Since we are looking for whale and dolphin species in the Gulf of Mexico, a little primer about the species that live in the Gulf might be a good idea. There are over 21 species of whales and dolphins that live in the Gulf. While there have been rare sightings of humpbacks and right whales in the Gulf of Mexico, we don’t consider them to live there. In fact only one baleen whale, the Bryde’s whale, resides in the Gulf and based on surveys it’s believed there are only Bryde’s whales living in the Gulf.

The largest whales living in the Gulf are sperm whales and we are looking for them in the deepwater contours and really hoping to find a few tomorrow. Nearly all of the estimated thousand individual sperm whaled in the gulf are thought to be females, calves, and immature whales. There’s actually even orcas living in the Gulf – some estimated put their numbers at 150. And some reports of orcas attacking and feeding on dolphins.

There’s many species of dolphins- the most common is the pantropical spotted dolphin. Followed by spinner dolphins and Clymene dolphins – both acrobatic dolphin species – so we are hoping to see any and all of these species.

They say the most common species to see is the common bottlenose dolphin – which we have seen a few times. There are also species that we have a better chance of seeing in the deepwater, like striped dolphins, melon-headed whales, and beaked whales. Beaked whales are particularly elusive and rarely – so seeing a beaked whale would be amazing.

We could also see Atlantic spotted dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, rough-toothed dolphin, and short-finned pilot whales.

If you would like to learn more about any of these species, check out WDCS on-line species guide.

On our voyage in addition to bottlenose dolphins, we have seen short-finned pilot whales, about 10 to 15. We were able to get good photos of them because we were in one of Arctic Sunrise’s RIBs. It’s important to be able to get closer in the smaller boats to document the condition of the animals. This pod of pilot whales had at least 3 individuals with these weird pox-like welts on their body.

From the very beginning I have been blow away by the ease and grace of working with Greenpeace staff. From pre-trip coordination, to the day of flying in when I thought I wasn’t going to make my connecting flight, to our daily operations – everyone had bent over backwards to be super accommodating. Even though everyone has already been working crazy hours in response to the spill for months.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent 100+ days of oil spilling have resulted in so much tragedy – the loss of life and of livelihood, and the further degradation of our environment. I got my first taste of the small ways in which people’s lives have been taken over by the spill when speaking to Susan Cavanagh, Media Director at Greenpeace US. I had just arrived at Key West airport and in talking to Susan found out she had just moved to Greenpeace’s DC office from Australia. Being from the DC area, I asked how Susan was finding my hometown. Turns out she’s only been there for 5 days pre-spill, and that’s how she defines her life right now – pre and post spill. Also that first night before sailing on the Arctic Sunrise, I met Kieran Mulvaney, Greenpeace’s voyage coordinator, who as it happens is also one of the founders of WDCS. I’ve promised to put a photo of Kieran in our North American office somewhere as homage - maybe on the intern wall of glory.

Immediately upon being on ships, I always want to help out in any and every way possible. But it not just me, everyone gives at least 110% when working on ships. Here's Dan Howells, Deputy Director of Campaigns, pulling deck duty. He's also a pretty good assistant cook

I’ve spent the past few days trying to figure out if it’s the environment (relatively close living quarters, depending upon one another, etc…) or if it’s due to the fact that working on the water is self-selecting for that kind of person. I think it’s a little of both, but for those who do go to sea and are unfamiliar with how life works on ship (doing all sorts of odd jobs for the common good) - soon it will be second nature as it was for

Bryan Walsh who come aboard the Arctic Sunrise to do a piece for Time on the first leg.

So throughout these blogs, I hope you’ll find this spirit of giving 110% and of giving a piece of yourself to a larger cause because it’s really what caring for the oceans and environment is all about. And definitely what sailing aboard a Greenpeace vessel is about. And on a larger scale it’s what being human is about. I find it really heartening because it’s also one of the goals of our North American internship and most of the time our interns are working their collective bums off. However, I now have a back-up plan for the next time an intern complains about sorting the recycling – I’m going to send them to sea to toughen them up.

However, that's not the only reason to send people to sea. It truly is wonderful to experience life away from all the trappings that can consume our modern day….and see a few marine mammals in the process. On the afternoon we departed Key West we were visited by seven bow-ridding bottlenose dolphins including a mother and calf pair, which was nice to see a healthy calf.

I’ve seen a good amount of bow riding dolphins – but these were especially wonderful because they stayed with us for at least 30 minutes and would often breach as they bow rode.

There were a few concerns over these guys however. One individual in particular had some deep gashes on its body. They weren’t the kind of scars that you see with a rotating propeller, but looked very much like came from a sharp instrument or propeller. This individual had gashes on its head and flank. I didn’t get a good photo of the larger gash on its flank but here’s a photo of the cut on its head.

And another of the seven individuals had some funky skin stuff going on.

These are the types of things we will be looking for throughout our trip. Skin lesions, skinny individuals, evidence of anthropogenic scars on animals, and the displacement of species from their known habitats all are just part of the picture.

Currently I am on a 2-week leg of a multi-discipline research cruise aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico. The Arctic Sunrise was built in 1975 and I’m sure had quite a history before Greenpeace acquired her in 1995. I just learned part of this history included seal hunting. So as one crew member put it the ship is now reversing it’s karma. Another really cool accomplishment - 1997, The Arctic Sunrise became the first ship to circumnavigate James Ross Island in the Antarctic, a previously impossible journey before the effects of climate change. You can read here for more on the Arctic Sunrise’s past voyages.

This voyage is really special in that it’s so collaborative. Greenpeace is providing support for many different scientist over the next three months - truly a huge undertaking. I hope in blogs to come paint a picture of just what goes into making one research project run – never mind 6 or 7.

During the first leg, right before mine (August 9^thto 19^th ), Drs. Charles Messing and Jose Lopez from Nova Southeastern University sampled sponges in the Dry Tortugas National Park off Florida. Sponges are good indicator species because they are constantly filtering large quantities of water and are therefore useful for looking at sub-lethal impacts of oil and the Corexit dispersants used. The Tortugas are the most pristine coral reefs in the continental US and the closest significant tropical reed to the Deepwater Horizon.

As for now, we are running two different studies. We are looking for effects of the oil spill on the whale and dolphin populations in the Gulf of Mexico, which I’ll go into great detail in future blogs. At the same time, Drs. Caz Taylor and Erin Grey from Tulane University will be continuing their work with blue crab larva. Before the Deepwater Horizon tradegy, Caz and Erin were modeling the dispersal of blue crab larva and then after they have begun to detected what seems like oil in the larvae. Their work is done with plankton tows –which is what’s happening as I write. The plankton consists of millions of small animals and plants and forms the base of the marine food chain. Much of the plankton is made up of the young or larvae of fish, crabs and lobsters. Erin gave the crew a really interesting presentation last night about her work, where i learned the larvae of the blue crab swim 40 miles offshore to spawn. The different stages of development are eaten by many species of fish and in turn also are also consuming. So the crabs are good indicators of the state of the marine environment. These plankton tows will also enable other researchers to look at impacts of larval bluefin tuna, red snapper and other ecologically or economically important animals. 

On the next leg, researchers from a consortium of universities are deploying acoustic recorder near the deepwater horizon listening for marine mammals. And the leg after that, Dr Rainer Amon will lead a team of researchers studying the scope, composition and impacts of the oil that it still beneath the surface. Followed by Dr. Steve Ross of North Carolina State and Dr. Sandra Brooke of Oregon Institute on Marine Biology are using submarines to assess the health of deep sea corals reeds in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon site.

So lots and lots of work, but you'll be hearing more - just as long as I refrain from dropping my laptop anymore.

Over the past few days we've had many more humpbacks come into our whale watching area - and it has been great. We have them in large groups and Monday morning they were even feeding at the surface.

Yesterday the groups seemed to get even larger in number and was composed of old friends that we haven't seen yet this year - like Fragment. Here's some video of our trip yesterday - really an amazing day with at least 10 humpbacks coming right to the boat.

hanging with humpbacks from WDCS on Vimeo.

Yet the high of hanging out with all these humpbacks came to a crashing end this morning when turn on my computer to check out WDCS's latest news. This morning I was greeted by the news that in Ayukawa, Japan during an annual whaling festival a Baird's beaked whale was killed in front of a group of tourists, and towed to shore by a whaling ship. Meat from the animal was then grilled, and offered free of charge to the on-lookers.

This news was promptly followed by the fact that the leading Icelandic whaling company, Hvalur, has already killed 76 endangered fin whales this season. The high of watching so many whales alive and well in their natural habitat followed by lows of hear of the hunts leaves me feeling many things. First, grateful that I live in a country where instead of hunting, whale watching has been embraced. There were 300 other people on each of those whale watching trips - oohing and ahhing over the whales we saw. Sometimes the greatest joy is to experience whales through the eye's of new whale watchers.

However, I have sadness for citizens of whaling countries and whale watchers traveling to whaling nations because they are robbed of these untainted whale experiences. Even the best whale watching trip in Iceland or Greenland would be clouded by the persistent worry that those same whales will soon be killed.