april 16–may 1, 2024 (survey 6/6)
The last of our six visual surveys of marine mammals and seabirds aboard the R/V
Pacific Storm has been completed. Working around a particularly rainy, windy, and rough ocean, the team was able to complete 9.5 of 14 survey tracklines. Cetacean sightings included fin, gray, and humpback whales; Bigg’s killer whales and Baird’s beaked whales; Pacific white-sided and northern right whale dolphins; Dall’s and harbor porpoise; and California and northern fur seals. More than 50 species of seabirds were cataloged, including migrating Sabine’s and Bonaparte’s gulls, red and red-necked phalaropes in
breeding plumage, a pair of northern pintail ducks, and a flock of over 3,000 cackling geese. Most noteworthy was a sighting of a Nazca booby, a tropical seabird far from home (they breed in the Galapagos). The team also successfully deployed a bottom-mounted hydrophone in 3,000-m water depth off Coos Bay to record cetacean vocalizations and detect echolocation clicks for the next five months until recovery in August.
Science Team:
Lisa Ballance (lead), Craig Hayslip, Julia Hinrichs, Barb Lagerquist, Emma Pearson, Clarissa Teixeira, Dawn Breese.
OCTOBER 1–20, 2023 (SURVEY 5/6)
Dawn Barlow led a team of scientists on the fifth of six surveys of marine mammals and seabirds aboard R/V
Pacific Storm. The team was able to complete about two thirds of the study area, between the Columbia River and Cape Blanco, despite very challenging October weather conditions. Observers recorded sightings of blue, fin, gray, humpback, and minke whales; common dolphins (pictured below), Pacific white-sided dolphins, and northern right whale dolphins; Dall’s and harbor porpoise; and over 25 species of seabirds (including large flocks of Buller’s shearwaters and a Nazca booby).
After waiting out the weather, the team rallied to try to cover the remaining study area between Cape Blanco and Cape Mendocino. This second cruise, led by Lisa T. Ballance, conducted a 4-day trip off southern Oregon and northern California, completing three more tracklines to bring the total for all of October to 11 of 14. In calm seas, the team logged blue, fin, and humpback whales (one large group of the latter numbered 45 animals or more) as well as Dall’s and harbor porpoise and northern right whale dolphins. Seabird observations included hundreds of gulls, northern fulmars, and common murres, as well as smaller numbers of short-tailed shearwaters, Cassin’s auklets, black-footed albatross, and two tufted puffins.
Science Teams:
Dawn Barlow (lead), Lisa T. Ballance (lead), Craig Hayslip, Barb Lagerquist, Daniel Palacios, Emma Pearson, Bob Pitman, Will Kennerley, Daniel Palacios, Keenan Yakola, Hannah Hall, Erin Lefkowitz
august 1–12, 2023 (SURVEY 4/6)
Lisa T. Ballance led a team of scientists on the fourth of six surveys aboard R/V
Pacific Storm. All 750 nm of the trackline were successfully surveyed with sightings of blue, fin, gray, humpback and minke whales; Pacific white-sided, Risso’s, and northern right-whale dolphins; Dall’s and harbor porpoise; and over 40 species of seabirds (including thousands of Cassin’s auklets and fork-tailed storm petrels). The highlight for the mammal crew was three separate sightings of Baird’s beaked whales, including a rare encounter with eight individuals breaching completely out of the water and fluke-slapping within 100 m of the vessel (see photo below).
Two bottom-mounted hydrophones, deployed one year ago on the first MOSAIC cruise, were successfully recovered, and the moorings were re-deployed with new hydrophones to record for another year. Following a report of a large concentration of blue whales near Bandon, Oregon, Ladd Irvine joined John Calambokidis and James Fahlbusch of Cascadia Research Collective August 8–10 to deploy medium-duration tags on whales in the area. These tags collect fine-scale movement and behavior data for periods of days to multiple weeks before being shed and floating at the surface for recovery and data download. The team deployed tags on five blue whales and one fin whale and collected biopsies from three of the tagged whales. Data from these tags will be used to characterize the whales’ site fidelity, behavior, and calling rates to better inform and interpret acoustic detections and species distribution models collected and developed during other aspects of the MOSAIC project.
Science Team:
Lisa T. Ballance (lead), Craig Hayslip, Ladd Irvine, Barb Lagerquist, Mahmud Rahman, Shanta Shamsunnahar, Angela Szesciorka
april 11–30, 2023 (SURVEY 3/6)
The third of six visual surveys of marine mammals and seabirds aboard R/V
Pacific Storm was completed on April 30. The team was able to cover most of the planned survey tracklines, with some weather interruptions. They recorded sightings of fin, humpback, gray, and killer whales; Pacific white-sided dolphin; Dall’s and harbor porpoise; California sea lions; and northern fur seals. The team collected photo-identification data and skin/blubber biopsy samples from priority whale species and gathered information from 57 species of seabirds. The biggest surprise of the cruise was the sighting of five different groups of killer whales, including animals from the “outer coast transient,” “southern resident,” and “northern resident” populations.
Science Team:
Daniel Palacios (lead), Renee Albertson, Craig Hayslip, Ladd Irvine, Amanda Gladics, Dawn Breese
October 1–14, 2022 (SURVEY 2/6)
MMI conducted the second of six visual surveys as part of our Department of Energy–funded project to collect baseline data on the distribution and density of cetaceans and seabirds in Northern California and Oregon waters to inform the development of offshore wind energy. The survey took place aboard the MMI’s research vessel
Pacific Storm over the course of 8 days at sea (scheduled around 5 days ashore waiting for calmer seas). Seven of 14 tracklines were completed with an additional four partially completed (visual surveys for cetaceans and seabirds), photo-identifications of humpback whales, and echosounder and sea surface temperature and salinity data were collected. Cetaceans included blue, fin, gray, humpback, killer, minke, sei and sperm whales; Pacific white-sided dolphins and northern right whale dolphins
(pictured here); Dall’s and harbor porpoise. Thirty-eight species of seabirds were observed, with the most numerous being Northern Fulmars, Cassin’s auklets, Pink-footed shearwaters, Black-footed albatross, Common Murres, and California Gulls.
Science Team:
Leigh Torres (lead), Craig Hayslip, Dawn Barlow, Renee Albertson, Dawn Breese, Alexa Piggott, Will Kennerley
August 10–23, 2022 (SURVEY 1/6)
The first of six surveys aboard MMI’s research vessel Pacific Storm successfully concluded after 11 days at sea (and 2 days waiting for winds to calm). All tracklines were completed (visual surveys for cetaceans and seabirds), three bottom-mounted hydrophones were deployed, ph
oto-identifi
cations of humpback and blue whales, and echosounder and sea surface temperature & salinity data were collected, and a fantastic time was had by all. Cetaceans included blue, fin, humpback, gray, and sperm whales; P
acific white-sided and Risso’s dolphins; Dall’s and harbor porpoise. Seabirds included Buller’s and Sooty shearwaters; Black-footed and (1!) Laysan albatross; Fork-tailed and Leach’s storm petrels; Common Murres, Cassin’s and Rhinocerous
auklets; Red and Red-necked phalaropes; and one (each) Hawaiian and Murphy’s Petrel!
Science Team:
Lisa T. Ballance (lead), Barb Lagerquist, Craig Hayslip, Dawn Barlow, Sabena Siddiqui, Mayah Baker, and Dawn Breese
Figure: Tracklines, dates surveyed (colored lines), and hydrophone deployment locations (stars) for MOSAIC survey #1 aboard Pacific Storm