards.

Fin whale blow (Marijke de Boer)
Fin whale blow (Marijke de Boer)

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